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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JULY 2020 5 THIS WEEK CARTOGRAPHY details of Malta's historical maps German, English and Spanish car- tographers increased exponential- ly. The Great Siege of 1565 was fol- lowed very closely by all countries in Europe and hence the number of maps which were published to illustrate pictorially what was hap- pening made this battle the most documented and covered event in history. Voltaire wrote "nothing is more famous than the Siege of Malta". After the French interlude and with the arrival of the British, Malta remained at the centre of things since the British Empire was a strong one in the 19th cen- tury. Malta has welcomed many important figures and many kept a diary of their peregrinations which was later published, usual- ly accompanied with illustrations showing scenes of Malta and a map of the islands of Malta. With the digitisation of many collec- tions in libraries all over the world, new maps of Malta are contin- uously being discovered. When we had first established the Soci- ety one prospective member had asked me whether it was worth joining, knowing that Dr Albert Ganado had covered the field so well and so thoroughly. What I can say is that the number of new maps which have been discovered since has bemused even Dr Gana- do who never stops to say that the study of Malta maps is never-end- ing. What would you say are some of the most important maps in the Society's collection, and what makes them so notable? The Malta Map Society does not have its own collection of maps but knows and studies maps in the private collections of its members and in the collection of libraries and museums in Malta and abroad. The biggest collection of maps in Malta is that which is housed at MUŻA in Valletta after Dr Albert Ganado passed on his collection of maps which he had put together in the past 60 years to the State, in exchange for the house where Dr Ganado lives, which was public property. The collection, which consisted of 19 manuscript maps, and 431 print- ed maps produced between 1507 and 1900, together with the map collection which the museum al- ready had, makes it the largest collection of maps of Malta in the world. Perhaps the most notable maps in the Ganado collection are the sixteenth century Italian maps, the so-called Lafreri maps, which he managed to acquire over the years. These maps are so rare that in some instances, only one exemplar of the map is known to exist. It is a collection which can only be accumulated once and can never be repeated, even with all the money in the world. A beau- tiful map in the collection which is of great interest to us Maltese is the Lafreri 1551 Malta map which is very accurate for such an early map.Then there are maps by Maltese cartographers such as by Aloisio Gili and Antonio Borg which are so rare and beautiful. There are however other private collections which are important and which include some very rare exemplars too. What kind of feedback does the society receive during and after public events, particularly from those with a more casual interest in cartography? What is it about Malta's historical maps that they find appealing? Infallibly people are always in- terested in the little details found in maps, which is of course very positive and which makes maps so fascinating and appealing. There are for example maps of the Great Siege which show bird net- Left: Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, 1686 and (below) the Lafreri map of Malta of 1551, one of the earliest and most accurate maps of Malta L-R: Dr Albert Ganado (President) and Joseph Schiro (Secretary) of the Malta Map Society PAGE 6