Folio Archives 228: The Siege of Malta 1565 by Francisco Balbi 1965

The Siege of Malta 1565 Translated from the Spanish edition of 1568 by Francisco Balbi di Correggio 1965

The two great sieges of Malta, by the Moslems in 1565 and the Germans in World War Two, are almost equally fresh in the minds of the modern Maltese. This book was published on the 400th. anniversary of the first siege.

A small island between Sicily and Tunisia, Malta has one of the most magnificent harbours in the world at Valetta, appropriately named Grand Harbour. In 1565, and still today, this harbour was guarded by forts, and the island was further protected by another fortification at Mdina in the centre of the island.

In the 16th. Century Malta was possessed by the Knights of St. John after they had been expelled from Rhodes. They did everything possible to thwart the ambitions of the Moslems by attacking their fleets in the Eastern Mediterranean and raiding their ports in North Africa. This infuriated Sultan Suleiman to the point where he sent out a huge fleet to invest Malta with the determination to completely subdue it and destroy the Order of St. John.

Despite a superiority in numbers, and the loss of virtually the entire island, the Knights held out in their forts from May until September despite very heavy losses. Eventually they were relieved by Spanish and Italian forces from Sicily.

Francisco Balbi was a 60 year old soldier during the siege, but he wrote a background story and kept a day to day diary of events that occurred during the siege. This contemporary daily diary is an extraordinary insight into the events at that time.

The 192 page Folio Society edition was translated by Ernle Bradford and is very easy and compelling reading as you follow Balbi’s escapades and experiences, as well as his commentary on the wider situation. There is a 16 page unattributed introduction, and numerous integrated maps and plans that allow the reader to better understand the tactics, attacks and defences. The green endpapers are printed in white with a map of the Mediterranean.

The book is quarter bound in cream parchment, with brown wood-veneer boards. The page tops are stained bright green. The 25.9x16.6cm. slipcase is plain brown, but has unusual green top and bottom boards.

In Valetta there is a magnificent hall in the Grand Master’s Palace that is surrounded by frescoes depicting episodes in the Muslim siege of Malta. The seven two-page illustrations in the book are made after these frescoes. There is also a frontispiece depicting Grand Master la Valette, whose superb leadership in defending the island resulted in the defeat of the Turks.

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I also own a lovely boxed book that I bought when I visited Malta that is a detailed study of the frescoes from which the engravings in the Folio Society book are taken.

In the photos below you can see the original frescoes, the hall in which they are located, and the same engravings that enhance the FS edition.















An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

Thanks for the review Warwick. Enjoyable as always. I infer from the first paragraph of the introduction that it was written by the translator.

The wood veneer boards are beautiful. I’ve always loved the wood veneer boards of my copy of the LEC William Tell, but didn’t realize the Folio Society also used this binding material.

>1 wcarter: This is a real gem. I wasn't aware of its existence. Thank you as always for your informative posts.

>1 wcarter: Excellent! Thanks.

>3 BionicJim:

In 1960, the Society published The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand. This also has wood veneer boards with a quarter binding in cream leather. There is a reproduction of the title-page on p. 132 of Folio 21.

>6 boldface:

Then there's The Tudor Venturers by Richard Hakluyt from 1970. quarter leather with wood veneer boards. and at least one other I can't put a title to. It's on the tip of my tongue ... aagh.

Edited to add:

It came to me as I pressed the "save message" button. The Travels of Marco Polo, 1968. Quarter black cloth, wood veneer boards.

Also with wood veneer covered boards:

Contemporary Chronicles of The Hundred Years War – from the works of Jean Le Bel, Jean Froissart & Enguerrand De Monstrelet. 1966.

and

The Trial of John Bunyan and the persecution of the Puritans. 1978.

As a footnote, a literary curiosity. Sir Walter Scott's last novel, written in 1831-2 while he was travelling through the Mediterranean in a desperate bid to improve his health after suffering two strokes, is 'The Siege of Malta', a story which had fascinated him since childhood. Scott had completed the novel by April 1832, and he died in September. In his final confused state, he imagined it was the finest novel he had ever written, but in reality the text is increasingly confused and chaotic as it progresses (it begins as a novel but by the end is more like a history). His son-in-law and biographer, J. G. Lockhart, made sure it was suppressed in order to preserve the great man's reputation. In the 1970s, Donald E. Sultana researched the whole background in 'The Siege of Malta' Rediscovered: An Account of Sir Walter Scott's Mediterranean Journey and his Last Novel (Scottish Academic Press, 1977). This contains a substantial synopsis, but another thirty years were to pass before the full text would see the light of day in 2008, when it was published, with extensive notes and background information, by Edinburgh University Press.

>1 wcarter: Impressive