In 1878 Aldi took part in the Art Exposition in Rome with the painting of a subject from Dante, Buoso da Doara, traitor of his homeland Cremona, while begging is recognized by some of his fellow countrymen coming out of a church. The work was such a great success with critics and the public that the artist was commissioned to make several replicas.

The other painting appears to depict the legendary story of the “Beautiful Marsilia,” the kidnapping of Margherita di Nanni Marsili, a Sienese noblewoman barely sixteen years old, from Collecchio castle near Magliano; in 1543 the Turkish pirate Barbarossa conquered the fortified estate, the property of the Marsili family, and delivered the beautiful redhaired girl to his sovereign Suleiman the Magnificent, who made her his favorite, keeping her by his side for his whole life in his reign over the Ottoman empire.