ALFONSO DE ULLOA. LA HISTORIA DELL’IMPRESA DI TRIPOLI DI BARBARIA FATTA PER ORDINE DEL SERENISS. RE CATTOLICO L’ANNO 1560 CON LE COSE AUENUTE A CHRISTIANI NELL’ISOLA DI ZERBE. VENEZIA FRANCESCO RAMPAZETTO 1566

[8], 88, [4] sheets COMPLETE

SOME TEARS ON THE TITLE PAGE AND ON THE FOLIO *2 WITHOUT LOSS OF TEXT, EXAMPLE WITH WATER SPOT AND BURNISHING

Rare first dated edition of Alfonso de Ulloa's tale of the Siege of Tripoli (1551), Battle of Djerba (1560) and the Great Siege of Malta (1565) in the context of the war between the great Christian Alliance and the Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean. The Ottomans attacked and conquered Tripoli (now Libya) in 1551, controlled from 1530 by the Christian military order known as the Knights Hospitaller. A powerful naval force was sent to retake Tripoli in 1560, but was defeated near the island of Djerba. The culmination of the conflict was the Great Siege of Malta, when the Ottomans unsuccessfully attacked the island defended by the Knights Hospitaller, whom they had previously defeated in Tripoli. It specifically tells of the expedition launched by King Philip II on the coasts of Africa , with the aim of retaking Tripoli from the Ottomans and putting an end to the raids led by Piyale Pasha and Dragut from the Balearic Islands, conquered by the Ottoman fleet in 1558. The second part of the book describes the attack launched by the Turks on the island of Malta five years later and the siege that followed, although they were eventually repelled by Spanish troops. Finally, the book contains a description of the island of Malta and a list of the knights who died during the siege of Malta in 1565.