se-tenant stamps, with a shared background of a detail of the Map of the Philippines and Moluccas adjusted to the Code of the Tables with in the centre the Rose of the Winds, taken from the book “Primo viaggio intorno al globo terracqueo, ossia ragguaglio della navigazione alle Indie Orientali per la via d’Occidente fatta dal cavaliere Antonio Pigafetta”, published in Milan in 1800 by the printing house of Giuseppe Galeazzi, and kept in the Order of Malta’s Biblioteca Magistrale.

The four stamps depict, respectively:

bronze bust of Antonio Pigafetta, copy of that on the monument in Campo Marzo, Vicenza, destined to be erected in the city of Punta Arenas (Cile), flanked by the legend “ANTONIO PIGAFETTA”; a table depicting the chart of the Moluccas, taken from the same work in which the background map is inserted;

a representation of the ship Victoria, only survivor of the five-vessel fleet of the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition. The Victoria, with Antonio Pigafetta on board, returned to the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain on 6 September 1522 and to Seville two days later, ending an expedition of over three years which began on 10 August 1519. The image is taken from the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abrahamus Ortelius, 1592, the most important atlas of the modern age, kept at the Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana in Vicenza;

an image of the herb folio taken from the Herbarium manuscript on watercolour paper from the second half of 15^th century.  The documentation of exotic herbs and spices, considered precious goods, for both their culinary and pharmaceutical use, was an important part of the reconnaissance Pigafetta carried out during the circumnavigation of the world. The image comes from a volume kept at the Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana in Vicenza. The inscriptions ” SOVRANO MILITARE ORDINE DI MALTA” and “POSTE MAGISTRALI “, the coat of arms of the Order’s activities, the logo of the Cultural Association Pigafetta 500 of Vicenza and the face value € 1.10 complete each stamp.