Prominent cartographer Albert Ganado dies aged 101
Ganado was briefly involved in politics within the PN and the Democratic Nationalist Party
One of Malta’s most prominent map collectors, Albert Ganado, has died at the age of 101.
Ganado was a serviceman during World War Two, serving for three months as a gunner in the Royal Malta Artillery at the end of 1941, together with another 70 fellow law, architecture and medicine students.
In a recent interview with Times of Malta, Ganado described how he faced two near-death experiences as Axis planes bombed Malta.
After the war, Ganado became a lawyer by profession before entering politics for a short time.
Having first been a member of the PN’s executive committee, Ganado left the party following disagreements with party leader George Borg Olivier. He served as secretary of the Democratic Nationalist Party, a new party made up of breakaway PN members led by his cousin Herbert Ganado.
“I was sad to leave my political career at the time because I used to love it very much. But it worked out well because I could dedicate my time to my hobby of cartography, which opened paths that I would never have dreamt of,” he told Times of Malta in August 2023.
Over the years , Ganado developed an outstanding collection of maps dating back centuries, eventually becoming the only Maltese person to be awarded the prestigious Helen Wallis Award, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cartography.
His collection includes a bird’s eye depiction of Fort St Elmo from 1558 and the world's largest collection of Lafreri atlases, a series of 16th-century maps from the Roman publishing house of famed engraver and cartographer Antonio Lafreri.
In 2008, Ganado gave his extensive collection of maps, many of them dating between 1507 and 1899, to the government in exchange for his family home in Valletta.
The National Archives on Sunday saluted Ganado's memory as did Culture Minister Owen Bonnici.
Ganado had told Times of Malta that he developed a love for Maltese history from his father, whose collection a young Albert would often turn to for his school work.
Ganado published 12 Melitensia books and many academic articles on the cartography of Malta, Maltese history, art, legislation, and politics.
He was a regular contributor to the scholarly cartographic journal Imago Mundi, the journal of the International Society for the History of Cartography, considered to be the bible of world cartography.