Date of Award

12-2015

Type

Thesis

Major

History

Degree Type

Bachelor of Arts in History

Department

History and Geography

First Advisor

Dr. Daniel Gullo

Second Advisor

Dr. Steven Gill

Third Advisor

Dr. Neal McCrillis

Abstract

This paper will compare English print concerning the Siege of Rhodes in 1480 and the Siege of Malta in 1565 in order to address how the responses differed and why. Although there is abundant scholarship on the two sieges and the press, most research concentrates on each specific period rather than comparing the two. The Historians Theresa Vann and Donald Kagay for example, described how John Kaye transformed Guillaume Caoursin’s Obsidionis Rhodiae urbis descriptio through translation for an English-speaking readership and the Order’s relationship to the printing press during the period surrounding the Siege of Rhodes. Helen Vella Bonavita discussed Malta-related print during the years surrounding the 1565 Great Siege, focusing on the changes made due to Protestant and Catholic writers. Bonavita emphasized the cultural aspects that influenced the translation of the first history of the siege in 1565 and discussed how Elizabeth’s Protestant reign influenced the printed prayers. However, a lacuna in the comparative study of the siege literature remains.

Kaye’s Description represents how members of the English court responded to the Siege of Rhodes with the newly invented printing press. Kaye followed the steps of the Hospitallers, who themselves utilized the printing press to generate support in Europe after their successful defeat of the Turks in Rhodes. In 1480, the vice-chancellor of the Order, Guillaume Caoursin (1470-1501), published Obsidionis Rhodiae urbis descriptio to spread the news of the victory, while the Grand Master of the Order also published his letters in the same year.6 Edward IV, perhaps at Kaye’s urging, permitted the Order’s English langue to sell printed indulgences in the kingdom while Kaye’s translation circulated the English readership.7 The press had become the vehicle for news and for support.

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