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  • Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto
  • Gábo Ágoston
Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto. By Niccolò Capponi . New York: Pan Macmillan, 2006. ISBN 1-4050-4588-4. Maps. Illustrations. Tables. Glossary. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxxvi, 411. $27.50.

Niccolò Capponi has written an excellent book on the battle of Lepanto, the last major naval combat of rowing fleets in the Mediterranean, fought on October 7, 1571, in the Gulf of Patras between the Ottomans and the alliance of Christian powers, known as the Holy League, who aimed at recapturing Cyprus, conquered by the Ottomans the previous year. The fight–called the battle of Curzolaris by contemporaneous Venetians and Niccolò Capponi, since it took place some forty nautical miles west of Lepanto around the Curzolaris islands—ended with the stunning victory of the Holy League fleet and the almost total destruction of the Ottoman navy. However, it seemed as though Lepanto had altered the balance of power in the Mediterranean little. By the spring of 1572, the Ottomans had built 134 new vessels, complete with artillery, and had a navy of some 250 galleys and several smaller ships at their disposal. They continued to hold Cyprus, and the Holy League collapsed as Venice concluded a treaty with the Ottomans in March 1573 and as Spanish resources were redirected to meet new challenges in the Netherlands. Yet, Niccolò Capponi, following earlier historians (notably Fernand Braudel), is right to underline that the battle stopped further Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean, and that the Ottomans' "rebuilt fleet was unable to dominate the Mediterranean as before" (p. 320), despite their recapture of Tunis in 1574.

The bulk of Capponi's monograph (pp. 1-253, 287-320) deals with the diplomatic and military context of the confrontation, the intricacies of the Christian alliance, the Cyprus war, and the aftermath of the combat, whereas the battle gets only some 30 pages (pp. 253-86). While the strength of this [End Page 223] book is its author's remarkable familiarity with the relevant Italian and Spanish sources, Capponi, unlike some recent studies (e.g., those by Hugh Bicheno and Angus Konstam), also used Ottoman sources and specialized studies by Ottomanist historians, and tried to provide a balanced treatment of the opponents' strategies, tactics, strengths and weaknesses. The most rewarding part for this reader was the splendid examination of the opposing navies' ships, weaponry, crews and recruitment methods (chapter 7).

Although Capponi is cautiously skeptical of military technology, he does not deny its role. In his reading, the "reasons for the Christian victory at the Curzolaris include: galleass fire, better tactical use of artillery, harquebuses, body protection and Ottoman overconfidence…[and] that the allies largely succeeded in stopping the Ottomans from exploiting their skill in hand-to-hand fighting" (pp. 320-1). Ottomanists would add that the sultan's fleet was exhausted as a result of the unusually early start (March 16) of the 1571 campaign, and that most Ottoman galleys were undermanned due to the losses in that campaign and to the fact that many of the soldiers aboard the coastal beys' ships had already left for the winter.

More extensive use of Ottoman sources will certainly change many details of the narrative. Based on Ottoman imperial orders and "campaign daybooks," for instance, idris Bostan has recently reconstructed the itineraries of the Ottoman navy during the 1570 and 1571 naval campaigns, correcting inaccuracies and clarifying uncertainties repeated by western historians, including Capponi. According to Bostan, the sultan's navy left Istanbul in three groups (in March, April 26, and May 16) led respectively by Murad Reis, Piyale Pasha, and Lala Mustafa Pasha (accompanied by Müezzinzade Ali Pasha); the three fleets of 256 ships of various types (and not 400 vessels as reported by western sources) joined on June 5 at Rhodes; started to land troops near Limassol on July 2, whereas the main army landed two days later near Larnaca. They captured Nicosia on September 9, and took some 20,000 prisoners, of whom 13,719 were listed in a pençyek-register, containing one-fifth of booty belonging to the...

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