Bernardo de Opuo

Bernardo de Opuo (Sources use several slightly different variants of his name, including Bernardo de Opuo, This was installed by the Universitas Gaudisii, probably at the initiative of Governor Bernardo d'Aldana.) The inscription read as follows:

The story is retold in the 1568 work Les quatre premiers livres des navigations et peregrinations orientales by Nicolas de Nicolay, who was in Malta in the immediate aftermath of the attack in August 1551. Michel de Montaigne made a reference to the episode in a 1588–1592 revision to Coustume de l'Isle de Cea, part of his Essais. Montaigne argued that de Opuo's case was an example in which suicide was an acceptable way to avoid a fate worse than death. Like Villegaignon's account, Nicolay's and Montaigne's works do not refer to de Opuo by name. Some historians have since questioned whether or not de Opuo actually existed, but his mention in near-contemporary sources and the 1579 inscription are regarded as proof of his historicity. Writing in 2022, judge and historian Giovanni Bonello questioned whether de Opuo's killing of his own family should really be described as heroic.

Although it is generally accepted that de Opuo was Sicilian