I lack the expertise to comment on this book's technical information. For me it is a masterly account of the battle, the events leading to it, and its aftermath. It includes two maps, a glossary and a list of major characters with their basic data. The maps and list were especially helpful, because the complex narrative required that I refresh my memory about people and places mentioned in earlier chapters.
What struck me the most was Capponi's description of the egotistical, politically suicidal policies of European aristocrats before the battle. How Europe survived such bad governance is a mystery to me (though admittedly the most powerful of the old rulers were not infected with the slimy cravenness of some modern politicians). It is very much to the credit of Pope Pius V and an attestation to his personal greatness that he could form an alliance out of such rulers.
The book does not withhold any gory details, even to the point of describing Marcantonio Bragadin's torture-death ordered by the sadistic Lala Mustafa Pasha. But one can feel sympathy for the drunkard Sultan Selim II, whose dissipated lifestyle probably began due to the burden of his heritage. Being the sultan's son meant that he would either become sultan himself or be the victim of a fratricide, since it was the Ottoman practice at that time for the new sultans to execute their brothers.
Despite the prodigious detail, one omission puzzles me. I bought this book after reading Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton (edited by Dale Ahlquist) in order to know more about the battle and its background. An essay in this book by Melvin Kriesel claims that the Christian alliance had put heavy nets on the sides of their galleys to hinder the Janissaries from boarding (p. 65). While trying to board the vessels for hand-to-hand combat, the Turks became enmeshed in the nets and the Christians could shoot a lot of them from a distance. Capponi made no mention of this important tactic, which makes me wonder, is this story about the nets historical?
Apart from warning people about an enormous vocabulary, a lot of it technical military jargon, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone interested in the history of Europe or of the Ottoman Empire.
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