First edition, a remarkable entirely engraved plate book of the siege and assault of Malta by the mighty Turkish forces in 1565, a significant event which, together with the Battle of Lepanto, stopped the Ottoman Empire´s expansion through the Mediterranean.
The plates are engraved by Lucini after the frescoes by Matteo d´Alecio or Lecia, an Italian Mannerist painter and engraver of mostly historical, devotional and maritime scenes, who from the last years of the 16thcentury, lived in Spain. The frescoes were housed at the Palace of the Grand Master of the Order in Valetta. The remarkable and dramatic etchings represent in chronological order the attack, siege and later victory.
“[O]n the 18 May 1565, the Turkish armada, estimated at between 28,000 and 38,000 men, arrived off the coast of Malta. The islands of Malta and Gozo were governed by the monastic and military order of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John, whose grand master at the time was Fra´Jean Parisot de la Valette, who had at his disposal barely 14,000 men, many of whom were untrained. To the amazement and delight of Christian Europe, the siege was unsuccessful.by early September worsening weather signaled the ending of the campaign season, and when a large Spanish-led relief force was sighted on its way from Sicily, the Ottomans owned themselves defeated. On 11 September the fleet departed, leaving much of the island in ruins but still in the hands of the Knights. In the face of the common Muslim enemy, religious and political divisions in Europe were temporarily set aside…
The siege of Malta was only one of a number of events that kept the Ottoman empire and its activities in the forefront of European affairs…” (Helen Vella Bonavita. “Key to Christendom: The 1565 Siege of Malta, Its Histories, and Their Use in Reformation Polemic.” The Sixteenth Century Journal 33, no. 4 (2002): 1021–43).
Each plate contains a large key to the peoples, fortifications, towns and buildings shown.
Lucini (1610-1661) was a famed Italian engraver, pupil of Callot, who was commissioned for Dudley´s Arcano dell´Mare, an impressive Italian maritime atlas.
Two issues were published the same year, this one and Rome (Nicolo Allegri), priority not established.
Provenance: Bonhams & Butterfield.
Atabey 734; The Ottoman World. The Library of Sefik E. Atabey. [Auction catalogue], London, Sotheby's, 29 mai 2002, lot 726; Cicognara 2061; not in Blackmer.
