LUCINI, Anton Francesco – L’ASSEDIO E BATTERIA DELL’ISOLA DI S. MICHELE A DI XXVIII DI GIVGNO.

Description

LUCINI, Anton Francesco (1610-c1661) – F.° VII.

Title of Map: L’ASSEDIO E BATTERIA DELL’ISOLA DI S. MICHELE A DI XXVIII DI GIVGNO.

Dist./ Features: The events on the reduction of Fort St. Elmo

Engraver: Anton Francesco Lucini

Title: DISEGNI / DELLA GVERRA….

Publisher: Nicolò Allegri

Place: Rome

Year: 1631

Engraving size: 305 (340 including text) x 438 mm

Verso: blank

Printing method: copper engraving

Description: The painter`s principal intention was to give an overview of the core fortified defences that the Knights Hospitallers had prepared over three decades of debates and arguments concerning the best strategic stance. On the other side of the Grand Harbour, opposite Sciberras peninsula, there were two tongues of land jutting into the harbour water. On the tip of one of these, there was a medieval fortress, Fort St. Angelo, which was enlarged and considerably strengthened. The Borgo stretched beneath the Fort, occupying the rest of that tongue of land which was surrounded with defensive walls, particularly massive on the exposed landward. The adjoining tongue of land, commonly termed “L`Isola” was similarly fortified, erecting there a new fortress, called fort St. Michael. Thus the two fortified tongues, although divided by a stretch of sea, were turned into a single defensive core. The validity of all this strategic planning became evident on 27 June 1565, when a well planned Ottoman assault by land and sea on the “Isola” defences was repulsed because the Knights were able to move men swiftly from their base in the “Borgo” to the various crisis points in the “Isola” enclave.