The five stamps depict the logotype specially designed to celebrate the Jubilee Year 2025, which reproduces the octagonal cross, symbol of the Order of Malta, on which rests the representation of the famous lock of the entrance gate of the Magistral Villa, located in Rome on the Aventine Hill, through which the dome of the Papal Basilica of St Peter’s, the centre of Christianity and of the Jubilee celebrations, is visible.

The logo also contains the inscriptions ‘IUBILAEUM’ and ‘A.D. MMXXV’. Each stamp is completed by the inscriptions ‘SOVRANO MILITARE ORDINE DI MALTA’ e ‘POSTE MAGISTRALI’, the coat of arms of the Order’s activities and the face value expressed respectively with the codes ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘B-50g’, ‘B-Zona1’ and ‘B-Zona2’.

The sheet depicts, on its full surface, the ‘Veduta dell’insigne Basilica Vaticana col’ampio portico e Piazza adjacente’, a work by the famous Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), engraver, architect and architectural theorist, whose tombstone monument is located inside the church dedicated to Santa Maria. The church represents the artist’s only architectural work, part of the Villa Magistrale or Villa del Priorato complex, located in Rome on the Aventine Hill, one of the two institutional headquarters of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

At the top, in the central part of the sheet, enclosed by the perforation, forming the stamp, is a detail of St Peter’s Basilica and the steps in front of it. On the inside are the inscriptions ‘SOVRANO MILITARE ORDINE DI MALTA’ and ‘POSTE MAGISTRALI’, the coat of arms of the Order’s activities and the face value ‘€ 4.20’. At the top, on the left-hand side of the sheet, is the inscription ‘ANNO SANTO 2025’, while on the right-hand side is the logo specially designed to celebrate the Jubilee Year 2025, already described above.

Credits: sheet Foto Scala, Firenze/bpk, Bildagentur fuer Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin.