Joseph Muscat

The Crusading order of the knights of Saint John of the hospital held this island group for three hundred years. This book has chapters on the history under the Knights, and their naval war against the Islamic powers of the region. it contais a very detailed explanation of the types of sea going small sail craft they employed. It is not very extensive in its coverage of any larger historical reasons for the survival of this crusading outpost.
The mapping is useful but not extensive, and there is not a list of the grand Masters of the order. I'd call this a curiousity as opposed to a must-have book.
The text here is not always clear prose. I suspect that at some point a computer program for translation was used, and I wonder if the original language was Maltese, a mostly Semitic base, with a lot of latinization, as befits its location and history.… (mais)