on a se-tenant sheet, the four stamps depict respectively:

the Main Altar of the Grand Priory church of San Giovanni di Malta in Venice, designed in the early 16th century by the Venetian architect Jacopo Sansovino.  It came from the church of San Geminiano in Piazza San Marco, demolished in the early 19th century to allow the construction of the Palazzo Reale;

the ancient high relief in the front of the Grand Priory church of San Giovanni di Malta in Venice, depicts the Blessed Virgin with the Infant Jesus, St. Catherine of Alexandria (Patron of the Order of Malta’s Langue of Italy) and St. John the Baptist with kneeling knight;

altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini depicting the Baptism of Jesus Christ, commissioned in 1500 and delivered in 1504. In ancient times it adorned the main altar of the Priory Church of Venice. St. John is depicted in the act of baptizing the Saviour in the waters of the Jordan, with the imaginary presence of a kneeling Knight of St. John, probably identifiable as Fra’ Sebastiano Michiel, Prior of Venice from 1490 to 1498 and patron of the work, and two angels;

representation of the facade of the Priory Church and the Priory Palace, taken from the Cabreo 1794 kept in the Grand Priory Archive of Lombardy and Venice.

Each stamp is completed by the words “SOVRANO MILITARE ORDINE DI MALTA” and “POSTE MAGISTRALI”, the coat of arms of the Order’s activities and the face value € 1.20, as well as the respective legends:

“Jacopo Sansovino, Altare Maggiore, XVI secolo” and “CHIESA GRAN PRIORALE DI SAN GIOVANNI DI MALTA Venezia”;

“Altorilievo con la Beata Vergine, Gesù Bambino, Santa Caterina d’Alessandria, San Giovanni Battista e cavaliere”;

“Giovanni Bellini, Il Battesimo di Gesù Cristo, XV secolo”;

“Chiesa e Palazzo priorali, dal cabreo 1794” and “CHIESA GRAN PRIORALE DI SAN GIOVANNI DI MALTA Venezia”.