Historical Fantasy Set in 17th-Century Mediterranean: Five Novels to Read

Historical fantasy set in the 17th-century Mediterranean is quite the niche. The century of the Spanish Inquisition, the plague, the trade routes bringing New World silver to Southern Europe's shores: perfect material for the fantastic, and hardly anyone uses it. Here are five novels that come close! The first one fits the definition perfectly. The other four bend it a bit, each in a different way.

⚓ A Colpi di Cannonau ⚓ Titania Blesh

Starting with this one, the only title on the list that fits the definition letter for letter. Sardinia under the Spanish crown, 1630s: Fiammetta and an all-female crew sail a Mediterranean where magic comes from doubloons forged with American gold. It's the first volume of the She-Pirates of the Mediterranean trilogy (Acheron Books, 2020). First-person picaresque register, comic and fast at first, then darker as the stakes rise. If you're looking for a non-young, irreverent, outspoken and emancipated protagonist (against a brooding, all-clever Spanish Inquisitor) this is the book.

🗺️ A Song for Arbonne ⚓ Guy Gavriel Kay

The closest parallel for atmosphere. Kay builds a secondary world modelled on the late Renaissance Adriatic, with a city that is Ragusa in everything but name and a frontier that mirrors the one between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Pick it up if you're more interested in the political texture of the Mediterranean than in magic.

🔥 The Familiar ⚓ Leigh Bardugo

Golden Age Spain, real magic, a serving girl with a gift the court decides to exploit. The parallel is imperial and Catholic Spain as a stage for the fantastic, the same Spain that in the pirate trilogy exports witchcraft across the sea. The difference is twofold: the setting slips to the late 1500s, not full 17th century, and the story is about court intrigue, not the sea. But with the Inquisition!

⚔️ The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi ⚓ Shweta Paranjape Chakraborty

The most direct parallel in terms of voice: a pirate captain, first-person comic and irreverent, mythology woven into an adventure plot. It's also the comparison most often made, and it holds. The difference is that Chakraborty sails the medieval Indian Ocean, not the 17th-century Mediterranean, and her book is lighter and funnier throughout, while the Mediterranean trilogy darkens considerably toward the end. Same spirit, different sea and century.

🕯️ Nicolas Eymerich, Inquisitor ⚓ Valerio Evangelisti

The other Italian on the list, and proof that dark Mediterranean historical fantasy has existed in Italy long before Fiammetta started breaking balls all over the place. The differences are two: the century is the 14th, not the 17th, and each novel is embedded in a science fiction frame that has nothing to do with she-pirates. Still, a progenitor of the genre.

Bottom line: the 17th-century Mediterranean, with its corsairs, its inquisitors and its Atlantic trade routes, is almost entirely unwritten. If you know others, let us know!

Find A Colpi di Cannonau and the rest of the She-Pirates of the Mediterranean trilogy on Amazon.