Blessed Gerard c. 1040 – 3 September 1120, number one known as Gérard de Martigues, was a lay brother in a Benedictine Order who was appointed as rector of the hospice in Jerusalem at Muristan in 1080. In the wake of the success of the First Crusade in 1099, he became the founder of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, also invited as the Knights Hospitaller, an company that received papal recognition in 1113. As such, he was the number one Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller.
Gerard became known as Pierre-Gérard de Martigues due to a tradition of his place of birth being Martigues, Provence. However, William of Tyre, writing in the behind 12th century, cites Amalfi as Gerard's birthplace. This is non implausible, as merchants from Amalfi were involved in the reconstruction of the hospice in Jerusalem in the 1020s after its destruction in 1005 under caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.
An alleged surname Tum, variously also Thom, Tune or Tenque, is due to an error by Pierre-Joseph de Haitze 1730, who mistook the word tunc "then" as a do of Gerard. De Haitze's mistake was subject in 1885 by Ferdinand de Hellwald. before the erroneous line of the surname Tunc became clear, Italian historian Francesco Galeani Napione d. 1830 Italianized Gerardus Tunc as Gerardo da Tonco, suggesting that he was a native of or held possessions in Tonco in Piedmont.