Victory of the West: The Great Christian-Muslim Clash at the Battle of Lepanto [Hardcover]

Niccolo Capponi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2007

On the morning of October 7, 1571, in the Gulf of Lepanto on the Ionian Sea, the vast and heavily-manned fleets of the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League clashed in one of the most significant battles in history. By four o’clock that afternoon the sea was red with blood. It was a victory of the west-the first major victory of Europeans against the Ottoman Empire. In this compelling piece of narrative history, Niccolo Capponi describes the clash of cultures that led to this crucial confrontation and takes a fresh look at the bloody struggle at sea between oared fighting galleys and determined men of faith. As a description of the age-old conflict between Christianity and Islam, it is a story that resonates today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Capponi, a highly regarded Italian Renaissance scholar with a focus on military history lives up to his reputation in his first major U.S. publication. The battle of Lepanto, fought in 1571, was both one of history's significant naval engagements and a watershed in the long war between Christians and Muslims. To pierce its penumbra of myths and legends, Capponi returns to the original archival and printed sources to construct this fresh, multilayered analysis. On one level Lepanto was a victory for the Western technology that would decide so many battles in the next four centuries. The Christian fleet made better use of gunpowder weapons and had a trump card in their galleasses—galleys converted into gunships, whose heavy artillery allowed Christian seamen to prevent the Ottomans from utilizing their superiority in boarding tactics. Lepanto was also a psychological victory: a ramshackle alliance of Christian states thrashed an Ottoman Empire at the peak of its power and confidence, preventing the Ottomans from dominating the Mediterranean as before. The unexpected outcome sharpened the still-enduring struggle between Christianity and Islam, making it correspondingly difficult for the Muslim world to accept the West taking an increasing lead in military, scientific and economic matters. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

By the middle of the sixteenth century, Islam, under the banner of the Ottoman Turks, was ascendant in North Africa, Asia Minor, and most of the eastern Mediterranean. With their powerful navy as a springboard, the Turks were poised to advance further west. On October 7, 1571, the Ottoman fleet met a combined Christian fleet called the Holy League off the coast of mainland Greece. The daylong battle resulted in an overwhelming defeat of the Ottomans, the first significant defeat of Ottoman forces by Europeans, which shattered the aura of invincibility that had surrounded them. Some historians have suggested the event was the beginning of the long decline that led to the Ottoman Empire being designated as the "sick man of Europe." Capponi, a military and Renaissance historian, tells about this seminal battle with great attention to detail as well as superb insight into the cultural differences between the adversaries. He makes effective use of primary sources, including Miguel de Cervantes, who was wounded in the battle; the result is an absorbing and even thrilling account. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 1St Edition edition (March 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306815443
• ISBN-13: 978-0306815447
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #621,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > History > Europe > Cyprus

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding and readable work., August 15, 2006

By 

Marco Morin (Venice, Italy.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto (Hardcover)

An excellent book that from now on (but just until I'll write my own narration of Lepanto ....) will be the unquestionable reference work on the subject. Almost one hundred years ago Alethea Wiel, in The Navy of Venice (London, 1910) wrote: "They (the six Venetian Galleasses positioned in front of the Christian fleet) bore so distinguished and important a part in the crushing defeat of the Turks at Lepanto as to have, it is said, secured the victory to Venice and her allies." This in one of the various points that Niccolò Capponi, leading Italian military historian, probed and researched in depth providing full evidence of what really happened the 7th of October 1571. Many errors, constantly repeated since the times of Jurien de la Gravière (and perhaps earlier) by almost all the authors, have been so eradicated with the help of an opulent amount of newly discovered archival documents.
Some inaccuracies: at page 187 the moschetto, a small piece of artillery was named after a bird, a special kind of falcon; at page 192 Antonio (and not Arturo) Surian, called the Armenian, was a very well known inventor and not a Master Gunner. This is all I have been able to discover so far but, being green with envy, I am sure that reading the book again I'll be able to uncover other crucial blunders of the same magnitude.
Summing up: a virtually flawless, superior level academic work that can be read with absolute ease and pleasure.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the turning points of history here..., August 27, 2007

By 

C. A. Temm (Salem, AL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Victory of the West: The Great Christian-Muslim Clash at the Battle of Lepanto (Hardcover)

For many Westerners, history is something that happened last year and this deliberate ignorance of the past gives rise to many false beliefs today. Chief among them would be the belief in the West that we have always been aggressors in the Levant and Islam is simply now fighting back. Even a cursury examination of history reveals the dangerous falsehood in that belief.

Niccolo Capponi's book on the Battle of Curzolaris (AKA Lepanto to many Americans)is well worth the time to read. Though he breaks no real new ground, his detail and love of subject (pre 16th century Med cultures, esp. Italy)shows. Copiously end noted with many charts comparing manpower, ships, armaments, losses etc (about 20% of the book), the book puts together an engrossing story of a world at war.

From the pre League political climate and the earlier attempts to forge a concerted Christian force to battle the Ottomans as they ravaged the shores of Europe, Mr. Capponi's book does an admirable job of illustrating the problems and weaknesses of Christian Europe at this time. He notes how the new Pope, Pius V would be the mover and true shaker of the enterprise. to do so, he had to overcome a relucant Spain, many suspicious Italian states, the crusading orders of St Stephen and Hospitallers, the machinations of France trying to aid its Ottoman allies(!), and everyone's suspicions of Venice. By devious use of subsidies and reminders of religious duty, Pius finally cobbles together his League.

Ironically it would be the Ottoman capture of Famagusta(Cyprus), a Venetian possession and the treatment of the garrison and inhabitants that would cause a creaky alliance to tun into a avenging force that went on to destroy the bulk of the Ottoman fleet. It is here that Capponi is strongest, his detailed knowledge of the people involved paints the battle in colorful detail. He highlights the bravery of both sides and gives credit where it is due to both Moslem and Christian bravery.

The battle itself is well treated but it is the prefacing of the battle and the aftermath (often surprising and sad at the same time) that is the best part. This time was not one of cleanly divided lines, politically or religously. Both sides had no problems with slavery or disrupting lives and livelihoods in the region. Alliances were often temporary and often surprising. Both sides were torn with factional infighting but for this once, the Christian side was less so. It can truly be said that this was one of the turning points of history....

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a fascinating account, March 31, 2008

By 

Bettie Gage Lippitt - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Victory of the West: The Great Christian-Muslim Clash at the Battle of Lepanto (Hardcover)

Niccolò Capponi has written a fascinating and detailed history of Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century and the fractious relationships between the European states,the Venetian Republic,and the Papacy. Often more suspicious of each other than of the Turks, they finally merged into a shaky Christian coalition which faced down the Sultan's navy at the battle of Lepanto. Although full of historical and military detail, "Victory of the West" is a very readable book, laced with humor and compassion, and much attention to good storytelling. When the two naval forces finally face each other, I guarantee you won't be able to put the book down until the finish!