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Malta - Libia - ULLOA , Alfonso de
The story of the Tripoli di Barbary enterprise, of the taking of the Pegnon di Velez della Gomera in Africa, and of the success of the very powerful Turkish army which came over the island of Malta in the year 1565., 1566
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€ 3.000 - 5.000
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€ 5.130
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Information
[Venice, Griffio, 1566]. In 4th, 8 cc. nos., including the title page with the engraved coat of arms of the Knights of Malta, cc. no. 87 + one unnumbered leaf, with an engraved plate on copper (25 x 36.1 cm plus small margin) depicting the island of Zerbe besieged by the Christian fleet, the city of Tripoli in the background, full brown leather binding, spine in six compartments with gilt title and embossed friezes on the plates, embossed frame on the plates.
Specialist Notes
Original edition in Italian, very rare, edited by the scholar Giovanni Battista Tebaldi who signed the preface on March 3, 1566. Without typographical data. The second dated edition was also published in Venice by Antonio Rampazzetto in the same year. Includes a three-page dedication to Johann Jakob Fugger, the only part of the book where Ulloa's name appears. The author, a courtier of King Philip II, celebrates the defense of the fortress of Sant'Angelo in Malta, in modern Libya. In the 1551 Siege of Tripoli, the Ottoman fleet defeated the Knights of Malta at Tripoli; the city was captured on 15 August by Sinan Pasha after six days of bombardment. The knights, many of them French, were released in Malta on the intervention of the French ambassador and shipped aboard his galleys, while the mercenaries were enslaved. Murad Agha, the Ottoman commander of Tajura from 1536, was made Pashalik of the city. The siege was the first step of the Italian war of 1551-59 in the European theatre. In 1553, Dragut was appointed commander of Tripoli by Suleiman, making the city a center for pirate raids in the Mediterranean and the capital of the Ottoman province of Tripolitania. In a famous assault from Tripoli, in 1558, Dragut attacked Reggio and took all of its inhabitants as slaves to Tripoli. In 1560, a powerful naval force was sent to recapture Tripoli, but was defeated at the Battle of Djerba, an event also described in Ulloa's book. The end of the volume is preceded by an interesting four-page account of Malta ("Description of the Island of Malta") and by a list of names of Christian knights who died during the siege.
Edit 16, CNCE 37528. BM-STC Italian 704. Gay 1494. Palau 343.401. Göllner 1134. Graesse VI, 224. Olschki L II, 222. Mortimer 509.
Edit 16, CNCE 37528. BM-STC Italian 704. Gay 1494. Palau 343.401. Göllner 1134. Graesse VI, 224. Olschki L II, 222. Mortimer 509.
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