The identification of the altarpiece representing 'Saints James the Less and Philip' – executed by Paolo Veronese for Lecce and mentioned by Carlo Ridolfi in the mid-17th century – as the canvas conserved in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin has prompted a scrupulous bibliographical analysis that has brought to light a bizarre critical situation. Italian studies considered the painting to be lost already at the end of the 19th century, whereas English studies have always had a precise idea of its original provenance from Salento. The present research attempts a revision of the previous bibliography and aims to examine the collectionistic history of the canvas in Great Britain in the 19th century. It further proposes that the painting was commissioned by the nobleman Fulgenzio Della Monica, mayor of Lecce from 1567 to 1568, who during this period had an extraordinary villa built just outside the city, complete with orange groves and nymphaeums. Mention is also made of relations between the Della Monica family and the Albrizzi, other important patrons of Paolo Veronese in Salento. The original placing of the altarpiece by Veronese in the chapel of Fulgenzio's villa is confirmed, as is the judgement of its quality and complete authenticity as an autograph work, facts previously sustained by Federico Zeri though curiously misunderstood by the majority of critics.