Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
island (also called Malta), this site made more military and economic sense than the ancient
inland capital of Mdina. The Knights named their new city Valletta after their leader, Grand
Master Jean Parisot de Valette. The city was designed on a grid plan, with strong fortifica-
tions to ensure its defence. Within a few decades, it had become a flourishing miniature met-
ropolis.
This delicately hand-coloured engraved map is oriented with south-west at the top. Valletta
occupies the right-hand side. To our left lie the 'three cities' that form part of Malta's formid-
able defence works: Bormla (or Cospicua) in the upper left corner, and the two peninsulas
of L-Isla (Senglea) and Birgu (Vittoriosa). These are separated from the capital by the Grand
Harbour. Several ships - two of which are flying the red and white flag of St John - plough
through the water. The cartouche at lower left depicts Malta alongside its sister islands of
Comino and Gozo.
Most maps among the archives that show places in Malta have a connection to the islands'
former status as a British colony between 1800 and 1964, but this is an exception. Its origin
and context are French. It is thought to have been prepared to illustrate a topic by Brother
Anne de Naberat, a French Hospitallers whose coat of arms appears below centre. Our copy
is bound within a handsome volume of almost 300 plans and views of European towns and
cities, many of which come from another publication, Sébastien de Pontault de Beaulieu's
The glorious conquests of Louis the Great
. The draughtsman may have been Daniel Rabel,
an artist best known for his botanical illustrations and designs for French court ballet cos-
tumes. The engraver, Isaac Briot, produced an equally varied output, from portraits to coins
and medals.
The map's text, however, is written not in French but in Italian. This reflects the fact that
Rabel and Briot based their map on one made in 1602 by the Florentine Hospitaller Brother
Francesco dell' Antella. This, in turn, was inspired by even older maps. Despite its small size
and recent origin, the 'citta nova' ('new city') of Valletta was already the subject of an estab-
lished cartographic tradition.
