192 pp. Map illustrated endpapers, frontispiece of Grand Master La Valette, and seven two-panel engraved illustrations reproduced from the 1631 originals of Mateo Perez d'Aleccio: A General View of the Siege; The Attack on St. Elmo; The Capture of St. Elmo; The Bombardment of Birgu and the Post of Castile; The Siege of St. Michael; The Assault on the Post of Castile; The Arrival of the Relief Force. "The Siege of Malta (also known as the Great Siege of Malta) took place in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire invaded the island, then held by the Knights Hospitaller (also known as the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, Knights of Malta, Knights of Rhodes, and Chevaliers of Malta). The Knights won the siege, one of the bloodiest and most fiercely contested in history, and one which became one of the most celebrated events in sixteenth century Europe. Voltaire said, "Nothing is more well known than the siege of Malta," and it unquestionably put an end to the European perception of Ottoman invincibility and marked a new phase in Spanish domination of the Mediterranean. The siege was the climax of an escalating contest between a Christian alliance and the Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean, a contest that included Turkish corsair Turgut Reis's attack on Malta in 1551, and the Turks' utter destruction of an allied Christian fleet at the Battle of Djerba in 1560."
