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- Eric Rappe
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Fri, 10/26/2007 - 4:45pm
#1
Knights of the black and white
:S It may be that I'm overly pedantic but I do like my historical fiction to be as accurate historically as possible. I've just started reading Knights of the black and white, my first Jack Whyte novel, when I came across the mention of Maltese fishermen out of their home port of Valletta. The name Valletta and in fact the town of that name on Malta didn't exist until after the great siege of Malta in 1565. After the siege the heavily fortified city of Valletta was built and named after Grand Master Jean de la Valette, the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John at the time of the siege.
Jean Parisot de la Valette to be even more pedantic!
He was also the first Grand Master of St john to be buried in the city. I recommend a trip to St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta to anyone with a modicum of interest in the Military Orders - a wonderful and fascinating building.
I agree with you, if you are plundering history for the theme of your novel, at least make it historically accurate.
He's also one of the characters in Tim Willocks' [b:]The Religion[/b:]. A very good book, if you're interested.
I'm just working on a wee little project about knights right now. I saw this book and bought it because it had the word "knights" in the title. I found it by accident at Chapters when I was looking for another book-- "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess. Knights of the Black and White is the first one of Jack's books that I've read. Hopefully some more of his books will find their way into my den if they are also available at Chapters or Coles.
Wow, amazing that you would know this fact.
Do you know what the name of the area was before 1565 or is that lost?
Thanks for pointing out how easy it is to forget how place names change over time and are still rapidly changing today in some parts of the world - especially in Eastern Europe and Africa.
I would say it may be impossible for one person to keep up.
Take care and thanks for the insight.
Lora