Ghiaùr! Ghiaùr! Racconti di offesa, strutture di difesa in un codice inedito (1602-1616)

A code kept in the Library Riccardiana of Florence contains the story of travel and battles written by a soldier, embarked on the galleys of the Tuscan Order of St. Stephen. In the years between 1602 and 1616, he travels the Mediterranean sea from Spain to Lebanon, engaged in the war of defense of the Christian seas and coastlines from the Ottoman threat, but also in attacks on ships and enemy strongholds. The report of these events is interspersed by precise description of places, visited or even seen from a distance, enhanced with drawings showing the highlight of the battles and with views of ports, cities, fortresses and territories. You get, well, an accurate picture of the order of the Mediterranean in the early seventeenth century, which covers both the East and West and it is very interesting as regards the territories subject to the Sublime Porte. The reporter, “experienced man” in the military, produces an accurate description of their defensive system, coastal towers, urban fortifications, castles, and offers with interesting projects for their improvement, comparing them with the same system Western fortification.