Die Stadt Rhodes. Fig. CXXVI. / Rodes

Title

Die Stadt Rhodes. Fig. CXXVI. / Rodes

Description

Bird's eye view of today's old town of Rhodes on the island of the same name with sailing ship staffages in the foreground.

ca. 1719

Artist

Mallet (1630-1706)

Alain Manesson Mallet (1630- 1706 ) was a French cartographer and engineer. He started his career as a soldier in the army of Louis XIV, became a Sergeant-Major in the artillery and an Inspector of Fortifications. He also served under the King of Portugal, before returning to France, and his appointment to the court of Louis XIV. His military engineering and mathematical background led to his position teaching mathematics at court. His major publications were Description de L'Univers (1683) in 5 volumes, and Les Travaux de Mars ou l'Art de la Guerre (1684) in 3 volumes. His Description de L'Universe contains a wide variety of information, including star maps, maps of the ancient and modern world, and a synopsis of the customs, religion and government of the many nations included in his text. It has been suggested that his background as a teacher led to his being concerned with entertaining his readers. This concern manifested itself in the charming harbor scenes and rural landscapes that he included beneath his description of astronomical concepts and diagrams. Mallet himself drew most of the figures that were engraved for this book.

Historical Description

With the de facto division of the Roman Empire in 395, Rhodes became part of the Eastern Roman Empire, later called the Byzantine Empire. In the period after the First Crusade, Domenico Michiel, Doge of the Republic of Venice, on his way back from the Holy Land in 1124, plundered some Byzantine islands, including Rhodes. In 1306 the Genoese Vignolo de' Vignoli concluded a treaty with the knights of the Order of Saint John. In return for their help in implementing his plans, he assured the Knights of the Order, under their Grand Master Fulko de Villaret, of their own dominion on the island. Diplomatically secured by the support of the Pope, who would grant them Rhodes as perpetual property in 1307, the Knights of Saint John began their planned conquest of the island. Rhodes Town was strongly fortified by the Knights of St. John and defended against various attacks from the surrounding Muslim states. It was only under Suleiman the Lawgiver that the island fortress could be stormed by the Ottomans with heavy artillery after several months in 1522, whereupon the knights under Grand Master Philippe de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam capitulated and left the island on New Year's Day 1523. Immediately after the conquest, the Suleyman Pasha Mosque was built by Sultan Suleyman in 1523. The Ottoman rule lasted until May of the year 1912. During the Italian-Turkish War, troops of the Kingdom of Italy occupied Rhodes on 1912. This meant that Rhodes was not affected by the Greek-Turkish agreement of 1922, which provided for the forced resettlement of the Turks of Greece to Turkey and the Greeks of Asia Minor to Hellas. Since the Italian occupation in 1912, the entrance to the harbor is bordered by the statues of a stag (Elafos) and a hind (Elafina), which are considered the new emblem of Rhodes and, according to legend, stand where in ancient times the bases of the Colossus of Rhodes were located.