Stamps feature old maps of Malta

A set of four stamps featuring old maps of Malta will be issued by Maltapost today.

The four stamps show the Quintinus map, Melita Insula, La Venuta dell'Armata Turchesca a di 18 Maggio 1565 and Cartae Veduta dell'Isole del Gozo e Comino.

Designed by Alfred Caruana Ruggier the stamps have face values of 1c, 12c, 37c and Lm1.02.

The Quintinus map is represented on the 1c stamp, courtesy of the Gozo National Library. This was the first printed map of the Maltese Islands accompanying the first printed description of Malta written by Abbé Jean Quintin and published in Lyon by Sebastian Gryphus.

This map served as a model for several later maps including one by Giacomo Gastaldi, and a series of siege maps by the Palombis in 1565, all of which are of the circular type, in contrast to the Lafreri of 1551 reproduced on the 12c stamp.

The 12c stamp shows what is probably the second printed map of Malta, from the Albert Ganado collection produced in Rome by the celebrated Antonio or Antoine Lafrery.

This is an extremely accurate copper-engraved map, probably based on an original survey. It depicts the towns and villages, some of which have since disappeared, the extensive road system and even some water courses. Other features include fortified towers, the gallows at the harbour entrance, vipers and a scorpion at St Paul's Bay and rabbits on Comino. Maps of the Lafreri school are very rare, sometimes unique, and are prize items.

A fresco map of the island of Malta is reproduced on the 37c stamp, courtesy of Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti.

The fresco was produced at the Palace of the Grand Masters in Valletta by Italian artist Matteo Perez d'Aleccio, who came to Malta in 1576 as the official painter of the Order of St John. During a five-year period, the artist painted several canvasses for St John's Co-Cathedral and other churches but his magnum opus was the cycle of maps of the Great Siege frescoes on the walls of the Grand Council Chamber in the Magisterial Palace.

The Lm1.02 stamp shows a map of Gozo, with Comino, Cominotto and the Marfa peninsula on Malta, courtesy of the National Library, Malta.

It is a pen drawing by Padre Luigi Bartolo, a Maltese Capuchin scholar. The map is orientated with the south-west to the top, as the convention that north should always be at the top had not yet come into being. The eight columns along the foot contain the key to 79 place names.

The set will be available at all 31 branch post offices in Malta and Gozo today in first day cover format, mint, cancelled, as a souvenir folder and a presentation pack.