They are invariably adorned with signs of military operations, such as stick-figure infantry, forts, small pictograms of encampments, or galleys and other vessels when the site is a port. In news maps, the cartographic stage is the foremost element, depicted in relatively accurate, if sometimes schematic, plan or aerial view. They were usually separately published, although occasionally they were combined with written news pamphlets, and many were subsequently copied for incorporation into books of town views, or bound into composite atlases assembled by individual collectors. Originating in Italy or Northern Europe, they tended to be woodcuts or combinations of engraving and etching, printed on single sheets of paper.
These works depicted current events in their geographic context, reporting history as it unfolded. Rather, it was one of a host of similarly conceived news maps that had begun to appear in earnest three decades earlier, and it exemplifies many typical features. Footnote 6īéatrizet's map was not the first of its kind. Produced in the heat of the moment, these news maps were part of a media event unprecedented in the sheer quantity and scope of materials produced, all of which sought to sway public perceptions of the episode and to keep Europeans on the edge of their proverbial seats the whole time.
#CARTOGRAPHER HAND OF FATE 2 SERIES#
Footnote 5 Béatrizet's map was the prelude for a series of hastily printed maps that documented the siege's every triumph and reversal over sixteen long weeks. That something, it turns out, was the Great Siege of Malta: one of the most vaunted military confrontations of the early modern era, between the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe. The meaning is clear: Malta is ready to repel any offensive.īéatrizet and his audience understood that something was coming. That inhabited sector and headquarters of the Knights of Saint John has been sealed off. Two chains have been stretched across the inlet to prevent enemy vessels from entering. A protective trench appears to the east of Birgu and Senglea, while new ramparts extend across their outward-facing shorelines. He records military preparations that other sources confirm to have been in place.
Elmo, and firepower at the ready at the other forts, too. Béatrizet portrays guns and cannon radiating from Fort St. In it, there are no troops visible on Malta's shores, but there are subtle signs of watchful waiting, and of readiness. Footnote 4īéatrizet's map does not depict any specific military engagement. The text of the map conveys the same general message that this place is “powerfully defended by its knights against the attacks of its barbarian enemies,” together with basic information about the island's size and position. The central ship, just below the title, Melita nunc Malta (Melita, now Malta), flies the flag of the order-bearing its signature equal-armed cross with flared, swallowtail ends. Outside the harbor, ships of all shapes and sizes denote the seafaring might and vigilance of the Knights of Saint John. Below and parallel to Birgu is Senglea with its windmills, protected by Fort St. Extending horizontally toward Sceberras from the right is densely inhabited Birgu, with another fort, St. That peninsula divides the harbor into two sides: Marsamxett (then known as Marsamuscetto) at left, and the larger Grand Harbor at right. The central, vertical one is Mount Sceberras, with the island's main fortification, Fort St. Oriented with north at upper left, it shows not the whole of Malta, but rather one small section of it: the main deepwater port on its east side shaped by three jutting promontories. Footnote 3 That fear, in April and May 1565, is fixated on this small island between Sicily and Tunisia.īéatrizet's map emerges from this anxious moment. But when it comes to the Ottoman threat, there is (mostly) unity, arising from shared fear. Renaissance Europe is a fractured, disparate place, with inner conflicts, shifting contours, and little sense of common purpose or identity. Malta might lie along a distant, amorphous frontier, but it is also a threshold, an opening to the possibility of conquest. Image courtesy of Mużew Nazzjonali tal-Arti, Heritage Malta, and the Malta Study Center at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library.Īs late winter of 1565 becomes spring-siege season-many observers in Europe monitor the situation uneasily.
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