The insight of the Burgundian Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, who had recently become Viceroy of Naples (1571), helped establish the technological superiority of the Holy League's firearms against the Turks.

He was aware that the most precise arquebuses in Europe were being produced in Naples, as the echo of a remarkable event that had occurred a few decades before his appointment as Viceroy still lingered: the execution of a prisoner from the Vicaria by an assassin of the Prince of Salerno, from a distance of 80 meters.

The unfortunate man had brazenly stuck his head between the bars, making himself an easy target for an arquebusier who could rival a modern American Navy SEAL. With a single shot, he hit the mark.

The evolution of Neapolitan firearms technology became crucial in penetrating the Ottoman defenses at the Battle of Lepanto.

Neapolitan privateers had also developed an improvement to their arquebuses, using gunpowder with a progressive action rather than an explosive one, achieved by increasing the potassium nitrate content. The breakthrough came by placing a "ciova de sivo e di pilo" (a wad of tallow and hair) between the gunpowder and the projectile, which increased the effectiveness of the shot. Turkish shields could now be pierced from a distance of sixty "canne" (a unit of length).

Granvelle himself insisted on increasing the saltpeter content in the gunpowder used for cannons to achieve a longer range than Ottoman cannons.

The capital of the Viceroyalty welcomed weapons experts who studied the best strategies for hand-to-hand combat on the decks of ships.

The ships that departed from Naples on August 22, 1571, bound for Messina, carried within them the military technological innovations that contributed to the victory in the Strait of Dardanelles.