The book by Arnold Cassola, entitled Soliman le Magnifique et Malte en 1565: Decisions, Preoccupations, Consequences, has just been published in France by L’Harmattan of Paris. Translated by Bernard Blesson, who is based in Paris, the book benefitted from a translation grant by the Malta National Book Council.

This new publication forms part of the series entitled Historiques, directed by Vincent Laniol, Bruno Péquignot and Denis Rollan. The series aims to present the most recent research in historical sciences. The collection is open to the diversity of study themes and historical periods.

The series is divided into two sections: the first, entitled Travaux, is open to studies respecting a scientific approach, which means that the emphasis is particularly placed on university research, while the second, entitled Sources, aims to publish testimonies of contemporaries relating to events of historical importance or to publish any text whose distribution will enrich the corpus of the historian.

“In 1565, after having allowed the Knights of the Order of Saint John to leave Rhodes in 1522, Soliman decides to definitively eliminate the ‘infidels’ who have taken refuge in Malta and who still represent a threat to Ottoman supremacy in the centre of the Mediterranean,” the directors of the series said of Cassola’s book.

“In this work, the author plunges us, thanks to Ottoman sources and the testimony of other contemporary sources, into the heart of the formidable armada set up to invade Malta, from the preparations until the return to Constantinople after the failure of the Siege.”

One can buy the book from www.editions-harmattan.fr/.