Ostia, 1557

IL · VERO · DISEGNO · DEL · SITO · DI / HOSTIA · E, DI · PORTO · CON · LI / FORTI · FATTI · DAL · CAMPO · DI · SVA / SANTITA · ET · DELLI · IMPERIALI · QVALI / SI RESERO · AD I · XXIIII · GENNARO / · M · D · L · VII

A high oblique view of the siege of Spanish-held Ostia by General Pietro Strozzi (c.1510-21 June 1558), Superintendent of the Papal army, resulting in the capitulation of the fortress on 24 January 1557. Oriented with east to top.

This is a reprint of the original, anonymous plate with the addition of van Schoel’s imprint. (Tooley, 1939, no.426.)

The events of January 1557 at Ostia are graphically described in a letter from Sir Edward Carne to Queen Mary, Rome 30 January 1557: ‘Since his last letter of the 23d, Pietro Strozzi, General of the Pope's army, being determined on taking the Spanish fort in Ostia, set forth every engine necessary; and having, besides the French soldiers that lay in siege there, 30 out of every band of French in this city, on the 24th gave it a battery of great ordnance, making a little breach, and giving notice that unless those within surrendered the place, it should be taken by assault, and none suffered to escape alive. The scaling-ladders and storming-party were in readiness, when the captains agreed to surrender, upon condition that they might depart with their ensigns in order of war, with no more than they could carry on their backs, and only one piece of ordnance. This being granted, Strozzi took possession of the place for the Pope, with all its contents, which, according to report, were so plenty, not only of all necessaries able to serve the fort for years, with all kinds of munition and many goodly pieces of great artillery, but also all manner of engines for crossing rivers, such as the Pope had not the like. The excuse for surrender was the lack of fresh water and fuel, and that the new fort made by the Pope's army did shoot into the Spanish fort. But it is privately said that the captains sold it for money; which is by no means improbable, as the fort could not be very well assaulted, for the ditch and water about it, and the sureness of the wall with the flankers, without the loss of a great number. Besides, the breach was not such but one man within was better than 10 without. Moreover, the two chief captains are here; one with Strozzi, the other with Matheo Standerdo, a kinsman of his Holiness, and one of his principal officers, which seems as if they had not dealt truly. The rest of the soldiers that left the fort were spoiled on their way to Naples by the garrison of Veletri. The Pope keeps the fort standing until he has fortified Ostia, and built a new one in the middle of the island to keep both sides of it, when they say it shall be razed.’

The print shows the medieval walled town of Ostia, nestling against a meander in the Tiber which, later that year, was cut off from the main stream by a flood which crossed the neck of the meander leaving an ox-bow lake which was still present on topographical maps in the late nineteenth century (Arnoldu-Huyzendveld). The rounded walls of the town contrast sharply with the later star-shaped, angle-bastioned trace Italienne forts of the Papal and Imperial forces.

A high oblique view of the siege of Spanish-held Ostia by General Pietro Strozzi (c.1510-21 June 1558), Superintendent of the Papal army, resulting in the capitulation of the fortress on 24 January 1557. Oriented with east to top.

This is a reprint of the original, anonymous plate with the addition of van Schoel’s imprint. (Tooley, 1939, no.426.)

The events of January 1557 at Ostia are graphically described in a letter from Sir Edward Carne to Queen Mary, Rome 30 January 1557: ‘Since his last letter of the 23d, Pietro Strozzi, General of the Pope's army, being determined on taking the Spanish fort in Ostia, set forth every engine necessary; and having, besides the French soldiers that lay in siege there, 30 out of every band of French in this city, on the 24th gave it a battery of great ordnance, making a little breach, and giving notice that unless those within surrendered the place, it should be taken by assault, and none suffered to escape alive. The scaling-ladders and storming-party were in readiness, when the captains agreed to surrender, upon condition that they might depart with their ensigns in order of war, with no more than they could carry on their backs, and only one piece of ordnance. This being granted, Strozzi took possession of the place for the Pope, with all its contents, which, according to report, were so plenty, not only of all necessaries able to serve the fort for years, with all kinds of munition and many goodly pieces of great artillery, but also all manner of engines for crossing rivers, such as the Pope had not the like. The excuse for surrender was the lack of fresh water and fuel, and that the new fort made by the Pope's army did shoot into the Spanish fort. But it is privately said that the captains sold it for money; which is by no means improbable, as the fort could not be very well assaulted, for the ditch and water about it, and the sureness of the wall with the flankers, without the loss of a great number. Besides, the breach was not such but one man within was better than 10 without. Moreover, the two chief captains are here; one with Strozzi, the other with Matheo Standerdo, a kinsman of his Holiness, and one of his principal officers, which seems as if they had not dealt truly. The rest of the soldiers that left the fort were spoiled on their way to Naples by the garrison of Veletri. The Pope keeps the fort standing until he has fortified Ostia, and built a new one in the middle of the island to keep both sides of it, when they say it shall be razed.’

The print shows the medieval walled town of Ostia, nestling against a meander in the Tiber which, later that year, was cut off from the main stream by a flood which crossed the neck of the meander leaving an ox-bow lake which was still present on topographical maps in the late nineteenth century (Arnoldu-Huyzendveld). The rounded walls of the town contrast sharply with the later star-shaped, angle-bastioned trace Italienne forts of the Papal and Imperial forces.

For further reading, see:
Antonia Arnoldu-Huyzendveld, (1999) ‘Notes on the landscape of Ostia and Portus before 1880’.
Thomas Ashby, ‘Recent discoveries at Ostia’ Journal of Roman Studies (1912) 2:153-194,
'Mary: January 1557', Calendar of State Papers Foreign, Mary: 1553-1558 (1861), pp. 281-287. no.572.

Condition: flat; considerable foxing/staining to both sides; no gilt edges. Verso: offsetting from different image, with compass points.