From Mundabor's Blog
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| From left: Don Juan of Austria, Marcantonio Colonna and Sebastiano Venier, the victors of Lepanto.
This fragment of a documentary is in Italian and will be less accessible to those not blessed with the knowledge of Dante’s Language. Still, music and reconstruction are beautiful and the product is well made.
Important elements:
1) Don Juan reports of having kneeled and asked for heavenly help in front of his soldiers, who did the same.he was the commander-in-Chief of the Holy League, but he still knew who his Commander-in-Chief was.
2) The documentary stresses the importance of the superior Western technology: Venice’s new type of war ship (“Galeazza”, as opposed to the typical “Galeone”) was able to fire from all sides and much more difficult to board. According to the documentary, this and the superior quality of Western cannons played an important role.
3) Don Juan promised freedom to the Holy League prisoners employed as forced oarsmen and they participated to the assault of the Ottoman vessels. In those days, naval battles were, so to speak, also traditional battles as you had foot soldiers on your ship trying to board and take enemy vessels. As far as I know, both the Royal Marines and the US Marines originate from this kind of warfare.
4) The documentary has a beautiful and powerful image starting from 2:43. The commenter says “the battle went on savagely for hours, and ended in a carnage”. As these words are pronounced, an imaginary camera goes along the blade of a sword and when the word “carnage” is pronounced the hilt of the sword is showed, forming a clear… cross.
The image of the Cross being also a Sword is a famous symbol of the middle ages, visible in countless representations of tombs with the sword held in such a way that it is clearly a sword but it forms a cross on the breast of the deceased. The creator of this documentary knows his Christian imagery.
5) A Te Deum was celebrated in Venice as the fleet was coming home. One imagines what an unforgettable moment it must have been for the Venetians. As always, Italians have a strong sense of drama.
6) Even today, every year, the Vatican celebrates the victory inviting the descendants of those brave soldiers.
Enjoy!
Mundabor
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