The mystery surrounding the Matteo Perez d’Aleccio map prints of the Great Siege of Malta of 1565

Abstract

The album of the 1565 Great Siege of Malta prints by Matteo Perez d’Aleccio is very rare and few copies or individual prints ever come on the market. This may possibly be because few copies were printed. In their book on the Siege maps, Ganado and Agius-Vadalà quote Lockhead and Barling, and Vincenzo Melillo, (though they immediately state that these authors do not quote their source) saying that Grand Master de Verdalle may have suppressed the album because he was displeased when Perez d’Aleccio had dedicated the album to Cardinal de Medici and not to him. This is hardly likely as Perez d’Aleccio had sought and obtained copyright protection from Pope Gregory XIII on 30 May 1582 for a ten-year period, as indicated in the title page Cum privilegio / GREG. XIII. PONT. MAX. / Ad Decennium / MDLXXXII. Besides, Pope Gregory XIII held Verdalle in high regard as he had created him a Cardinal and Verdalle would not have gone against the wishes of the Pope. I tend to agree more with what Ganado had originally said in his 1984 article. Here he mentions that ‘Perez d’Aleccio paid homage to the ‘Great Verdalle’ in the legend accompanying the plan of the new city of Valletta [Foglio 14] and apart from including his coat of arms, together with those of De Valette, Del Monte and De La Cassière, on the same plate, he reserved a special place for Verdalle’s escutcheon in the elaborate cartouche on the next plate’