THE GREAT SEIGE.

UK,8vo HB minus dw/dj,1st edn,2nd impression.[Originally and first published (UK) December,1961,this the 2nd impression in 1962.] VG. No owner inscrptn,Publisher's original bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,plain black cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt lettering and publisher's similarly bright,crisp,blocked gilt colophon and immaculate plain white endpapers.Negligible shelf-wear,bumping, creasing to edges and corners – a repaired small snick/split to front board's top of it's gutter's fold/crease - no other nicks,tears or splits present.Top edges coloured a rosy-pink with a minor bleached spot, fore-edges uncoloured but lightly aged/toned and with some light sporadic foxing/ spotting; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound – no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners – near pristine, possibly unread,apart from my own collation.UK,8vo HB minus dw/dj, 1st edn,2nd imp,5-256pp [paginated] includes author's Foreword. separate contents+illus lists/tables,31 chapters,2 b/w maps,a b/w contemporary reproduction of portrait of Jean Parisot de la Valette, Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem,b/w plan of Fort St. Elmo,and 4 double-page monochrome facsimile contemporary engravings reproductions interspersed within the text,a 2pp bibliography,Notes,a Glossary and an Index; plus [unpaginated] half-title with author's published other title to its verso,title page,verse extract (16thC Cypriot ballad - translated by Hubert Pernot between th last page of foreword and the first page of contents list. Author's 2nd title,preceded by 'THE MIGHTY HOOD',(UK) H&S,1959. HMS Hood,the largest and fastest warship in the world.She was a great deterrent,representing British naval power,and was the symbol of Britain's status as a world power.But HMS Hood had a fatal flaw - deck armour had been sacrificed for speed.It was a bad trade,so bad that in her first and only major engagement,she was sunk by a salvo from the Bismarck.She left only three survivors.
Visually,the book's appearance is exceptional for a book of it's age, and even internally,the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation.It is only the exterior faults described that prevent a higher grading.Despite them,it is an exceptional copy for brightness and cleanliness. Account of the siege of Malta from May to September,1565,by the Ottoman Turks,in which all but 600 of the defending 9000 Knights of Malta died in repelling the 40,000-man army of Suleiman the Magnificent.Suleiman's defeat,which cost him 30,000 men,marked the beginning of the end of Turkish expansion in Europe.
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