Tunis and La Goletta besieged in 1574

The Work

The Turkish galleys below fire upon La Goletta, the Spanish fortress guarding the channel of Tunis: it is the siege of the summer of 1574, and the print was published in Cologne the following year. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, with a handmade frame.

In command of the fleet, together with Sinan Pasha, was a Calabrian: Giovanni Dionigi Galeni, born in Le Castella, captured by corsairs and forced to row, later a great admiral of the sultan under the name of Uluç Alì, known to the Italians as Occhialì. La Goletta, in Spanish hands since 1535, fell at the end of August; the new fort in front of Tunis surrendered in September. Cervantes included that summer in Don Quixote: to recall it is a Christian prisoner forced to row, who also names the small fort in the middle of the lagoon.

The view is in the second volume of the Civitates orbis terrarum by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, engraved on copper. In the background is Tunis, below the city the star-shaped new fort, then the great lagoon; to the right, the tents of the Turks and the ruins of ancient Carthage. In the lower right, an inscription in Latin verse encourages Philip II and concludes with advice: make peace with the Belgians, that is, with the rebelling Netherlands, to have an ally against the Turks. The reproduced copy belongs to the David Rumsey Map Collection.

On a desk or in a library, it is a gift for anyone who has been to Tunis or for anyone who has loved Don Quixote. And the galleys are still firing, while La Goletta holds.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm
With frame: 42 x 62 cm
Material: work printed on the finest paper with deckle edges, handmade Amalfi paper
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass