Francesco Balbi da Correggio

by Ray Agius

Original - Not For Sale

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Not Specified

Dimensions

22.000 x 30.000 inches

Title

Francesco Balbi da Correggio

Artist

Ray Agius

Medium

Painting - Watercolour On Cold-pressed 300 Gsm Watercolour Paper

Description

A Witness on the Battlefield

As the Ottoman bombardments began at dawn on Sunday, July 22, arquebusier Francesco Balbi da Correggio, who was positioned at Fort St Michael, wondered whether �the world had come to an end�. The Turks opened up with all they had�sixty-four heavy guns let loose a tremendous barrage. The sound was so loud it could be heard in Sicily, more than 100 miles away.

Balbi was sixty when he enlisted as a mercenary to fight alongside the Knights. Born in Italy, he was a poet and soldier-of-fortune. He came as part of a large contingent of soldiers and mercenaries sent by the Spanish Emperor, Philip II.

An arquebusier was a soldier armed with an arquebus�a firearm used from the 15th to 17th centuries and a forerunner of the musket and rifle. The arquebus could bring down a man from around a distance of 100 metres but took several minutes to reload. At best, an experienced arquebusier could get off one round every two minutes; against an infantry charge directed towards an open breach in the fortifications this produced only one or two rounds between the enemy coming into range and the onset of hand-to-hand combat.

Balbi immortalized the dramatic events of the Siege, documenting them in his journal, the best-known first-hand account. Written in Spanish, his book was published in 1567 and read widely throughout Europe. His accounts credited the courage and leadership of the Knights as well as the bravery and determination of the Maltese men, women and children.

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April 30th, 2015

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