e-book

copyright
Stephen C Spiteri
2002

Armour
y
of the

Knights
A Study of the Palace Armoury, its Collection,
and the Military Storehouses
of the Hospitaller Knights of the Order of St John

Stephen C Spiteri

Midsea Books
in association with

Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna

1

Armoury of the Knights has been researched, written, and desgned

by Stephen C Spiteri.
Contact address: PO Box 460, Valletta CMR 01, Malta G C
e-mail: sspiteri@maltanet.net
ORMTFDDZ

Copyright Stephen C Spiteri 2003

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the previous written permission of the author.

Armoury of the Knights was first published as The Palace Armoury - A Study of
a Military Storehouse of the Knights of the Order of St John in 1999.
Armoury of the Knights has been published by Midsea Books Ltd in association
with Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna and printed by Gutenberg Press Ltd, Tarxien.
ISBN 99932-39-33-X (hardback)
ISBN 99932-39-45-3 (paperback)
This book is also available on CD-ROM (PDF format) in limited edition.
(ISBN 99932-648-0-6).

Other books by the same author;

Discovering the Fortifications of the Knights of St. John in Malta
The Knights Fortifications
The British Fortifications
Fortresses of the Cross; Hospitaller Military Architecture, 1136-1798
British Military Architecture in Malta
The Fougasse; The Stone Mortar of Malta
Fortresses of the Knights

In our halls is hung

Armoury of the invincible knights of old
William Wordsworth (1807)

For My Parents, Marlene

and Joe, and my wife
Marthy

Armoury of the Knights

is a second, revised, and expanded edition of
The Palace Armoury - A Study of a Military Storehouse
of the Knights of the Order of St John
first published in 1999 and
sponsored by the Farsons Foundation.

Contents
Introduction
Foreword
Preface

5
6
9

Origins of the Palace Armoury

The Knights of Malta
A Sala dArmi in the Grand Masters Palace
A Profusion of Armouries in the 18th Century
The Organizational Framework
Artillery Stores & Gunpowder Magazines
The Development & Layout of the Palace Armoury
From Armoury to Museum
The Collection of Arms & Armour
Selective Record of the Collection of Arms & Armour
Appendix
List of Weapons mentioned in the Spogli, Spropriamenti,
and Wills of Hospitaller Knights
Lakings Catalogue of the Armour & Arms in the Armoury
of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem.
Glossary of Arms & Armour
References & Notes
Bibliography

17
47
75
119
141
163
183
201
229
273

359
369
383
389
405

Introduction
It was with great pleasure that I accepted to write this forward to Stephen
C Spiteris excellent new work on the subject of the historic armouries in
Malta. Being myself an aficionado of military history, albeit better versed
in periods more modern than that covered by this book, I can very well
appreciate the eruditeness by which it has been both researched and written.
I consider myself to have been singularly privileged to witness its long and
meticulous gestation. Throughout this period I have enjoyed many great
hours spent in regular discourse on the subject with Spiteri. This has not
only enlightened me on a subject which I was soon to realize how little I
knew about; it has also made me more conscious to the uniqueness and at
the same time the fragility of our national armoury collection.
As is to be seen in this book, the contents of our national armoury collection,
most of which is based at the Palace Armoury Museum, are indeed some
of the finest examples of their kind. Many were made by the ablest of
masters of the trade for the noblest and richest of their time. Contained in
this massive treasure collection are great works of art that certainly compare
well with any of our precious canvases by great and famous masters such
as Caravaggio, Preti, and Favray. Yet, for officialdom, in particular, this
collection still remains an endless source of convenient objets dart to line
up corridors and stately halls in our grand public buildings. This false practice
to gothicize the interior of our public buildings transcends from our former
colonial masters. It is foreign and certainly holds no historic water with us.
In my opinion, this great work by Spiteri should not only serve to trace the
history of this collection and document its contents for the readers to enjoy
and students to better understand. It should also serve to make us aware
of the great needs that exist in the long-term preservation of this great
historical collection. It also ought to galvanize the will to take timely action
to ascertain that this unique treasure house is guaranteed a secure future
through better management and ongoing conservation.

Mario Farrugia
Executive Director FWA
23.II.03

Foreword

to the first edition

A considerable number of young Maltese researchers and scholars have

come into the field of historical studies, giving a reassurance that the long
tradition established in our country in the past will not only continue, but will
be strengthened. There is so much treasure in our heritage that has not
been properly studied, evaluated, and made known. So that there are still
areas of research where young scholars can roam and then establish their
base and specialize.
Stephen Spiteri has for some time concentrated his intellectual energies on
the discovery, study, and illustration of the treasures bequeathed to us by our
forebears and our erstwhile rulers, in connection with our military defence.
His specialization has not, however, narrowed in scope. His books about our
fortifications have become to be considered classics of their kind, attracting
encomiums in their review by the specialized learned journals. On the other
hand he has not restricted his studies to the most spectacularly beautiful and
ingenious bastions built by the Knights of Saint John around Valletta and the
Three Cities. He has set his gaze on the later British Fortifications in the
North of the Island and scrupulously described every redoubt, tower, and
fort throughout the Island. He has even made researching pilgrimages to the
fortifications erected by the Hospitallers before they came to Malta.
Spiteri has also focused on the study of armour, and in particular on the
Armoury. This book is a result of his labours in the closest possible position,
and contains a great deal of original research into the vicissitudes of the
Armoury as an institution, as well as an invaluable study of many of the
individual items. Spiteris work has the attractive trait of not only providing
material for the experts in the particular discipline, further reinforcing in this
way his standing as a recognized authority, but of interesting and intriguing
all lay lovers of our history.
For this study sheds light, from a certain angle but given the times and
circumstances, an extremely relevant angle, on our Islands history and the
history of the Order. The history of Malta and Gozo during the years 15301798 is perhaps unique. We were governed by a religious Order of
Hospitaller\warrior knights, with a standing army and a fleet fitted out not
only to defend but also to police the seas around us. We acquired one of the
largest and best equipped hospital, a well nigh impregnable line of

fortifications encircling our cities, a university, and a set of custom-made

Municipal Laws. We as a nation were sometimes hard put but never
completely removed from some say in the running of our country; in actual
fact most of the civil servants, judges, doctors, surgeons, and officers in the
Army and Navy were Maltese. We acquired a permanent assemblage of
young and no longer young aristocrats from all over Europe, essentially trying
to find a justification for their lives in the ideal of defending from here the
whole of Christendom. Some of course made a nuisance of themselves and
betrayed their vows. Taking on an overall view, there is no denying the fact
that we began in 1530 a history of separate and independent political existence.
That we are today an independent republic governed from within, owes
much to the events following 1530 and our severance from Sicily. The knights
of St John fulfilled their role of guardians of Malta and Europe by donning
their suits of armour and brandishing their swords and rapiers. The prowess
of every individual was established in personal combat, at first on land and
later mostly at sea. Their armour has, therefore, become symbolic as well
as emblematic. It was not, however, merely decorative or ceremonial. The
regalia in our Armoury at the Palace, but a fraction of what we must have
had, and what Stephen Spiteri now discovers to have actually had, are not
simply shown together as a museum collection: they are in all senses the
real thing: the resource centre for the armed defence of our country in times
gone by. It speaks eloquently for the fact that the Order saw in the defence
of Malta the raison detre of their existence that the Grandmasters should
have lodged the armoury within their own residential palace.
Stephen Spiteris new opus is thus a contribution towards the better
understanding of our history. It is also more. It draws attention to the state
of preservation of the treasures in the Armoury. We of this generation have
an obligation, to preserve, to maintain, to study, to exhibit for the purpose of
education, to exhibit for interest in leisure time. The Armoury attracts not
only Maltese but also visitors from abroad. Stephen Spiteris work is not
merely a scholarly work, it calls for the attention of all the country to the
duty we have towards our heritage.

Dr. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici

Preface
A cloister without a library is like a castle without an armoury,
For the library is our armoury
Geoffrey de Breteuil (c.1165)

In his introduction to J F Verbruggens The Art of Warfare in Western

Europe during the Middle Ages, Matthew Bennett remarks that it is unusual
in any discipline for four decades to pass by without any scholar contributing
to a field of study. Had he known that a century has elapsed since Laking
produced the only book ever to appear on the Palace Armoury, he would
have had to rephrase his sentence. Indeed, the one critical problem that has
plagued the Palace Armoury from the day it was first established as a
museum way back in 1860 has been an unfamiliarity with its historical past;
a situation that has condemned it to the status of a gallery of curiosities ever
since.
This inability to depict the Armoury beyond the common notion of a mere
antiquarian collection stems primarily from an astonishing lack of historical
research. Until very recently, no serious effort was ever channeled towards
understanding the real significance of the Palace Armoury. Basic questions
of when and how this Armoury was set up, of how it was administered and
equipped with weapons, and of how it functioned and developed within the
overall Hospitaller military organization were never ever raised, let alone
answered. As a result, the whole corpus of knowledge on this subject
remained dependent on a few isolated facts draped in much speculation
and myth.
Throughout the Armourys 140 years as a museum, there was only one
attempt to make a scholarly analysis. And that was nearly a century ago
when Lord Grenfell, Governor of Malta, called in Guy Francis Laking (then
one of the worlds leading experts on arms and armour) to study and evaluate
the collection. The lasting product of Lakings brief intervention was his
publication but this, conceived as a catalogue, was mainly concerned with
the description of the most notable items in the collection and said practically
nothing at all on the history of the Armoury itself. Its purely descriptive
approach, based largely on stylistic comparisons, may have then been
permissible in the field of study of arms and armour, but it did no justice to
the historicity of the Palace Armoury. For the Armoury collection is not

simply a compilation of antiques. Rather, it is the residue of a unique sala

darmi surviving in its original building. Its value and significance, therefore,
are more than just the sum of its individual parts. As such, it cannot be
treated simply as a museum of weaponry and its study must range more
widely than merely the minutiae of armour design and construction. Without
an examination of the wider contextual issues, a study of the Armoury
collection is no more than a skeleton without the flesh.
The disregard for historicity is even more inexcusable when one considers
that the Palace Armoury is situated only a few metres away from the archives
of the Order of St John at the National Library. It is indeed bewildering that
such a rich source of primary information on the Armoury was never tapped
at all and, I am sorry to say, it is still being sidestepped today. This lack of
scholarship in the approaches to the appreciation of the collection is perhaps
best summed up in the very title which, until I drew attention to it in 1998,
was used to describe the Palace Armoury, the so-called Armeria di Rispetto.
This fallacy was introduced in 1969 by Czerwinski and Zygulski, two experts
who were sent by UNESCO to take stock of the collection, and it has been
repeated with gusto ever since.
The error in the term Armeria di Rispetto as applied to the Palace Armoury
is twofold. For one thing it was translated literally as meaning armoury of
honour, a totally incorrect interpretation for Armeria di Rispetto, in Italian
military jargon, means a reserve armoury (French: de recharge), and this
was a designation which was never applied to the Palace Armoury. Indeed,
in all the original documents that deal with the Orders military storehouses,
this term is only used to refer to the Falconeria, a reserve armoury
established in Melita Street in 1763 by Grand Master Pinto so as to take all
the obsolete weapons removed from the Palace.
Secondly, the Palace Armoury was never an armoury of honour if we take
this to mean a showpiece armoury. On the contrary, it was always, first and
foremost, a fully functional central depository of arms and armour di
munizione - a veritable military storehouse.
So how did this confusion come about? It all originated from the simple fact
that the Palace Armoury also took on, very early in its existence, the aspect
of an antiquarian collection owing to the very statutes of the Hospitaller
Order which stipulated that the military equipment of deceased knights
escheated to the Order. And this knightly equipment was, after 1658, placed
on display in the Armoury together with the ordinary equipment. However,
when the Armoury was despoiled of the large mass of its weapons by both
the French and British authorities, all that was left behind, in the words of
DHennezel, were the decorations de la salle - the rich trophies of arms
and armour decorating the walls together with some mannequins and cannon.
And it was these residual elements that, for more than a century and a half,

10

came to constitute the popular perception of the Armoury. To some extent,

therefore, Czerwinski and Zygulski can be excused for falling into the trap
for without any historical documentation at their disposal they could not
easily understand the relationship between the two aspects of the Armoury,
i.e., the arsenal and the collection of antiques. The two 18th century inventory
lists which I unearthed during the course of my research, however, have
helped establish the true nature of that relationship, proving that the Palace
Armoury was a military storehouse first and an antiquarian gallery second.
And as a military storehouse the fortunes of the Palace Armoury followed
very closely the unfolding of military events. One can trace a cyclical pattern
with peak periods of activity and low ones of virtual neglect. The former
corresponded to times of great national emergencies caused by threats of
attack and invasion, wherein the military equipment was reviewed and brought
up to date, frequently with the massive purchase of new arms, while the
latter corresponded to periods of relative peace when regulations were
slackened and little attention paid to the state of the hardware.
At times thousands of newly imported weapons remained unassembled inside
stores once the threat of attack had died down, only to be brought out again
during the next emergency and then found to be mostly unserviceable and in
need of repair. Even so, throughout this rather wasteful process, the hoarding
of material in the Palace Armoury grew increasingly in volume until in the
18th century it was necessary to have not just one armoury but a whole
network of armouries scattered around the towns and villages in order to
service the large military set-up required for the defence of the island, one
involving a force of around 18,000 men. By 1785, in firearms alone, the
Order had a breathtaking accumulation of over 40,000 muskets in store.
The cleaning, servicing, maintenance, and storage of the vast quantities of
equipment housed in the Orders armouries required a significant investment
which at times, particularly in the last decades of the Orders rule, became
an enormous burden. A closer look at the Armoury set-up has shown it to
have been continually plagued by a critical lack of armourers, a shortage of
cleaning materials, and poor storage facilities, much to the detriment of the
military hardware which grew increasingly unserviceable, consumed by rust,
and frequently had to be written off or sold as scrap metal. In the end, the
whole logistical system simply crumbled under the pressure of the lightning
invasion of the French. The reports of the distribution of bad powder,
unserviceable firearms, and the wrong type of ammunition to the Maltese
troops that are encountered in many a chronicle of the French invasion of
Malta in 1798 have generally been attributed to subversion attempts by fifth
columnists. In reality these were the symptoms of an inefficient logistical
set-up that had long ceased to function.
I acquired an interest in the history of the Palace Armoury during my short
three-year stint as acting curator of this museum. Given that neither the

11

few pamphlets on the subject nor any other person at the time could enlighten
me on the many historical matters that intrigued me, I had no other option
but to seek out the information myself. Fortunately, the many years in the
pursuit of the study of military architecture had already brought me in contact
with many records in the archives of the Order of St John and it was these
very same documents which provided me with the key to understanding the
story of the Armoury. For among the many folios in the thousands of tomes
kept in the National Library are to be found original manuscripts and letters,
reports, and inventories that shed an important light on the history and
development of the Palace Armoury and its collection of arms and armour.
Still, the progress was not easy-going for there was no clear track to follow.
Frequently I had to reformulate my own ideas as new facts cropped up
whilst combing through the ponderous volumes in the archives. Similarly, I
was often forced to question long-held views. One such truth that did not
stand up to the new historical evidence was the notion that the Palace Armoury
dated back to the establishment of the Grand Masters Palace in the 1570s.
It is now clear that the Palace Armoury was only set up in 1604 by Grand
Master Alof de Wignacourt who removed it from another building in Valletta.
This armoury was originally situated in Piazza San Giorgio and known as the
Pubblica Armeria and, before that, in yet another building in Strada Forni.
Another popular notion which had to be discarded was that the Palace
Armoury was the only armoury in Valletta when actually, in the 18th century,
there were at least three others and one of these, that inside St James Cavalier,
was a large depository of all types of weapons, second only to that in the
Palace itself it even had trophies-of-arms hanging from its walls.
Although this study brings to light many new facts about the Armoury, I
have no pretensions that it manages to answer all the questions to the issues
which I set out to explore. There are still many large gaps in the overall
picture, given that the available archival information, although plentiful, is of
a fragmentary nature. There is obviously much more work that still needs
to be done, especially in other archives abroad. Hopefully, other historians
will take up where I have left off. What this publication has attempted to do,
however, is to provide a framework for a proper understanding of the Palace
Armoury. For, as I stated earlier on, the Armoury cannot be studied in
isolation, nor simply as a collecton of antiques. It must be examined within
the wider aspects of a military organization engaged in a perpetual state of
warfare and then viewed against the overall historical backdrop that was
conditioned by financial, social, and political constraints.
This book, therefore, is not about arms and armour. It is not directly concerned
with the individual items, although obviously these arms are frequently used
to illustrate and corroborate the assumptions made. Even though an attempt
has been made in this second edition to include a sort of illustrated catalogue

12

and a description of some of the items in the collection in order to acquaint

the reader with the nature and variety of the exhibits, the focus of this book
still remains the history of the Armoury as a military department, for the
study of the arms and armour of Hospitaller knights is a specialized field in
its own right and one that falls outside the primary scope of this exercise.
Once this is not a study about arms and armour, then, one may ask, what is
it really about? I believe that, as a book, it falls more comfortably under the
classification of works that deal with the administration of war. For the
Palace Armoury was, first and foremost, a functional military storehouse
intended to service the military arm of the Order. To this end, this study
revolves around two main themes; one seeks to trace the development of
the Armourys primary function as an arsenal, examining the regulations
and practices, including its organizational and logistical aspects, while the
other follows its evolution into an antiquarian collection.
And as a collection, what is left today represents only but a fraction of what
this historical Armoury once contained. Yet despite the breathtaking magnitude
of the spoliation that was to hit it during the course of the 19th century, the
collection still remains a unique and formidable one. What is really sad is
that one of the greatest blows to have ever been dealt it occurred in 1975,
when the armour was hastily removed from its original gallery and transferred
to the ground floor halls in order to make way for a new house of parliament.
For with this relocation the collection forfeited not only its claim to being one
of the few armouries in the world to have survived in situ but it also lost
most of its dignity into the bargain since it was literally dumped haphazardly
into what were once the Palace stables, a totally inadequate and ill-equipped
place for any type of museum.
It is a predicament that still plagues the collection to this very day. When I
was first posted to the Palace Armoury Museum in 1995, I found a collection
that had been reduced to a bleak and uninspiring random dispersal of exhibits.
In the three years that followed (1995-1998) I tried to give it at least the
semblance of a museum, regrouping the exhibits according to typological
criteria and in general creating the atmosphere of an armoury, producing the
basic layout still seen today. Even so, there was a limit to what could be
successfully achieved given the very limited resources available at the time.
More good work has been done since then. Yet, although a marked
improvement on the bleak pre-1995 arrangement, this museum is still
inherently an improvised affair, the product of a motley assembly of
showcases borrowed or discarded from other museums or exhibitions, the
whole punctuated by makeshift facilities.
Unavoidably, nothing short of a major investment in adequate display and
conservation facilities, sufficient human resources and, above all, a relocation
of the Armoury to its original gallery on the first floor of the Palace, can give

13

back this collection the prestige and historical continuity it rightfully deserves.
It is hoped that Heritage Malta, the new entity created to run the national
museums, will one day take up the challenge and transform the Armoury
into a veritable museum and a truly educational institution. Hopefully, too,
this publication will help to contribute further towards the proper understanding
and appreciation of such a unique collection in order that it may no longer
remain simply a gallery of curiosities.

Stephen C Spiteri

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all those who made possible both the first and second
editions of this book, through all the various stages, primarily the Board of
Trustees of the Farsons Foundation, especially Chev. Anthony Miceli-Farrugia
KM, Chev. Joseph Sammut KM and Dr Vincent Depasquale BA LLD.
Thanks also go to Chev. Roger de Giorgio BE&A, FRIBA,FRHist, KM,
Dr Philip Attard Montalto KM, Maj. Frederick Cauchi Inglott and all the
members of the Sacra Militia Foundation for their encouragement and
unstinting support. I specially like to thank Mr Mario Farrugia, Founder and
Executive Director of Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna for his backing.
I am similarly indebted to Mr Anthony Pace, former Director of Museums
(now Superintendent of Heritage) for his encouragement and permission to
reproduce photographs of the Palace Armoury exhibits in both publications.
Likewise, I am grateful to Mr Dominic Cutajar, former Curator of the Museum
of Fine Arts, Mr Dennis Vella and Mrs Theresa Vella for their permission to
reproduce photographs of various portraits of knights in armour and for
bringing to my attention an important detailed plan of the Armoury that they
discovered in their reserve collection. I am also very thankful to the staff of
the National Library for their courtesy and assistance, particularly Mr Joe
Schir who was then in charge of the Book Restoration Laboratory, where
I discovered important 18th century plans of the Armoury.

14

In preparing the research for this book I am indebted to a host of individuals

who freely contributed information. In the production of the first edition I
was fortunate to secure the genuine assistance of two undergraduates, Mr
Robert Grixti and Ms Joanne Busuttil who helped me track down various
documents. In the preparation of this new edition I am indebted to
Mr Ian Eaves, former curator of the Tower Armouries and an internationally
acknowledged expert in the study of arms and armour, who has kindly read
the chapter describing the Armoury collection and provided important advice.
I would also like to thank Mr Mario Farrugia for allowing me to use his
unpublished study on the Ximenes cannon and Mr Graham Priest for supplying
me with observations from his study of bayonets in the Palace Armoury.
Similarly, I thank Prof. David Stone of Delaware University for his permission
to include material on the Wignacourt armour which he first discovered in
the course of his research on Caravaggio. I also like to thank Simon Metcalf,
Senior Conservator, Victoria & Albert Museum for supplying me with
information on the gonne-shield. Other information was willing volunteered
by Mr Antonio Espinoza Rodriguez, Curator of the Maritime Museum, Dr
Robert Attard, Mr Joe Attard, Mr Anton Catania, Mr Nathaniel Cutajar, and
Mr Joe Sammut, Restorer of Armour.
I am likewise very grateful to Dr Joseph A Cannataci, Chairman of the
Board of Governors of the Malta Centre for Restoration and Mr Robert
Smith, Head of Conservation at the Royal Armouries in Leeds for their
support and for giving me the opportunity to participate in the International
Conference on the Conservation and Restoration of Arms and Armour held
in Malta in October 2002. I am again specially indebted to Mrs Theresa
Vella for her assistance in the proofreading of this document. I also like to
thank Mr Kurt Bonnici and Mr John Spiteri Gingell for their technical support
and assistance in matters related to computer settings and layout.
Last, but not least, I thank my family, particularly my wife Marthy, my mother
and father, and David and John for all their support and patience.

15

16

Origins of the
Palace Armoury
The Knights of Christ
The story of the Palace Armoury, as perhaps inadvertently hinted at by its
very name, may appear to have simply commenced with the establishment
of a military storehouse within the Grand Masters Palace early in the 17th
century. A quick glance, too, at the predominantly late 16th, 17th and 18th
century contents of the collection of weapons and armour will also tend to
sustain this impression. A closer look at the exhibits, however, will reveal
the presence of various medieval and early 16th century items of arms and
armour which do not fit into this tidy picture, but show instead that the history
of this Armoury goes back much deeper in time than one is initially given to
understand. For when Grand Master Wignacourt set about reorganizing the
magisterial palace as a military headquarters, the Order could already look
back not only upon seventy years of military activity in Malta, crowned by
the victory of the Great Siege of 1565, but also, prior to its setting foot on the
Island in 1530, to a long tradition of military organization and warfare.
Indeed, as a fighting brotherhood, the Hospitaller Order of St John could
trace back its existence to the time of the Crusades. Ever since the
Hospitallers took up arms in defence of the Faith as an extension of their
eleemosynary activities in the Holy Land - for they were initially a charitable
institution based upon the founding of a hospital in Jerusalem - the military
wing of the Order was to become an effective and feared military organization
capable of fielding a significant fighting force. Together with the Templars,
the Hospitallers formed one of the twin pillars of the crusader kingdom of
Jerusalem and participated actively in most of the battles and sieges fought
in defence of the Latin East until they were finally expelled from their last
stronghold of Acre in 1291 by the Egyptian Mamelukes. They continued
their struggle against the infidel from their new base on the island of Rhodes,
using their puny but efficient fleet of galleys built up during their short stay
on Cyprus to raid Muslim shipping and coastal settlements until, with the
growing power of the Ottoman Turks, their isolated position in the Dodecanese
became untenable and was finally lost to a large army led by Suleyman II in
1522, following a siege which lasted six months. By the time of the
Hospitallers arrival in Malta, the Order of St John had long since been

17

moulded into a respected force with a proven and efficient military set-up
geared towards a perpetual state of warfare. In truth, the form that the
Order took during its early organization in the Holy Land was to prove so
effective that it remained practically unaltered throughout its entire military
history while its constitution, which combined the concepts of knighthood
and monasticism, ensured a single-mindedness of purpose that anchored the
Hospitallers in the forefront of the Christian struggle against the infidel in a
kind of holy war; in the Latin East it was first the need to protect the pilgrim
routes and then to hold onto the Holy Land, in Rhodes and Malta, the need
to resist Ottoman westward expansionism.
The heart of this war machine, like that of any other military organization
with its origins deeply rooted in the medieval world, were the knights - an
lite corps of feudal warriors drawn from among the noble families of
Europe. But unlike their secular counterparts, the Hospitaller milites were
warriors bound by religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to an
organization devoted towards furthering the aims and ambitions of the church.
This did not make them the less militant on the contrary, it served to reinforce
their role as the soldiers of Christ, segregating the warrior-monks from the
preoccupations of dynastic concerns and enabling them to develop their
military aspects to a higher degree, particularly their training and discipline.
The warrior-monk owed his military prominence to his social status and to
his superior training and equipment. Still, in battle the Hospitaller knights did
not fight alone. The small core of military brethren was supplemented by
paid troops and native levies drawn from the Orders territories. Of the six
thousand men who fought in the defence of the fortresses of Birgu, Senglea,
and Fort St Elmo during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, to recall a well
known fact, only five hundred were knights of the Order, the rest being
mainly either Maltese inhabitants or else professional Spanish troops. Actually,
the Siege of 1565 limns a closing phase in chivalric warfare, since it represents
the last instance where the Hospitaller knight fought out a major land battle
as the armoured backbone of the Orders fighting forces in the crusading
tradition of Outremer and Rhodes. Technological advances in the late 15th
and 16th centuries had struck a singularly forceful blow at the military
supremacy of the heavily armoured warrior and with the introduction of
firearms and the adoption of professional standing armies, efficiency in war
ceased to be the attribute of the knightly class.
But perhaps the most significant factor that was to influence the fighting
tradition of the Hospitaller knight was not so much the technological advances
in warfare as the Orders transformation into a naval arm. The loss of
Acre in 1291 meant not only the loss of the Orders main operating base in
the Holy Land but also the loss of a Christian foothold in the Latin East.
With the loss of Acre the Hospitaller knight had no other option but to trade
his charger for the galley in order to retain his crusading mtier, going on to

18

fight most of his crusading battles at sea, preying on Turkish shipping from
his island bases of Rhodes, and later, Malta.
In all the theatres of war in which the Order established its convent, the
Hospitallers followed an unremitting aggressive policy of offensive actions
the chevauche in the Holy Land and the naval corso in Rhodes and
Malta. This continual belligerence inevitably roused heavy retaliation which
in turn produced a defensive reaction in the form of powerful fortifications.
In effect, the Hospitallers survival throughout nearly six hundred years of
warfare was as much a result of their daring, bravery, and fighting prowess
as it was due to their unceasing efforts in strengthening and building
fortifications. Their ability to hold out as long as they did, perched as they
were on the border outposts of Christendom in the face of ever-growing
Saracen, and later Ottoman power, was largely possible only because of
their possession of formidable fortresses.
Maintaining an army, a network of fortifications and outposts, and after
1291, even a fleet of galleys, demanded a good organizational framework
and huge resources went into ensuring that the armed forces, garrisons, and
galleys of the Order were adequately supplied with the weapons and
munitions necessary for war. Whereas knights, brethren-at-arms, and
mercenaries were generally expected to supply their own armour, equipment
and horses, the bulk of the Hospitallers armies, the native levies and militia,
had to be armed at the expense of the Order. The committal to equip
thousands of fighting men necessitated the procurement, storage, and
replenishment of vast quantities of arms and armour, and munitions weapons
and provisions which in turn had to be stored in depositories under tight
central control.
The Sala dArmi in the Grand Masters Palace at Valletta was one such
storehouse. It was the Orders central depository of weapons from the
beginning of the 1600s onwards until the knights were expelled from the
Island in 1798. In effect, the Palace Armoury represented the last of a
series of military storehouses that were employed for the storage of arms
and armour throughout the history of the Order as a fighting institution. The
presence of these arsenals is encountered throughout the entire span of the
Orders military existence although comparatively very little is known about
the nature and location of the early armouries which once existed in Outremer,
Rhodes, and 16th-century Malta.
The need for military storehouses would have undeniably accompanied the
military arm of the Order from the moment of its inception. The fact that
there is hardly any documentary evidence to account for their existence
throughout most of the 12th century is mainly the result of the paucity of
early records for it is difficult, otherwise, to imagine how mighty fortresses
such as Belvoir, Marqab, and Crac, like any other veritable stronghold of the

19

period, could have functioned without well- provisioned armouries. The

scarcity of information, moreover, is a problem which is not restricted solely
to the logistical aspect of the Orders military set-up for, in fact, even the
nature and form of the Orders military wing throughout this initial period in
its history is little understood since military activities were not mentioned in
the Hospitallers statutes until 1182 and no Chapter General seems to have
dealt with the matter until 1206.1
The gift of the castle of Bait Gibrin to the Order in 1136 is generally taken to
mark the beginning of the Hospitallers career of soldiering. Still, not all
historians agree that the Hospitaller brethren had actually taken up arms by
then. Although the Order must have already had some rudimentary form of
military establishment to have been entrusted with the defence of such an
important stronghold, this does not necessarily mean that there existed as
yet a distinct class of brethren knights; the Order may have provided garrisons
for this stronghold merely by hiring mercenaries - an arrangement which
was never actually discarded. Groups of militia Christi and militia
evangelica, composed of lay knights, were already in existence and providing
armed escorts to the pilgrims travelling on the dangerous road from Jaffa to
Jerusalem as early as 1113.2 It would have been a logical step for Brother
Gerard to have sought the services of these militias, possibly even of the
Templars themselves, for the protection of pilgrims travelling along the
insecure routes.
Whatever the form of its nascent military organization, the military arm of
the Order was unquestionably a fast-growing and effective one for, by 1142,
the Hospitallers had received yet another six castles. On the other hand, the
fact that the Order of St John was ready to donate Crac des Chevaliers to
King Wladislas of Bohemia does seem to imply that there did not as yet
exist a sufficiently heavy military commitment on the Hospitallers part to
maintain these important strongholds.3 By 1157, the military wing had
evidently grown considerably, allowing the Order to send a column of troops
to relieve the castle of Banyas and in 1168, the Hospitallers could contribute
500 knights to the expedition sent to Egypt.4 Indeed, the use of the Cross on
the clothing of the brethren sometime before 1153 evinces the Orders
evergrowing conscious participation in the crusades.5 Still, it was not until
after the disastrous defeat of the Christian army by Saladin at the Battle of
Hattin in 1187 that the Papacy came to formally acknowledge the need for
the Orders military role.6 Even then, it was only in 1206, at the Chapter
General held in the fortress of Marqab, that the Orders statutes were finally
revised to give its military organization its first statutory authority.7
By that time, however, the Franks had lost possession of the city of Jerusalem
and the Order had to re-establish its convent elsewhere. To the Hospitallers,
the loss of Jerusalem meant also the loss of their hospital and headquarters
a large and vast complex of buildings adjoining the convent of St Mary of

20

the Latins. Although primarily intended for the service of pilgrims, this vast
compound was also capable of housing 400 Hospitaller brethren-at-arms
according to the German pilgrim Theoderich in 1172.8 In all probability a
section of the compound would have been set aside for the storage of military
supplies. It is known that the Templars, that other great military order in the
Holy Land on which the military set-up of the Hospitallers was modelled,
had several magazines of arms inside their own headquarters situated within
the palace of Solomon on the far eastern side of the Holy City. By the
1170s, the Hospitallers had grown to rival the Templars as a military power;
they held around 27 strongholds and consequently their logistical requirements
would have similarly dictated comparable storage facilities. The traveller
John of Wurzburg, writing in 1170,9 remarked on the heavy expenses incurred
by the Order to sustain many persons in its castles instructed in all the arts
of war, a considerable part of which expenses must have indubitably gone
towards the servicing and provisioning of arms and armour.
The first indication of the existence of a Hospitaller armoury is found in the
statutes of John de Villiers, laid down at the Chapter General of 1288, held in
Acre. According to these statutes, the Marshal was given the authority to
appoint a brother in charge of all armour and equipment (harnois) which
escheated at the death of brethren or was left behind by those who departed

Plan of the vast Hospitaller

complex (inset) in the city of
Jerusalem (above) showing,
(1) the Church of of St Mary
of the Latins,
(2) the Church of St Mary
Magdalen and,
(3) the Church of St John
(after H.J.A. Sire).

21

from the Outremer to return to their European estates. This brother, the
statutes tell us, was to set in writing what he received, and what he gives
out at the command of the Marshal.10 The appointment of a Hospitaller
knight in charge of the administration and control of military equipment, a
responsibility held in later centuries by the Commander of Artillery, not only
provides a clear indication as to the presence of an armoury but shows that
this was a centrally governed depository of arms. For Acre was the seat of
the Orders convent in the Latin East ever since it was reoccupied after the
fall of Jerusalem in 1191. Acre held by far the largest of the Orders hospitals
after that of Jerusalem itself and although throughout most of the 13th century
the Hospitallers military activities were conducted mainly from Crac and
Marqab, it remained an important logistical base for the arrival of fresh
recruits, supplies, and provisions from the West.
The corollary of the ordinances of 1288 was that with their enactment the
armoury at Acre officially became a distinct department within the Orders
military organization. Previously, the administration of all military hardware
was but one of the many duties of the Marshal, the military commander of
the Order. Although the Master held supreme command of all military
activities, it was the Marshal who headed the Hospitallers military hierarchy
and exercised control over such matters; a practice modelled on that of the
Templar knights. The office of Marshal first appeared in 1160 but it was
only during the mastership of Hugh de Revel that he was given statutory
right over the disposal of military equipment of Hospitaller brethren.
Previously, this prerogative may have been acquired through established
practice for no other official of the Order is known to have exercised control
over military hardware. Nor was it the responsibility of other officers under
the direct command of the Marshal: the Gonfalonier was the standardbearer, the Commander, first recorded in 1220, was appointed by the Marshal
to lead a force in his absence, the Master Esquire (magnus scutarius) was
responsible for all esquires and grooms, the Constable commanded the cavalry
while the Turcopolier commanded the Turcopole light cavalry. Two other
officers known to have existed, the Master Sergeant and the Master
Crossbowmen, were actually mercenaries for they were not allowed to eat
at the table of brethren.11
It should be pointed out that these statutes were only concerned with
regulating the military equipment of the Hospitaller knights and sergeants.
Nowhere is there any mention of the weapons and armour required to arm
the common troops. The main reason for this is that unlike the bulk of
ordinary matriel, which would have been the communal property of the
Order, the equipment of the military brethren was the private property of the
knights and sergeants themselves and, consequently, special rules were
necessary to regulate its dispensation, particularly on the death of the
brethren. This distinction between the equipment of the knightly class and
that of the common troops is a factor which is encountered throughout nearly

22

Plan of the Hospitaller

quarters at Acre, showing
the hospital and row of
storehouses.

all of the history of the Orders armouries, except during the 18th century
when firearms became the staple weapon of the knights armed forces. But
whilst armour was still in use, the emphasis invariably was on the arms and
armour of the Hospitaller knight and it appears that these two categories of
arms were stored separately.
The military brethren were required to take their own complete equipment
with them when they were called up for a tour of duty at the Convent.
Indeed, in 1293, they were even liable to be sent back if they arrived that
side of the sea without equipment,12 and if called up and prevented from
going by his feudal lord, a knight was still bound to send out the equipment,
horses, and money and stores that he would have taken with him. At a later
date, in the early 17th century, it was even decreed that no persons were to
be accepted into the Order as warriors before they could prove that they
owned their own military equipment, ... ne ricevere si poss in lingua o
priorato alcuno ... che prima non habbia havuto fede dal V. Marescialo o
suo luogotenente dhaver presentate e mostrate le sue armi, cio corsaletto
overo petto, morione e archibuso fornito e spada, sotto solenne giuramento
che talarmi siano sue proprie e non prestate.13
In the Holy Land, a knights equipment remained his personal property until
his death or his departure from Outremer. He was not allowed to part with
it for any reason; if he had to be admitted to the infirmary, he was bound by
the statutes to take his harnais with him and keep it at his bedside. Where
he to die in the hospital, all his equipment was put in a sack, secured with the
seal of the infirmary and handed over to the Marshal.

23

The arms and armour of deceased knights automatically became the property
of the Marshal who had the right to bestow them where he thought fit. So
was the equipment which was left behind when a knight departed from the
Holy Land, for the statutes decreed that no brother could take back with
him saddle, equipment, or horses. This practice not only ensured a reserve
stock of weapons but also constituted a source of economic wealth. For
the value of military equipment was considerable; the cost of arming a brother
knight in 1303 amounted to 2000 tournois of silver, that of a brother sergeant,
1500.14
All this military matriel accruing to the Order would have created a surplus
of equipment that would have had to be stored separately under tight control.
Indeed, no brother could demand any part of it unless exchanging it for his
own and no secular person could carry or keep the keys of the houses in
which were contained the provisions and goods of the house.15 More
interestingly, crossbows (arbalests) which escheated to the Order were to
be stored separately in the treasury.16 The social disdain for this type of
powerful projectile weapon by the knightly class and the Church did not
apply to its use against the Saracens, where it became a most valued tool in
the struggle against Islam, as is clearly attested by the Orders need to
hoard crossbows in its coffers.
A glimpse of what the late-13th and early-14th century armouries must have
contained can be had from the description of those belongings which were
indicated in the statutes as appertaining to the Marshal on the death of
brethren-at-arms: namely all manner of saddles, darts, gonfanons,
pennoncelles, Turkish arms, axes, all manner of armour and of harness for
animals, longbows (arcs de bodoc), all manner of armour, swords, lances,
leather cuirasses, plate armour (platines), hauberks, gipells, breastplates
(soubre seignals), iron hats, darts and bascinets. For the earlier period,
however, particularly the 12th century, we must rely on a description of the
equipment used by the Templar knights since none exist for the Order of
St John. The French Rule provides a detailed account of Templar knightly
equipment of around the 12th century; heaume (helmet) and chapeau de
fer, hauberks or mail-shirt with chausses de fer (protection for the legs)
and other pieces of armour worn to protect the shoulders and feet, the
espaliers darmes and soliers darmes, escu (triangular shield), two-sided
sword (espe), lance, Turkish mace and dagger. Most of this type of armour
was still in use a century later, so much so that in the statutes of Hugh Revel
we find references to espaliers darms, chausses, and chapel de fer as
forming part of a Hospitaller knights apparel.17
The size of these medieval armouries and the quantity of weapons they
contained is difficult to determine in the absence of documentary evidence.
The extent of the Orders depositories in Outremer would have borne some
form of direct relationship to the size of the Hospitallers fighting force itself,

24

even though, judging by later practices, these would probably have been
more than abundantly provisioned. Large quantities of arms are known to
have been ordered by Master John of Villiers after a large number of weapons
and horses, including forty brethren, were lost at the siege of Tripoli in 1289.18
An appreciation of the size of Hospitaller armouries in the Holy Land can to
some extent be gained by looking at the composition of the Orders armies
throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. By the late-12th century, the
Hospitallers rivalled the Templars as a military power, having some 300
brethren-at-arms. To this figure must be added paid troops and mercenaries,
vassals from the Orders territories, native levies and militia from the coastal
fortresses, and Turcopoles. Paid troops were an increasingly important
component in the Orders armies both on campaign and in garrisoning castles.
Both Christian and native mercenaries were employed by the Hospitallers,
and were particularly useful in manning strongholds, particularly as the Order
was continually acquiring more and more castles. Many mercenaries
accompanied the crusader armies and most would have found employment
with the Military Orders. Of the 4,000 crossbow-men who accompanied
the Fifth Crusade, nearly half are believed to have been mercenaries. There
were then the native troops. Amongst these were Syrian and Armenian
auxiliaries and such was their importance that both military orders came to

25

Left, Hospitaller knights in

the early 13th century.
Throughout the 12th century
a black mantle was worn over
the armour (middle) but this
was replaced in 1248 by a
black surcoat with a white
cross. The sword was carried
on a leather belt with the
scabbard frequently worn
beneath the mail. Above, a
Templar knight on his
charger from a mural in the
Templar church at Cressacsur-Charente.

Reconstructed aerial
view of the
Hospitaller castle of
Belvoir, showing the
concentric form of
defensive layout with
the inner ward
serving to house the
knights quarters.

include the Turcopolier amongst their most important officers. Another source
of troops for the Order came from its vassals. As the owner of vast territorial
possessions, the Order, like any other feudal lord, was itself owed servitium
debitum by its vassals. The acquisition of Arsuf in 1261-65, for example,
provided the Hospitallers with the service of 6 knights and 21 sergeants.19
The earliest account of the size of a Hospitaller force dates to 1168 and
mentions a thousand men, promised to King Almaric I for his raid on Egypt.
This force comprised 500 knights and 500 turcopoles; it would seem that
these were mostly mercenaries since Master Gilbert dAssailly had to raise
huge loans to finance this army. Later, during the Fifth Crusade, the
Hospitallers were able to raise a force of 700 knights, presumably horsemen
including sergeants and turcopoliers, and 2,000 foot, while in 1233, they
provided 100 knights, 300 sergeants, and 1,500 infantry for an attack on
Barin. A letter written by the Orders Master, Hugh Revel (1258-1277),
however, reveals that the Hospitallers could only muster some 300 knights
in the whole of Syria in 1268.
The size of a Hospitaller garrison manning one of the many castles in the
Latin East depended mostly on the strength, extent, and importance of the
stronghold itself. Where recorded, garrison strengths were often substantial,
though these were certainly mainly mercenary in composition, the proportion
of fighting brethren of the Order being always very small and rarely consisting
of complements of more than 40 to 60 men. When the castle of Marqab fell
in 1285, for instance, there were only 25 Hospitallers out of a force of some

26

thousand men in that fortress.20 Of these, only a maximum of 300 troops

would have constituted the castles permanent garrison. As far as the military
orders were concerned, the presence of 20 to 30 brethren in a castle was a
considerable force. At Crac des Chevaliers there were 60 knights in 1255
while at Mt Tabor, there were 40. These figures would imply that the Hospital
had around a third of its knights in the East engaged in garrisoning Marqab
and Crac des Chevaliers, which, considering the importance of these two
castles to the Order, presents no surprise.21
The Hospitallers also devoted a large number of their brethren to the defence
of coastal fortresses. Antioch, Tripoli, and Acre, being important centres,
had their own convent and in these places the Order was actually responsible
for manning and defending key sections of the fortifications. When Arsuf
fell in 1265, about 90 Hospitaller brothers were killed or captured and later,
at the siege of Tripoli in 1289, they again lost 40 of their brethren and 100
horses. This was considered so serious a toll that attempts were made to
bring over reinforcements from Europe to make up for the loss. The siege
of Acre saw the greatest concentration of Christians fighting in defence of
any fortress in the Latin East. Contemporary chroniclers give a population
of 30-40,000 of which 900 were mounted troops, knights, and sergeants
(half of whom would have been Hospitaller brethren), and 12,000 foot soldiers,
mainly armed folk and pilgrims.

27

Bottom, a romantic
19th-century
illustration depicting
crusaders in battle.

Apart from the central depositories of Jerusalem, and later Acre, there also
appear to have been other significant armouries situated in the principal
Hospitaller fortresses of Belvoir, Marqab, and Crac des Chevaliers. All
these fortresses were also main administrative centres at one time or other,
and were manned by sizable garrisons, thus requiring huge stocks of
armaments and munitions to ensure their own defence. At Marqab, for
example, which had a garrison force of around 1000 men, the knights could
hoard enough supplies to sustain themselves for five years against a
determined siege. Which of the many large vaulted magazines and halls still
to be seen at Marqab, Crac, Belvoir, and other surviving Hospitaller
strongholds actually served as these castles armouries will probably always
remain a matter for speculation as there is nothing to indicate the use of
these great interiors, except of course, for refectories and kitchens.
In the Middle Ages it was common practice to store weapons inside towers
though even underground vaults were used occasionally, as attested by the
armeria in the Castello di Mussomeli, Villalba, Italy. It also appears that the
Hospitaller weapons were hoarded within the castles inner wards, for these
fortified cores, besides acting as secondary lines of defence during attack,
also served as defensible collachia, by which the quarters of the brethren
were set apart from those of the levies and mercenaries. Such an arrangement
gave the Hospitaller brethren some degree of protection against a mutiny en
masse and ensured direct control over the castles military supplies.22
The loss, in rapid succession, of Crac, Marqab, and Tripoli to Sultan Baybers
in the second half of the 13th century meant that the Hospitallers lost not
Crusader sword with Arabic only their most crucial fortified possessions in the Holy Land but also much
inscription indicating that
of their military hardware, even though on most occasions, the small
it was stored in the
Hospitaller contingents in the garrisons were allowed to retire with their
Mameluk arsenal of
horses and arms. One mangonel, for example, taken from Crac des
Alexandria in 1419
Chevaliers after its capture in 1271, was employed by the Saracens at the
(Metropolitan Museum of
siege of Acre in 1291.
Art).

In Acre, the last Christian outpost in the East, the Hospitaller knights were
responsible for manning a section of the citys walls. Together with the
Templars they fought tenaciously in the citys defence but after a monthlong siege the Christian defenders succumbed under the weight of the
Mameluke attacks. The whole city with its rich buildings, merchant houses,
and warehouses was set afire and demolished, and the thousands of people
caught inside were either massacred or taken into slavery. Huge numbers
of Frankish weapons and armour fell into Muslim hands and on occasions of
victory these were sometimes ritually displayed to the public. One crusader
sword in the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a blade with an Arabic
inscription which indicates that it was stored in the Mameluke arsenal of
Alexandria in 1419.23

28

An Island Kingdom in Rhodes

The Hospitallers lost everything with the fall of Acre, including most of their
brethren-at-arms (only seven knights managed to escape with their lives)
and all their military equipment. Even the Master of the Order, John of
Villiers, barely managed to escape with his life as he had to be carried away
by his sergeants, badly wounded, and taken by boat to Cyprus. The magnitude
of the disaster can be gauged by the fact that more than ten years later the
number of fighting brethren present in the Convent at Cyprus was never
greater than 80 men, a striking contrast when compared with the hundreds
of knights who had garrisoned the fortresses of Latin Syria. In Cyprus, the
Order set about rebuilding its military strength from scratch. It established
its convent in the fortified city of Limassol on the south coast of the island
where the knights already held some possessions. The years spent in Cyprus
between 1291 and 1309 were characterized at first by a loss of purpose and
next by a growing realization that a military role still existed if the Order
could develop from a land power into a naval one. As early as 1300, and
acting in conjunction with the Templars, the Hospitallers dispatched a fleet
from Famagusta with a small force which raided a number of coastal villages
in Egypt and Palestine. This puny seaborne raid, although a relatively
unimportant excursion, was the knights first tentative step in the direction
of what was later to establish them as the most feared Christian corsairs in
the Mediterranean.
In Cyprus, however, the Hospitallers were not allowed to act as they wished
for the Lusignan king and his nobles were suspicious of the Orders military
powers and forbade the knights from acquiring property or arming ships
without royal licence. Thus, unable to act freely as they were always
accustomed to, they were soon casting around for a new territorial base
they could call their own. They found it in the Byzantine island of Rhodes.
With the capture of Rhodes, the Order not only secured a new home that
eventually acquired the trappings of a sovereign state but also a new strategic
role. At first the island was regarded as a base from where military operations
could be launched for the recovery of the Holy Land but growing Turkish
power led instead to a policy of resistance to Ottoman expansionism and to

29

A map of Rhodes showing the

principal Hospitaller strongholds.
Below, the fortified city of Rhodes and
its harbours.

the defence of the Latin possessions in the eastern Mediterranean. The

Hospitallers fleet of galleys, which they first developed in Cyprus, was now
perfected into an efficient naval force that was to remain the Orders chief
instrument for waging war against the Infidel throughout the following
centuries.
The rebuilding of the Rhodian fortress clearly reflected the Orders new
maritime role. Its harbours were fortified to protect the fleet of galleys and
a great arsenal was set up within its walls to cater for the needs of the naval
arm. The Byzantine governors castrum on the little eminence overlooking
the port was adopted as the Masters residence and eventually rebuilt as a
sovereign palace, while the northern half of the walled Byzantine city was
turned into a collachium. Within its walls were established the conventual
dwellings, the hospital, the dockyard and the military storehouses. The
fortress of Rhodes was more than just a military base. It was also the
administrative and economic centre of the Orders own little kingdom in the
Dodecanese. For with the capture of this formerly Byzantine outpost, itself
a large mountainous country, came also a string of dependent islands; Chalki,
Andimacchia, Symi, Tilos, Nysiros, Kos, Kalymnos, and Leros. Defending
these territorial possessions from the continual attention of the Turks
necessitated a heavy military investment. Both the numerous strongholds
which controlled the Rhodian hinterland and the insular outposts, not to
mention the vast enceinte of the main fortress itself, had to be constantly
manned and provisioned with arms and munitions.
The primary difficulty facing the knights in Rhodes, however, was that of
finding enough fighting men for the defence of their territories. Before
1306, Turkish razzie and slave raiding had severely reduced the population
of Rhodes and the Dodecanese islands such that the Hospitallers first task
on taking control of the islands, was to try to repopulate them by attracting
Latin settlers in return for gifts of land. For example, in 1391, the feudal lord
of the Rhodian village of Lardos, Nicolino di Lippio, was obliged to furnish
un huomo darme ben montato e ben armato il quale fosse di natione Latino
e non greco. 24 Nevertheless, the number of men who settled permanently
on Rhodes remained small and this failure to attract western settlers compelled
the knights to rely heavily on mercenaries. Still, some of the lesser islands
and many of the secondary castles on Rhodes itself remained so poorly
defended that these had to be abandoned every time a serious threat of
attack materialized. As late as 1470, the Grand Master was asking the
Pope to send un buon numero di soldati pagati since most of the Orders
strongholds di Difenditori Latini erano quasi vacui.25
Throughout the 14th century the minimum force thought necessary to serve
as a permanent garrison in Rhodes was of 500 cavalry and 1,000 foot soldiers.
The number of military brethren in the East at that time stood between 200
and 350, though there were never really more than a 100 knights and servants-

30

A wall painting from

the church of
St Georgios Chostos in
the Fortress of
Philerimos, Rhodes,
showing a Hospitaller
knight in the late
1400s.

at-arms residing in the city at any one time. In 1340 it was proposed that the
city of Rhodes itself should be defended by 50 mounted secular men-atarms, 1,000 infantry servientes in addition to the 200 Hospitaller milites,
each with a squire and 2 horses, and 50 mounted Hospitaller sergeants.
A later scheme proposed that the existing mercenaries be replaced by 50
Hospitaller sergeants. A good picture of the garrison strength of the
Hospitaller outposts in the Dodecanese is provided by that of the island of
Kos. In 1391, the Hospitaller commander of Lango (Kos), the most strategic
of the Dodecanese islands after Rhodes, was expected to maintain the
garrisons of four castles with 25 miles, 10 homme darmes latins, 100
Levantine turcopoles and some 150 men and a few mercenaries from the
squadra of the single galley stationed there, all paid for from the islands

31

Below, two illustrations showing a Hospitaller sergeant (left) and

knight (right) in the 14th century, based on the relief marble tombstone
from the grave of the knight Petrus de Pymorage (left) dating to 1402,
now at the Archaeological Museum in Rhodes. The knight wears a
combination of full mail and plate armour. His head is protected by a
pointed bascinet attached to a mail aventail. His
body is protected by a mail hauberk and
breastplate, covered by a closely tailored jupon
which would have been
decorated by his personal
coat-of-arms (as hinted by the
paintings in the Church of St
Georgios) upon which was
worn the red surcoat of the
Order. Plate armour protects
his limbs.

income. The garrison of St Peters Castle in Bodrum, on the other hand,

was usually composed of 100 Latin stipendiati or socii (mercenaries) and
50 knights.26 In 1409, these stipendiati cost the treasury 6,000 florins
annually. By 1520, there were 150 mercenaries and every time that
formidable fortress was threatened by attack, its garrison was reinforced
with contingents of soldiers, sometimes as many as 300, from Rhodes.
These comparatively small garrisons were still much more than what most
of the castles on Rhodes ever witnessed. Lindos, one of the strongest and
most important castellanie on the island, was defended in 1522 by a small

32

Above, two knights of Rhodes in the 15th century wearing North Italian armour
(left) and German Gothic armour (right). Bottom right, Grand Master
DAubusson as depicted in Caoursin (fol.33v) wearing a Gothic harness.
Above, right margin, the knight Niccolo Aringhieri from a fresco by
Pinturicchio, in Siena Cathedral.

body of 12 knights and 22 mercenaries together with an ad hoc force of

peasants which had gathered from the surrounding villages to seek shelter
from the invading Turks. Inevitably, the Greek inhabitants were involved in
the defence of the islands and some of these were formed into a body of
light cavalry some 400 strong, under the command of the Turcopolier, and
were frequently used to patrol the coastline and the remote rural areas.
The largest military force was employed in the defence of the mother fortress.
By 1466, there were 350 brethren (knights, sergeants and chaplains) residing
inside the collachium at Rhodes.27 In times of greater danger the standing
force of Hospitaller knights was increased, with more brethren summoned
from the European commanderies. In 1470, the Prior of Capua, Fr Cencio
Orsino, was despatched to the court of King Ferdinand of Naples to try and

33

Detail from one of the

lunettes in the Castello di
Issogne, in Italy, showing
the manner in which
weapons were stored in
that castles casa delle
guardie during the late
15th century. Bottom,
one of the many
warehouses built by the
knights in Rhodes for the
storage of military and
naval supplies imported
from Europe (after
Rottiers).

secure adequate reinforcements since it was considered that the garrison in

Rhodes was around 1,500 men short, ... dimostrandogli, che per resistere
si gran potenza; erano necessarij altri mille, e cinquecento Soldati, di pi di
quelli, chin Rhodi si trovavano, tr Balestrieri, & Archibusieri,28 while in
the following year the Council ordered that the force of Hospitallers in Rhodes
be increased to at least 450 Religiosi dogni grado.29 The last siege of
1522 saw some 600 knights and sergeants deployed on the ramparts of the
city, the highest number of brethren ever assembled. The bulk of the
defending army came from the urban militia, formed from amongst the civilian
population, divided into separate legions representing various sections of
Rhodian society. Still, in all, there were no more than 5,000 men facing a
formidable Turkish army of 200,000 abundantly equipped with siege artillery.
The logistical set-up necessary to feed the network of Hospitaller fortresses
and outposts scattered throughout the Dodecanese centred around a wellsupplied base located within the Rhodian fortress. All existing documentary
evidence points to the presence of a large depository of arms and munitions

34

Illustration taken from

the Codex Monacensis
222 showing the
manner of storage of
arquebuses around
1500.

within the city, although it has yet to be determined whether this military
storehouse was located inside the Grand Masters Palace, a veritable medieval
stronghold in its own right, or within the many magazines erected inside the
collachium. A direct reference to the presence of this armoury as a distinct
department appears in 1459 when, as part of the hectic preparations for the
defence of the island, 50,000 florins were set aside for the administration
and payment of fees of the soldati ordinari, bombardieri, fonditori, Turcopli,
guardiani intorno allIsola di Rodi, per larsenal and per larmeria, maestri di
balestre e di archibugi. 30 An earlier reference, dating to 1397, even speaks
of the need for the drawing up of an inventory of the armerie, suggesting
the presence of more than one depository of arms, though this may, most
probably, be referring to the military storehouses located within the various
strongholds themselves rather than to those located within the city.
An English visitor to Rhodes in 1345, for instance, noticed the presence of
many armourers and all the artificers necessary to a city or a royal castle.31
That the armoury in the Rhodian fortress functioned as a large centrally
administered department is clearly evidenced by the arrival in Rhodes, in
1476, of a ship laden with a cargo of 400 corazze, all of which had been
ordered from the Venetian Republic by Grand Master dAubusson so as to

35

Top, drawing of a
crossbow from a
medieval statute book of
the Order. Above, a
typical crossbowman of
the 15th century wearing
a brigandine and sallet
(after Voillet le Duc)
similar to the ones
depicted in Caoursins
miniatures showing the
siege of Rhodes in 1480,
(above,right).

equip the sailors of the Order.32 Earlier in 1470, the knight Fr Nicol Corogna
was commissioned to proceed to Venice in order to purchase un buco di
galera and a buona quantit di corazze, di balestre e daltre armi. This
was not the first time that Venetian arms reached Rhodes; earlier in 1402,
the Republic was already sending bombardas, ballistas et veretones to the
knights. 33 The need to restock the armoury with quantities of arms can also
be found in 1365, when, fearing reprisals after an attack on Alexandria, the
Hospitallers called up 100 brethren to Rhodes, and sent for victuals, horses,
and pieces of armour. Even earlier, in 1314, we find that swords were being
exported to Rhodes from Puglia.34 More provisions were required in 1434,
when Grand Master Antoine Fluvian wrote to the Prior of France, Fr Ugo
de Sarcus and to all the other priori, e commendatori, che mandar dovessero
in Rodi quella maggior quantit di balestre, di virettoni e daltri armi che
possibili gli fossero. 35
Again in 1440, Fr Ugo di Sarcus was commissioned to purchase quella
maggior quantit darmi, dartiglieria e di salnitri that could be found, and
sometime later Fr Perone di Monlasur, Commendatore della Tronquiera,

36

Typical crossbow-slits
and machicolation found
along the ramparts of the
fortress of Rhodes.

was to sent to recruit mercenaries al soldo della Religione, and to despatch

to Rhodes due o tre navi grosse genovese ben armati di soldati, di balestrieri,
dartiglieria, di polvere, e di saette. 36
Enough provisions of weapons and munitions seem to have been kept in
store to supply not only the needs of the fortress of Rhodes itself but also
those of the outlying strongholds as evidenced by the following order, ...
dovesse tenere i Castelli [di Lango] ben proveduti darmi [e] di munitioni . 37
Reading through Bosios Storia della Religione one finds that arms and
munitions were continually being sent out to resupply hard pressed garrisons
stationed in the various outposts, particularly throughout the 15th and 16th

37

centuries. In 1495, for example, amongst the military supplies despatched

to the fortress of Narangia in Kos, were 71 rotoli di bona polvere di
bombarda and a large quantity of bow-string, in all 300 manj di filo di
balistra. 38 Crossbows were then considered an important weapon for the
defence of castles, terre o fortezze so much so that the statutes of Grand
Master Antonio Fluviano (1421-1437) specifically stressed the need for trained
balestreri to form part of Hospitaller garrisons and moreover decreed that
the knights were to exercise twice a week in the use of this projectile weapon,
...di giochare alla balestra nella loggia o nell altri lochi consueti. 39 The
garrison of St Peters Castle in Bodrum, for instance, which consisted of
around 100 stipendiati was expected to be equipped at least with due
balestre per chiaschuno. 40

Hospitaller knights in
Gothic armour
(Caoursin).

By 1475 the Rhodian armoury was apparently well stocked not only with
crossbows but also with arquebuses, for the siniscalco del Gran Maestro
was instructed to distribute the necessary weapons to all those country folk
who had sought refuge within the citys ramparts and were capable of fighting
as archibusieri e balestrieri.41 Around that time both large and small ,
firearms were becoming an increasingly important component of the Orders
military hardware. Not only did the ever-growing use of gunpowder introduce
new weapons which the knights were quick to exploit in defence of their
fortress but it eventually changed the shape and form of their fortifications
too. In response to the growing threat posed by the increasingly destructive
power of siege artillery and the explosive mine, the Hospitallers were
compelled to invest huge resources into the refortification and strengthening
of their major fortresses in an attempt to counter the threat of these new
weapons which the Turks were quick to master and exploit, as witnessed by
the fall of Constantinople. This feverish building activity was only interrupted

38

by the siege of 1480. Thereafter, Grand Master dAubussons prolific military

works, slightly augmented and finalized by DAmboise and Del Carretto,
basically fashioned the city into the most powerful gunpowder fortress in
the Mediterranean.
The fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 rendered Rhodes the
easternmost Christian outpost in the heart of an ever-growing Turkish empire.
Rhodes proximity to the Turkish mainland and the Hospitallers aggressive
preying on Muslim shipping also meant that the Turks could not afford to
ignore an island that commanded the sea route to Syria and Egypt and was

Above, main picture, North Italian sallet of around

1520 (Palace Armoury Museum) and other types of
sallets of the period as would have been used in
Rhodes (right margin). Right, Hospitaller man-at-arms
wearing a brigandine and plackart (Caoursin).

39

a constant thorn in their side. By the beginning of the 16th century, Rhodes
and the surrounding islands were being subjected to an increasing pressure
of razzie and the Hospitallers were forced to hold their possessions in a
perpetual state of readiness. After capturing Belgrade in 1521, the Turkish
Sultan Suleyman turned his attention to Rhodes. This time the Turks returned
with heavy artillery and some 200,000 men.
The 5,000-strong army defending the city in 1522 was stretched out over
some 3 km of ramparts and bulwarks, the various Tounges of the Order
being each assigned a section of the enceinte to defend. This practice was
introduced by Grand Master Zacosta in 1465 primarily to ensure that no part
of the fortifications, especially one with such a long perimeter as Rhodes,
remained undefended. It also helped to exploit the rivalry between the various
nationalities within the Order to the advantage of the defenders since none
of the Langues could afford to lose or abandon their posts to the enemy
without some loss to the prestige and honour of their country. The backbone
of the Christian army were perforce the heavily-armoured knights clad in
harnesses of steel. A general call to arms in the days prior to the arrival of
the Turkish armada revealed 600 military brethren fra Signori della Croce,
Commendatori, Cavalieri e Fra Servienti, all armed and equipped with their
personal arms and armour and donning the red sopraveste. There was also
a body of 400 professional soldiers from Crete, recruited by Fr Antonio
Bosio. These soldiers were equipped with their own arme bianche alcuni
di quale portavano spadoni da due mani (double-handed swords), alcuni
archibugi e altri archi. The bulk of the Christian fighting force were the
Soldati, Marinari, & huomini delle Galere e delle Navi ...e fra loro cerano
anche molti Cittadini di Rodi, all armed and equipped from the Orders
armouries. 42

Right, bombard with the

coat of arms of Grand
Master DAubusson now
at Les Invalides, Paris
(Photograph after
Schmidtchen).

40

Rhodes under attack in 1480 (Caoursin).

41

42

The gunpowder fortifications

of Rhodes: gun-loops and
bulwarks (bottom). Opposite
page, scenes from the siege of
Rhodes in 1480 (Caoursin).

The siege of Rhodes in 1522, however, proved to be a complete departure

from the traditional form of medieval warfare. It was fought out with heavy
artillery and explosive mines on an unprecedented scale. Hand-held firearms
played an important part in the struggle although the armoured knight still
had a large role to play in the defence of the fortress. For once inside the
fortifications, the attackers soon had to abandon their unwieldy firearms
with their slow rate of fire for the more conventional swords, maces, axes,
and pikes, and in the ensuing mele, the heavily armoured knight held a
marked advantage over the lightly armoured Janissaries and Spahis. A small
number of knights, stationed in a breach and hacking away at the enemy
with their heavy two-handed swords could effectively stem the tide of an

43

Fr Sabba da Castiglione, from a

fresco in the church of the
Commenda of Faenza, shown in
armour of the early 16th century.

44

assault. And it was the resolution of these armed men that repeatedly kept
the Turkish hordes from breaking into the city walls. Grand Master Philip
Villiers de LIsle Adam inspired a valiant chivalric defence but after six
months of heavy fighting, manpower and munitions had evaporated
significantly. No effective help arrived from the West and the Order was
forced to surrender and accept the good terms offered by the Sultan. On
the 1st of January 1523, the Hospitallers left Rhodes.
The conditional surrender at Rhodes, unlike the quasi-annihilation at Acre in
1291, however, ensured a degree of continuity in the military affairs of the
Order, since the knights were allowed to leave with many of their possessions
and these included all the weapons that they could carry away with them.
Still, much equipment had to be left behind. Rottiers, on a visit to Rhodes in
the early 19th century saw a large number of what he describes, and then
also depicts in his book, as lances and halberds scattered around the citys
ramparts, particularly near the Gate of St John (Koskinou), together with a
number of cannon bearing the arms of the Order.43 A rich collection of 15th
century Italian and German armour, comprising sallets, breastplates and
backplates, originally at the Rotunda in Woolwich but later transferred to the
Tower Armouries and now at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, is reputed to
have been brought from Rhodes during the 19th century.
A further crippling blow was dealt with the loss of the Santa Croce, one of
the vessels conveying the knights and their men from Rhodes to Crete. This
ship, which was carrying arms and artillery rescued from Rhodes valued at
10,000 scudi, unexpectedly foundered at the entrance to the harbour of Candia
and sank with all of its cargo.44

45

Top, left, some of the halberds

and bills seen by Rottiers in
Rhodes in the 19th century.
Many such weapons were then
still to be found inside
Koskinou Gate (top). Above,
Hospitaller knight from the
15th century at St John Gate,
Clerkenwell.

46

The Knights of Malta

The Castrum Maris
From Crete, the remnants of the Hospitaller force, joined by the garrisons of
the castles of Bodrum, Kos, and the lesser islands made their way to
Civitavecchia in the Papal states and then settled down to a temporary
residence at Viterbo. The next seven years were spent casting around for a
new home as Grand Master LIsle Adam toured the courts of Europe trying
to muster international support for the reconquest of Rhodes. As early as
1523 the Spanish crown had offered the island of Malta to the Order for its
new base but a commission of Hospitaller knights sent to inspect the island
in 1524 returned unimpressed by the arid and infertile land and the poor, rundown fortifications. The alternative options, however, were non-existent,
and as the years wore on the knights were forced to reconsider Charles Vs
offer.
In 1530 the Order of St John took possession of Malta together with the
burdensome fortress of Tripoli, a Spanish North African outpost that was
included in the deal. Of the two available strongholds in Malta, the Hospitallers
chose the Castrum Maris and its suburgu inside the Grand Harbour as the
seat of their new convent - a logical choice dictated by the Rhodian tradition
and the exigencies of a naval establishment. The knights established their
military headquarters within the old sea-castle and immediately set about
reorganizing it to serve their military needs. A large advance party of masons
and carpenters under the command of Fr Diego Perez de Malfreire,
Ingeniere e Soprastante dellopere arrived early in the summer of 1530 to
commence repair works on the walls and buildings of the old castle. The
Castellans residence, the only worthy building within the old castle, was
chosen as the Grand Masters abode and reconstructed into a small magistral
palace. New dwellings, stores, and magazines were added to receive the
knights and their equipment for the forty or so dwellings then existing within
Opposite page, Grand
the castrum walls were found to be wholly inadequate.
Master Philippe Villiers
de lIsle Adam receiving

Like any other medieval stronghold of its age, the Castrum Maris was then the keys to the gates of
equipped with its own modest armoury. This is attested by a number of the city of Mdina,
documents. The earliest, dating to 1274, mentions a considerable arsenal of painting by Favray.

47

48

Cannon forged with the coat

of arms of Grand Master
Philippe Villiers de lIsle
Adam (St John Gate,
Clerkenwell). Opposite page,
the magistral palace at Fort
St Angelo (Castrum Maris).

31 wooden crossbows (balistas di legno) for two-foot bolts with 10,000

bolts, 22 crossbows for one-foot bolts with 5,000 quarrels, two crossbows of
horn (balistam de cornu ad tornum), an arcumbalistum, also of horn, 27
broken wooden crossbows, 33 large lances (lanceas magnas) and 27 others
called lanceos gattarolos, 18 shields without livery, together with 16 barrels
of pitch, and a large quantity of filo cannapis filate pro faciendis cordis
balistrum (bowstring). There were also four heavy wooden catapults
(bliddam) deployed around the fort. In 1429 the sea-castle housed 35
crossbows, 158 lances and spears, and a supply of stone and metal cannon
balls for eight bombards of different sizes, together with a supply of timber
for siege engines. To these were proposed to be added, in 1485, 150 lanzi
maniski and 100 shields (targui).1
The state of the castles armament at the time of the arrival of the knights of
St John is not known. Its artillery complement, however, was not impressive,
especially for a fortress perched on the frontiers of Barbary, and speaks
much about Maltas real importance as a Spanish domain. According to
Bosio the knights only found a mezzo cannone petriero, two falconetti
and a few bombards. A wrought iron breech-piece of a built-up gun of the
port piece type, now displayed in the Palace Armoury, was long thought to
have been one of the medieval bombards found by the knights in this castle.
The fortress of Tripoli, by comparison, was heavily armed with some 45
pieces of artillery of various types according to a detailed inventory drawn
up by the Spaniards on the handing over of the fortress to the knights in
1530.2 Tripoli, however, was an important frontline military outpost located
within Muslim territory that could only be securely held by force of arms.
In 1530 the Maltese islands were still geared towards a predominantly
medieval form of warfare even though some attempts had been made to
provide the sea-castle with a few pieces of ordnance and parts of its walls
were scarped off to counter the effects of artillery.3 Indeed, a study of the
local militia shows that they were still mainly armed with pikes (azagaghe)
and clad in cotton armour (giubbe ... fin a mezza gamba di cotone).4
Firearms do not seem to have been in ample supply in Malta then.5 As a
matter of fact, weapons in general seem to have been rather scarce. Various

49

late-15th century documents speak of a gran mancamento d arme and the

need to arm the islands quattro milia huomini; two moors captured in
Gozo by the mounted coast-guard in 1453 were sold off as slaves and the
money used to purchase weapons to arm the poor of the island.6 A request
by the Universit of Mdina to the Viceroy of Sicily, in 1517, for the supply of
dugento petti, et corazzi, et di due mila rotelle, et altre tante lancie manische,
and 200 scopetti e balestre was answered with only 80 scopetti.6a

The Orders Gran Carracca,

the SantAnna, had an
armoury on board capable of
equipping 500 men.
Right, the breech-piece of a
16th-century built-up
wrought-iron cannon known
as a port-piece (shown in the
drawing below) long thought
to have been a medieval
bombard and in fact was
displayed as such, mounted
on a reproduction wooden
carriage described as Pezza
Cavalca (based on a design
taken from an old work
entitled Pratica Manuale
dellArtiglieria published in
Milan in the year 1606). The
breech-piece has a calibre of
6.5 inches. The port-piece
shown below was used on
ships and was designed to
fire stone shot. (Palace
Armoury Museum).

Is it not known what quantity and type of weapons the knights brought over
with them to the castle. Surely, most equipment salvaged from Rhodes in
1523 would have accompanied the Order to Malta and must have found its
way into the armouries and magazines of the Castrum Maris. Various
items of arms and armour still to be found in the Palace Armoury, such as
the North Italian Sallet, a Maximillian close helmet, and the remains of a
brigantine, to name but a few, date to the period when the Order was still in
Rhodes, and tend to bear out this process of continuity. An idea of the size
of the Orders arsenal during this early phase in its occupation of the island
can perhaps be gained from the description of the Gran Carracca, the
SantAnna. In 1535, this large sailing ship had a huge armoury capable of

50

Left, a gonne-shield said to

be part of the gift of arms sent
by King Henry VIII to the
Order in 1530, but now
suspected by various
historians to be simply an
Italian target. The gonneshield would have been used
as shown in the illustration
above. The gun, however, is
missing from the example
shown here, as is the vision
grill found on some of the
examples in the Royal
Armouries, Leeds, suggesting
that this shield may have
equipping 500 men, un armeria grande fornita, per armare cinquecento never have had a gun at all
huomini, dogni sorte darmi offensive, e difensive,7 apart from its fifty (Palace Armoury Museum).

artillery pieces and an infinito numero of smaller guns (esmeragli etc).

This ship was a veritable floating fortress and arsenal; it is even possible
that it served to house most of the Orders equipment whilst the Knights
were temporarily lodged at Viterbo. The quantity of weapons brought over
by the knights, if the size of the armoury on the Sant Anna is anything to go
by, would have undoubtedly created considerable storage difficulties inside
the old castle for the Castrum Maris was not a large stronghold by
contemporary standards. Its normal garrison was about 150 men. By
comparison, Crac Des Chevaliers had around a 1,000; by Rhodian measures,
the sea-castle was roughly equivalent to the stronghold of Paleo Pyli in Kos,
one of the lesser outposts.
The forty odd dwellings within the Casrum Maris are said to have been
quickly occupied and more structures had to be built simply to accommodate
the knights and their belongings. No wonder that by the early months of
1531, Fort St Angelo, as the castle came to be called by the knights, appeared
to be overflowing with arme, dartiglieria, di munitione e di vettovaglie.8 So
haphazard were the storage arrangements that a number of slaves quartered
within the castle acquired access to these supplies and even tried to take
over the castle, albeit unsuccessfully. 9

51

Grand Master Philippe

Villiers de lIsle Adam in
armour (Grand Masters
Palace,Valletta).

A need for increased storage space to house the growing supplies of arms
and armour would have surely accompanied the continuous investment in
new works of fortification and the larger bodies of men required to garrison
these defences. One of the first such documented consignments of arms to
arrive in Malta after 1530, was the gift of 19 bronze cannon sent by King
Henry VIII. It is often stated that this gift of artillery also contained a
number of smaller arms such as the gonne-shield still to be seen at the
Palace Armoury, though in actual fact this appears to date to around 1544.
Earlier in 1528, LIsle Adam had visited England, after his sojourn in Spain
and France, to muster support for his project for the recapture of the island
of Rhodes.10 King Henry VIII had then promised to provide the sum of
20,000 crowns to further the expedition against the Turks but after five
years he redeemed his promise with a gift of artillery to the same value.
This was not the first such gift made by an English monarch to the Order.
Earlier in1498, King Henry VII had similarly sent the Hospitallers alcuni
pezzi bellissimi dartiglieria - macchinis bellicus sue bombardariis ...pro
defensioni Rhodi. 11
The concentration of weapons reached its peak at the onset of the Great
Siege in 1565. By then, the Orders position in the Grand Harbour had
grown from the solitary sea-castle of 1530 to include the two fortresses of
Birgu and Senglea, and Fort St Elmo. The appearance of the Turkish armada

52

in May 1565 did not catch the Hospitallers unprepared since Grand Master
Jean de Valette had ordered preparations to be taken in hand from quite
some time before. Adequate provisions of wheat, powder, and arms were
secured, troops and mercenaries recruited, and the fortifications strengthened
in the best possible manner. The knights had been expecting a Turkish
attack ever since the Djerba crisis brought about a deterioration in the general
military situation and news of a new Ottoman armada had begun to filter
into the West from Spring of 1563.
Writing on the defence preparations before the siege, Bosio speaks of
armerie rather than armeria,12 bearing witness to the profusion of military
equipment that had accompanied the hectic military activities and suggesting
too, that although the logistical setup may have still focused mainly around a
central armoury inside Fort St Angelo, tactical considerations had
necessitated that each of the outlying fortresses be endowed, if not with
their own permanent armouries, at least with temporary magazines and
storage spaces. The nightly reinforcements of the hard pressed garrison of
St Elmo during the initial stages of the conflict, with munitions arms and
supplies from Fort St Angelo, on the other hand, clearly shows that the main
reserve of military equipment was still the prerogative of the central armoury
inside the old castle. The wooden pontoon which was set up to link Birgu
and Senglea was not built only to ensure that troops could be easily transferred
from one position to the other as the tactical situation dictated but also to
ensure an uninterrupted flow of munitions and arms from St Angelo to the
beleaguered garrison in Senglea. From Fort St Angelo too went out the
arms and munitions required to equip and sustain the bulk of the Orders
defensive force, the Maltese militia.

53

Left, the Hospitaller

strongholds under attack
during the Great Siege of
1565, from a print by
DAleccio. Above,
posthumous portrait of
Fr Leone Strozzi who
was partly responsible for
the building of
Fort St Elmo in 1552.

The Great Siege of 1565

Ever since the Order took over Malta, the Knights came to rely heavily for
the defence of the island on the existing local militia set-up which they
incorporated into their own defensive system. In 1565 more than half of the
Christian force contemporary accounts of its size vary from 6,000 (Balbi)
to 8,500 (Bosio) consisted of Maltese inhabitants, grouped into companies
centred around Capelle of various villages. Many of these men were issued
with firearms and crossbows. Even so, a large part of the militia were still
dependent on their primitive azagaghe and giubbe of cotton.13 A document
entitled li scuppetti della Universita di Malta, drawn up in April 1565, only
shows 41 arquebuses (scupetta coi suoi flaschi), a crossbow (balestra
cu sua gaffa) and nine murrionj (morions) as being the equipment issued
to the people of Mdina.14
That the knights could afford and were able to hastily muster a force of
some 700 arquebusiers and risk them in an all out skirmish at an early stage
in the conflict, however, shows that firearms formed a large component of
the Orders military equipment. During this period in the history of warfare,
the composition of a typical European army dictated that between a third
and a half of the troops would have been armed with firearms. Veritably,
one finds this ratio reflected in the troops deployed in Fort St Elmo for one
description speaks of how each arquebusier fought protected by two pikemen,
fra due picchieri armati di corsaletti ...era colloccato un archibusiero. 15
In all, the Order would have counted upon 2,000 to 3,000 arquebusiers.
Balbi records that the numerical superiority of the Turks was offset by the
Christians greater speed in loading and firing, because the Turks carried
firelocks as long as 7, and even 9, palms, which took a long time to charge
and which were not easy to aim.
The knights also laid a great reliance on cannon. In St Elmo alone there
were 27 artillery pieces, including heavy culverines, together with a good
number of small swivel guns (esmerigli) and muschetti e archebusoni da
posta. 16 The presence of many powder magazines, and gunpowder factories
at Fort St Angelo during the siege together with the arrival of 200 barrels of
gunpowder sent to Malta by the Duke of Florence just prior to the arrival of
the Turkish armada also confirms the knights heavy reliance on firearms.
Tuscany was then not only noted for its importance in the manufacture of
gunpowder but also for the production of cannon balls and match for
arquebuses,17 two other essential munitions which were similarly hoarded in
Detail from DAleccios prints showing Christian
soldiers in the relief force making their way to
Birgu, armed with double-handed swords. The
use of such weapons was considered a special
skill often meriting extra pay.

54

Left, a knight and

arquebusier of the Order
during the time of the Great
Siege. The knight wears halfarmour typical of the period
and bears an estoc-like
rapier and circular targe.
The arquebusier holds a
petronel, a light type of
firearm, and wears a morionburgonet for head
protection. Both the knight
and arquebusier wear a
tight-fitting sopraveste
bearing a white cross on a
red field, the military ensign
of the Order of St John.
Grand Master Jean de
Valette, however, as depicted
in the fresco by DAleccio
(below left), is wearing a
more loosely flowing tabard
over his gilded armour. Note
the mutually supporting
squadrons of pikemen and
arquebusiers fighting from
behind hastily improvised
entrenchments at the Post of
Castile.

55

The old windmill located

to the rear of Fort
St Michael, then known
as the Tower, served as
a depository of reserve
supplies of arms and
munitions during the
Great Siege.

huge quantities. Throughout the siege various squads of men were specifically
detailed to replenish the soldiers supplies of polvere, palle e corda whilst
the combatants fought at their posts.
Undoubtedly the best troops fighting under the knights were the companies
of professional Spanish and Italian soldiers. Many of these were hardened
warriors, experienced veterans of many a campaign in Italy and North Africa.
Most fought as arquebusiers or pikemen but there were also many swordsmen
who specialized in the use of the double-handed broadsword, what the Spanish
called the montante, or its slightly smaller hand-and-half version known as
the bastard sword, two examples of which can still be seen in the Palace
Armoury. These serious pieces of hardware could cut through the plate
armour of the period and cleave a man in two with a single blow. Their use
was considered a special skill often meriting extra pay. DAleccios frescoes
and prints make frequent references to the use of these cutting weapons.
In a panel depicting the battle for the Post of Castile, swords of this kind can
be seen stacked behind the defenders ready for use the moment the Turks
broke through the Christian lines.
Most of the professional troops, unlike the militia, fought using their own
personal equipment. In siege warfare, however, arms and armour were
consumed at an accelerated rate and at some stage in the conflict many of
the stipendiati would have had to acquire new weapons, either taken off
their fallen comrades or else replaced from the Orders armouries. A
common practice employed throughout the Great Siege was that of deploying
reserves of weapons along the defensive perimeter in places where they

56

could be easily reached by the defenders, thus ensuring an uninterrupted

supply during critical moments in the struggle: ... molte picche e molte arme
in hasta di rispetto, che a torno il forte serano messe in tutte le Poste.18
As in Rhodes, the knights retained the practice of dividing the enceinte of
their major fortifications into a number of posts, each under the responsibility
of a separate langue and in each a building was chosen for the storage of
supplies, what in the military jargon of the 19th century would be called
expense magazines. In the fortress of Senglea, for example, an old windmill
was taken over to serve the men fighting along the Post of Italy.
An important weapon of which many seem to have been held in reserve
inside the Orders armoury was the crossbow. This powerful projectile
weapon could match the firearm in its performance but its use in warfare
had been overshadowed by the appearance of the latter. It did hold one
great advantage over firearms, however, and this was that the crossbow
could be used in wet conditions. Indeed, at one stage late in the Siege, when
a heavy downpour prevented the defenders from using their firearms, it was
only the timely issue of crossbows to the troops manning the ramparts that
prevented the Turks from pressing home their assault.19 Reference to
crossbows as reserve weapons can be found in the years preceding the
Great Siege.20 Up to 1562 crossbows were still to form part of the armament
of a galley and decrees were even issued ordering the knights to practice in
the use of this weapon : che i frati di nostro ordine essercitano et usino et
siano forniti di diverse sorte darmi ... che tutti i cavalieri frati e religiosi di
qualunque grado o conditione si siano di qua avanti si trovino provisti et
forniti et con esso portino nell armamento et caravane che faranno su dette
galere et naviggi oltre delli archibusi et altre solite arme ancora balestre
sotto pena che di ci manchava desser privato dun anno di antianita.21
The core of the Christian force were the heavily armoured knights armati
di petti forti, di corsaletti, di morrioni, darchibusi, di picche, dalabarde, e
daltre armi.22 By May 1565, some five hundred knights had answered the
Grand Masters summons and were present for the defence of their convent.
Many others were held up in Sicily and only arrived later that summer with
the reinforcements. The regulations still held that each knight was obliged
to turn up for battle fully armed and armoured with his own personal
equipment and clad in his red sopraveste. An interesting ritual held before
the commencement of hostilities, and one also found enacted in the sieges
of Rhodes, was the Mostra, where knights of the different langues fully
armed and equipped congregated in front of their respective auberges to be
reviewed by their commanders, all on a given day. Each knight had to swear
that the arms chindosso haveva erano sue proprie e non tolte ad imprestito
da alcuno and a written record was kept of the knights that were present
and their equipment. It appears that the purpose of this call to arms was
designed to bolster morale with a splendid display of force, but more practically,
to ensure that the knights were adequately equipped and armed. Indeed, in

57

Top, cruciform crossbow-slit

on one of the box-machicoulis
projecting from the parapet of
Guaci Tower in the village of
Naxxar. This tower was
already standing at the time of
the Great Siege, as shown in a
detail from one of DAleccios
frescoes.

1522, following such an inspection, each knight was issued with due ducati
correnti per far nettare le sue armi. 23
No such register has come to light so far for the Great Siege but a glimpse
of the way such musters were recorded can be had from a similar list drawn
up during the Mostra held as part of the military preparations in 1643, when
the Gran Bal and the knight Fr Pietro Anselmo were ordered to draw up a
rassegna of the German knights nellAlbergia dAlemagna where seven
of the brethren were then residing. This reads as follows, 24
Il Piliere. Petto, morione, moschetto, bandoliera, spada
il Comm. Fra Paolo Henrico di Lizau; petto, morione, moschetto,
bandoliera, spada
il Comm. Fra Henrico Moritio di Wolframsdorff, essendo Capitano del
casale di Zurigo, non comparso, ma si sa che ha le sue armi come
sopra
Il Cav. Fra Sebastiano Conti Fuccar, si trovi infermo, ma ha mandato
le sue armi, che sono: un pettoforte, morione, moschetto, con la sua
bandoliera, et spada
Il Cav. Fra Johan Iacumo Palant; petto, morione, moschetto,
bandoliera, spada
il Cav. Fra Paolo Zernitzky; petto, morione, moschetto, bandoliera,
spada
Il Nobile Nicolao Vladislau Luditzskj; moschetto, bandoliera e spada.
The inspection of the other langues similarly revealed that all the fighting
brethren were armati conforme lOrdine issued by the Grand Master and
his council. The wording of the decree ordering the general muster in 1643
A company of Spanish
pikemen, part of the Great
Relief force, as depicted by
DAleccio.

58

Detail form DAleccios frescoes

showing a Hospitaller brother-atarms wearing a burgonet and
wielding a halberd. (Grand

Masters Palace, Valletta).

follows the same formula encountered during the sieges of 1565 and 1522;
... si facci rassegna di tutti i fratelli che sono in convento, i quali dovranno
ritrovarsi dopo pranzo nella propria Albergia con le loro armi tanto offensive
quanto defensive da quali fratelli infrascritti dovranno ricevere solenne
giuramento che le sudette armi sono proprie, e non imprestate, e di pi faranno
per nota di quelli che si ritroveranno quanto di quelli che mancheranno, e
dellarmi che ciascheduno di loro tiene. 25 Bosio was actually able to trace
the names of the knights present at the sieges through the lists drawn up
during these musters.
DAleccios illustrations of the Great Siege show the knights wearing half
armour in typical mid-16th century fashion. A decree of 1562 bound the
knights to turn up for war in corsaletti, o corrace (corazze), morioni, bracciali
e sopraveste.26 These harnesses of steel, procured from the great armourproducing centres of Italy, Spain, and Germany, were often intricately
patterned with etchings and religious motifs. The richest of such armour
was usually gilded, indicating the rank of its wearer. In the mid-16th century
this also brought with it the disadvantage of attracting enemy fire; as Balbi
points out, it was because Henri de Valette (Grand Master de Valettes
nephew) was dressed in rich and gilded armour that all of the Turks opened
fire upon him. DAleccios depiction of Grand Master Jean de Valette clad
in gilded armour as he rallied his troops during the assault on the post of
Castile has a basis in truth and need not be simply attributed to artistic licence.
In fact, Grand Master Fabrizio del Carretto, in 1516, is also recorded to have
turned out for war tutto armato darmi dorate.27 A breastplate and a
backplate bearing the shield of arms of Grand Master de Valette, of Italian

59

manufacture circa 1560, still to be seen in the Palace Armoury, are richly
decorated with three broad vertical bands of etchings and show traces of
gilding. Many of the richly adorned breastplates, pauldrons, and tassets on
display at the Armoury also date to around this same transitional period in
the history of armour, induced by the widespread use of increasingly powerful
firearms. Every effort was made to render armour bulletproof but reinforced
armour inevitably became extremely heavy and restricted mobility.
A reinforced burgonet on display at the Armoury weighs around 25 lbs.
Even so, reinforced armour was not always a guarantee against the power
of firearms; the knight Zanoguerra, we are told, was wearing reinforced
Detail form DAleccios frescoes armour when he was shot dead in the battle for Senglea. So was Don
Federico de Toledo whose pettoforte ... a botta darchibuso, on being hit
showing the Hospitaller
garrison of Senglea in closeby a cannon ball, splintered and killed a number of soldiers standing nearby.28
quarter combat with the Turks
(Grand Masters Palace,
Valletta). Bottom right, the

Turkish assault on Fort

St Elmo. Note the Janissary
musketeers and other
Turkish bowmen.

Yet despite the increasingly efficient use of firearms, armour remained quite
relevant in siege warfare, for after the heavy artillery overtures and initial
discharge of musketry, all sieges eventually boiled down to tenuous hand-tohand fighting. Nonetheless, by the same decree of 1562, the Hospitaller
knight was bound to arm himself with an archibuso et balestra o vero duoi
archibusi. Evidently, although the lance and the sword, as observed by
Count Erbach fresh from a visit to the Armoury, were considered to be the
weapons becoming a true knight, the Order had no doubts that the wars of
nations were being fought and won by the use of firearms. Indeed, throughout
the siege, the Hospitaller knights fought mainly as heavily armed foot soldiers,
shoulder to shoulder with the rest of their troops, wielding firearms,
incendiaries, and swords as the situation dictated. Bosio tells that in the
days leading to the Siege each knight was allowed to fire three musket
shots in training practice, ... gli fecero tirare tre archibusate per ciascuno al
segno bianco, ossi bersaglio, col pregio ai vincitori. 29

60

Detail form DAleccios frescoes

showing the Orders cavalry,
operating from Mdina, harassing
the Turkish scouting parties
foraging in the hinterland for
food and whatever booty they
could find (Grand Masters
Palace, Valletta).

A few knights, however, did fight on horseback during the Siege. In fact, an
important force deployed by the Order throughout the conflict was the cavalry,
which was stationed in the old citadel of Mdina. This body of horsemen,
some 280-strong, was effectively a militia force composed of those villagers
rich enough to own and fit out a mare, led by 30 mounted knights and a
similar number of heavily armed Maltese noblemen. The bulk of the troops,
however, were armed alla leggiera. This force was successfully used to
reconnoitre the enemy, harass his forces from the rear, and cut off his foraging
parties, fighting more as a mounted infantry rather than a real cavalry unit,
since the uneven terrain did not allow for ordered battle formations and
charges. The cavalrys crowning moment came when, under the command
of the knight Fr Melchoir dEguares, it attacked the Turkish camp at Marsa,
causing so much confusion and panic that the Turks, who were about to
capture Fort St Michael, were forced to beat a retreat in order to face what
they thought to be a large Christian relief force attacking them from the
rear.
Facing the knights and their men was a large Turkish army. Conservative
estimates give a figure of some 40,000 men, well-equipped with siege artillery.
One enormous basilisk was brought over from Rhodes where it had been
last used in the siege of 1522. The Turks were quick to exploit the basic
weakness that threatened all the defences, namely the high ground that
overlooked them. Turkish engineers made good use of this land feature by
setting up powerful batteries with which they hammered and softened the
walls in preparation for their major assaults. The first to fall to the enemy
was Fort St Elmo. The unexpected month-long siege of Fort St Elmo, however,
disrupted the Turkish scheme, sapping most of their resources of men and
equipment and is seen by historians as the turning point of the siege in favour

61

Grand Master Jean de Valette as

represented by DAleccio (centre),
Favray (right) and on his effigy
inside the crypt of St John CoCathedral, Valletta, details of
which are shown on the opposite
page (courtesy of St John CoCathedral). Also shown above is
the hilt of the sword traditionally
said to have belonged to the
Grand Master and now in the
Birgu Parish Museum.

of the defenders. On many occasions, however, the Turkish Janissaries and

Spahis came very close to breaking through the Christian lines, yet in spite
of their numerical superiority, they were repeatedly repulsed by the defenders
holding out amidst the battered and breached ramparts of their fortresses,
from behind improvised inner lines of defence erected with the rubble and
debris of the ruined walls. Much dispute has arisen over the siege tactics
employed by the Turks; the decision to ignore Mdina, the failure to concentrate
all their efforts on Birgu and Senglea from the very start, and their fleets
inability to intercept the Christian reinforcements are all seen as the basic
causes of the Turkish defeat. Indeed, it was the timely arrival of a 10,000strong Christian relief force that finally convinced the Turks to beat a retreat.
News of the Hospitaller victory spread fast but the situation which confronted
the Order as the dust of war began to settle down was not encouraging.
The fortifications were in ruins, many knights had been killed or wounded,
the treasury was empty, and heavy debts had been incurred. Worse, there
was every prospect that the Turks might return the following year. The
post-siege situation developed painfully as the Order was torn between
abandoning the island or else repairing the defences and erecting a new
impregnable fortress on top of the Sciberras peninsula. In terms of military
equipment alone, the destruction wrought by the long months of heavy fighting
must have been enormous and must have taken many years to put right
especially since any process of rearmament in the years immediately

62

63

following the siege would have been severely hampered by the need to
direct all available resources towards the construction of the new fortress.
Again the documents fail to shed much light on this process of rearmament.
We know that on 6 May 1666, Fr Francesco Borgues, Prior of Catalonia,
was delegated to raise a loan in Sicily for 30,000 scudi doro against an
interest of ten to twelve percent to a general hypothecation of the property
of the Order, which sum was to be used for the purchase of arms and
munitions.30 Borgues was advised not to deal with the wrong type of
merchants, while a few months later, on the 3 July, another knight, Fr
Geronimo Guidaccio was also detailed to acquire military supplies needed
for the defence of the Island.31
Above right, detail from Pierre
Mortiers plan of Valletta
showing the Turkish basilisk
on the esplanade at the
entrance to the city, to the rear
of Porta San Giorgio. This
Basilisk is last heard of in the
mid-1600s when it is
documented as having been
placed at the Upper Barracca
(top, detail from drawing by
Willem Schellinkx).

Equipment and troops are recorded as having arrived in June 1566, sent by
Don Garcia de Toledo. Supplies were also promised from France but none
had arrived by the end of 1566. Nearly a year later the stocks of weapons
acquired were still far from sufficient for on 24 July 1566, Fr Don Pietro di
Luna was commissioned to proceed to Milan to secure more arms for the
Order to make good those lost during the siege. The Grand Masters letter
to Fr di Luna speaks of la molta necessit che tenemo de pi spetie darmi,
per cagion della consumation di esse nel passato lungo assesdio dellarmata
turchesca. Fr di Luna was ordered to purchase quella quantit di Archibusi,
coscialetti, corrazzine, morioni et altre specie darme necessary to equip
the Orders troops.31a
Arms and munitions began to arrive from the Duke of Florence in 1567 to
be followed by a large bronze gun donated by the duke of Savoy, Emanuele
Filiberto, while the King of Spain was asked to help with the carriage of 40
new guns from Naples and the purchase of 200 horses. More and more
help came from Venice, Ragusa, and Otranto.32 A decade later arms were

64

still pouring into the fortress; in 1576, one of the galleys was ordered to
collect 30 swivel guns (smerigli), a few petriere and a number of casse
darmi from Barcelona and then to proceed to Genoa to pick up polvere,
salnitro e armi which where in possession of the Orders Ricevitore in that
city. What these supplies of arms actually involved, in terms of type, quantity,
and the provenance of weapons has still, however, to be determined.
What is clear is that the armouries in St Angelo continued to fulfil their role
as a central depository well after the Order relocated the seat of its convent
to the new fortress of Valletta in 1571. For Fort St Angelo, unlike the rest of
the harbour fortifications, survived the Siege practically unscathed due to its
privileged position as the inner keep of the Orders stronghold, shielded as it
was by the outer ramparts of Birgu and Senglea. Apart from the accidental
destruction of a powder factory, all of its buildings, including the stores and
armouries, remained standing and fully functional. Balbi records that by the
time of his departure from Malta more than 65,000 Turkish cast iron cannon
balls had been collected and deposited at Fort St Angelo by the inhabitants in
return for drinking water, showing clearly that one of the first tasks of the
knights after the siege was to take stock of all military equipment.33 Entries
of the type picche 50 et scupetti 40 dal burgo confirm that equipment was
still being issued from Fort St Angelo to equip the garrisons of Mdina and

65

Above, views and plan

of the Orders foundry in
Valletta.

other outlying fortresses as late as 1568.33a Huge quantities of arms had also
been captured from the Turks throughout the course of the Siege, ... molte
finissime e belle scimitarre, e gran quantit di archibusi lavorati, e commissi
doro, e dargento, lunghi e lucidissimi. 34
It has long been considered surprising how only a few examples of Turkish
arms can be found at the Palace Armoury. This argument has sometimes
been used to dispute the veracity of the accounts of the Siege, especially
where they deal with the size of the Turkish force. In reality, however, the
reason for the scarcity of Turkish trophies is that most were actually sold for
the high prices they fetched, even during the Siege itself, as Bosio tells us
...per trenta e quaranta scudi luno, subiti poi venduti furono.35 By the
rules of war, captured arms became the possession of those knights and
soldiers who took them in battle. Rodrigo de Horozco, a knight of Ubeda,
for example, is recorded as having killed a powerful Turkish standard bearer
and having taken from him a very good Damascus blade.36 If these weapons
accrued to the Order it was only by bequest or as spogli on the death of
brethren as had long been established in the Orders statutes.37 Various
captured weapons also ended up decorating the auberges themselves:
descriptive accounts of the German hostelry in Valletta show it to have
contained fine collections of arms aside from other works of art. 38 Many
captured enemy colours, presented to the Grand Master, were generally
sent to be hung and displayed in the conventual church of San Lorenzo.39
Above, Turkish siege
artillery shot (Palace
Armoury Museum). The
large stone ball was fired
by a basilisk.

Few Turkish guns appear to have been left behind. A huge basilisk, too
heavy to be carried back in time, was abandoned by the Turks and for many
years afterwards was placed on display above Porta San Giorgio at the
entrance to Valletta. Captured artillery pieces, particularly if made of bronze,
were generally melted down and recast into guns of the same calibre used
by the Order. The 17th century records of the Order are full of examples of
this type of practice. By then the Order had its own efficient foundry in
Valletta but in the 16th century this process of recasting guns was difficult to
achieve locally. Indeed, one finds that after the Siege many guns of the
Order were sent to Messina to be repaired and refounded; at one time a
vessel, La Giorina, flying the Venetian flag was specially chartered for
their transportation. Presumably, this explains why the Turkish basilisk can
be traced only throughout the final years of the 16th century and then
disappears in the 17th. It was seen by Michael Heberer von Bretten 40 in
1588 during his visit to Malta and is depicted in a number of late 16th century
maps of Valletta, such as those produced by DAleccio, Thomasinus
Philippus, and Pierre Mortier but does not feature in the detailed 17th century
plans of Matthaus Merian (1638), suggesting that by then it may have passed
through the Ferraria. Two siege artillery cannon balls belonging to one of
the basilisks brought over by the Turks can be seen at the Palace Armoury,
together with another six of smaller calibre.

66

An Armoury in Valletta
The task of building a new fortress from scratch on the heights of the Sciberras
peninsula was a mammoth undertaking. It was only made possible by the
generous financial assistance of the Pope and other European Monarchs.
The first stone of the new fortified city, designed by the Papal military engineer
Capitano Francesco Laparelli, was laid down by Grand Master de Valette
on the 28 March 1566 and thereafter work on the fortifications of Valletta,
as the city was called, progressed steadily albeit the recurrent shortage of
money, labour, and building materials. Some 4,000 workers laboured daily to
fashion the rocky outcrop into a mighty ring of rock-hewn bastions and
ramparts. The Grand Masters greatest fear was the arrival of a Turkish
force before the new works could be completed and, consequently, some
6,000 soldiers, sent by the Pope and Philip II, guarded the workers and halfcompleted ramparts, ready to oppose the Turks in the field should they have
arrived before the fortress was made defensible.
As the enceinte began to take shape there quickly arose the need for adequate
barrack and storage facilities necessary to accommodate the men, their
arms, and munitions. The absence of buildings within the nascent fortress
presented a problem and priority was given to the construction of stores and
magazines for victuals, arms, and munitions. By May 1567, magazines for
the storage of gunpowder (under the command of Tommaso Chisebio) 41
and armaments were already in use though where these were actually situated
is not known, possibly within the casemated interiors of some of the bastions

Detail from DAleccios plan of

Valletta, first published in
Rome in 1582, showing a
building in Strada Forni
marked il Forno della Signoria
et lArmaria (FF).

67

The faade of the Pubblica

Armeria, later used as the
Cancelleria, overlooking
Piazza San Giorgio, or
Palace Square.
Left, marble plaque fixed
above the entrance to the
building which once served
as the Pubblica Armeria,
commemorating the transfer
of the armoury into the
Grand Masters Palace in
1604.

themselves.42 Laparelli, in his report of May 1567, indicates that some store
rooms forming part of the two cavaliers were ready to be used for the
storage of victuals and munitions.43 In both cavaliers, the two large rooms at
ground floor were eventually to be used to house troops, arms, and
ammunition. Besides providing the only available storage space within the
city at this early stage, the two cavaliers, being veritable strongholds in their
own right, were ideally suited to fulfil the role of barrack-cum-armouries.
Indeed, throughout the 18th century, St James Cavalier served to house a
very large armoury, second in importance only to the one in the grand masters
palace. It is not yet clear, however, if this role was a continuation of the
function it was assigned in the early days of the fortress or whether it was
acquired in the course of the 18th century as a result of the general profusion
of arms. What is clear is that the cavaliers did not serve as the Orders
central depository of weapons once the city was established. There was
another place which was specifically assigned to fulfil this purpose.
It has generally been assumed that the Orders central armoury was
transferred by Grand Master la Cassiere directly from Fort St Angelo to the
magistral palace the moment that this imposing building was completed

68

sometime in the 1570s. As an edifice which also served as the seat of the
Orders government, situated as it was in the heart of the new fortified city
of Valletta, the Palace was well-suited to allow the knights direct central
control over all their military hardware, an important formula for any
autocratic government ruling over an alienated population. Establishing
depositories of weapons within palatial buildings was a common enough
practice; a comparable entity being the armoury in the palace of the Doge in
Venice.
Factually, however, this was not the case in late-16th century Valletta.
Records dating to the second half of the 1500s refer repeatedly to an Armeria
Pubblica and show that this was then not located within the magistral palace.
The term Armeria Pubblica was used by the Order to refer to the central
storage place for militia weapons, la custodia dellarmi del pubblico. A
good description of such a depository is given by Bosio who states that
around 1566 the Armeria Pubblica was accomodata in certi Saloni (in
Birgu) si che fra larme comprate da soladati, e le altre, che serano fatte
venire dopo lassedio in pi volte and was ben fornita. 84a By the late
1500s the Armeria Pubblica was actually located in a building bordering
Piazza San Giorgio opposite the palace itself. It was Grand Master Alof
de Wignacourt who transferred the armoury from its building adjoining the
Corpo di Guardia into the palace in 1604. In its stead, Wignacourt placed
the chancery of the Order and the building came to be known from then
onwards as the Cancelleria. A marble plaque set over the main door of the
Cancelleria records the event:
AN. DNI MDCIIII
F. ALOFIO VIGNACOVRT M.MAGISTRO QVI INTER
BELLORVM CURAS CIVILES NON OMNITTENS AD
COMMODIORA LOCA QUIPPE IN PALATIUM ARMA
PUBLICA ACTA CANCELLARIE HVC TRANSVLIT
VELVT OPTIMO PRINCIPI AD VTRUNQ SUMMO
STVDIO INCVMBENTI VT RESP. ET ARMIS DEC=
RATA ET LEGIBVS SIT SEMPER ARMATA ORDO
HIEROSOLYMITANVS DVM PAREM GRATIAM REFER=
RE NEQVIT PERPETVAM FELICITATEM EXOPTAT(AE)
Roughly translated it reads To the G.M. Alof Wignacourt who, mindful both
of his civil duties and his military concerns, removed to a more suitable
place, that is to the Palace, the Public Armoury, and brought here the records
of the Chancery. To the excellent Prince who took the greatest care that the
country should be always arrayed with arms and armed with laws, the Order
of Jerusalem unable to adequately express the gratitude can only wish him
perpetual happiness. 85 The transfer of the main armoury into the Palace
was only but one of the many military reforms implemented by Grand Master
Wignacourt during his reign. When seen together with the reorganization of
the coastal militia, involving the introduction of coastal towers, the regulation

69

of corsairing activities, and the refortification of the Gozo Citadel, it reveals

a concern for state of the Islands military preparedness and a need for
more effective control over the military resources. For from around the
turn of the century the island began once more to attract the attention of the
Turks. The general alarm of 1598 caused by the sighting of over 40 enemy
vessels off Capo Passero was soon to be followed by other emergencies,
involving the call up of militia in 1603, 1610, 1614, 1615, 1618, 1619, 1620,
and 1629. That all these fears of attack were not idle was demonstrated by
the Turkish incursion of 1614, when 60 vessels under the command of Khalil
Pasha put ashore 5,000 men in the then still-unguarded St Thomas Bay,
ravaging some villages in the south of the island before being compelled to
withdraw by the militia force sent out to confront them.
Grand Master Martin Garzes
(1595-1601).

Nonetheless, a careful reading of the regolamenti per larmamento drawn

up to control corsairing activities betrays a prevalent atmosphere of abuses
in the arming and provisioning of corsair vessels in the years prior to 1600.
That these abuses extended in some way or other to the manner in which
the Armeria Pubblica was being run, particularly to a slack control over
the issue of weapons and armour (a situation that was to manifest itself
again in the 1640s) may have been one of the principal reasons why
Wignacourt had the armoury transferred into the palatial compound, for by
doing so he automatically restricted access to this important storehouse.
The transfer from one building to another did not deprive the armoury of its
title of Armeria Pubblica, a title which it retained throughout most of the
17th century, after which it became more specifically referred to as the
Sala dArmi del Palazzo. The earliest use of the term sala darmi is
found in the Chapter General of 1612.45 In 1715 the French military advisors
could still remark that knights referred to the great hall in the Palace as the
armoury.46
Little is known about the Armeria Pubblica for that period in which it was
still located outside the Palace other than that it was abundantly supplied
with arms and armour, particularly arquebuses. Prior to its establishment in
Piazza San Giorgio, the Armoury appears to have been housed in for a
short while Strada Forni. DAleccios plan of Valletta, first published in
Rome in 1582, shows a building marked FF for which the corresponding
caption reads il Forno della Signoria et lArmaria. The same information is
repeated in the plan of Valletta made by Francesco dellAntella and published
in 1602 in Giacomo Bosios History of the Order of St John. This time the
building marked as the Armeria (39) is, however, shown in Strada Stretta.
Although published in 1602, this plan is actually based on DAleccios earlier
map of Valletta and, therefore, simply repeats information not without,
however, introducing various errrors of its own, as is this reference to the
armoury, which at this date is known and documented as being situated in
Piazza San Giorgio.

70

The Pubblica Armeria was amply restocked, when still located at Birgu or
Fort St Angelo, by the knight Fr Giovanni Soubrian Arisat, commander of
artillery in 1566. According to Bosio, Arisat was commissioned by the Council
to buy any weapons off the thousands of Spanish, Italian, and German troops
that were brought to Malta during the construction of the fortress of Valletta,
in order to add these to other weapons bought from abroad dopo lassedio
in pi volte. Those soldiers who were inclined to vender larme loro, come
picche, e Alabarde, corsaletti, o morioni e gli archibusi; fu per minor interesso
e danno loro, data questa commodita, che le dette arme a nome della Religione
ricomperate furono, per il medesimo prezzo che gli erano state date. 46a In
this way the commander of artillery was able to establish a buonissima
munitione, e restauro, e rimesse benissimo in Ordine lArmeria Pubblica.
Dal Pozzo records that in 1598 Grand Master Garzes ordered that 1,000
sciopi sive archibusij be issued from the Armeria Pubblica 47to be sent to
arm the Papal expeditionary force in Hungary, ...facendo a Sua Santit
libero dono. 48 Although at first such a gesture might tend to imply that the
Orders armoury was well equipped with weapons to enable such a donation,
a closer look at the official correspondence between Grand Master Garzes
and the Pope shows quite the opposite! Actually, the Order of St John was
then in no position to donate any weapons at all, particularly firearms. The
Order had then only tre mila archibuggi ritrovati nella Armeria and in order
to satisfy the Popes request its stock of weapons was reduced even
further.48a After his election, Grand Master Garzes had found that the provision
of weapons had been neglected (provisione ordinaria di mediocre quantit)
and had consequently given instructions for 4,000 muskets to be purchased

Detail from the map of Valletta

made by Francesco
dellAntella, published in 1602
in Giacomo Bosios History of
the Order of St John, showing
a building in Strada Stretta
(No.39) marked as the
Armeria. Although this plan
was published in 1602 it is
actually based on DAleccios
earlier map of Valletta and,
therefore, still shows the layout
of the city around 1582.

71

from Lombardy. This fresh supply of weapons, however, had not yet been
purchased by the time the Pope had made his request, apparently because
of some difficulties encountered in the collection of the necessary money.
The building housing the Armeria Pubblica, or Comune Armeria 49 as it
was sometimes also called, was, however, not a very large structure. It is
not yet clear if this edifice was purposely built as an armoury or if it was
simply taken over and adapted to serve such role. Unfortunately, its present
internal arrangement does not reflect its original layout, since the Cancelleria
was significantly altered during the reign of Grand Master de Vilhena in the
18th century. Its faade, however, does reflect a mannerist form of
architecture characteristic of the many contemporary dwellings erected in
Valletta during the 16th century and does not imply any specific military
function, as was the case, for example, with the Ferraria. The total floor
area of the Armeria Pubblica, spread out on one floor, was smaller than
that of the gallery later occupied by the armoury in the Palace and, given
that by the end of the 16th century it must have come to house enough
quantities of arms to equip some 7,000 men, it is possible that Wignacourts
decision to transfer the armoury to the Palace may have also been motivated
by the fact that the hoard of weapons had actually outgrown the building
itself.
The Armeria Pubblica also served to house personal weapons belonging to
knights. Stringent regulations were issued by the Order, as early as 1568, to
ensure that none of the brethren went about the city, particularly at night,
armed with Pistoli ne Pistoletti unless officially authorized or on militia
duties.50 Any knight caught in possession of a weapon other than his spada
e pugnale was bound to lose two years of seniority and if caught firing a
scoppetta, archibuso, o balestra after the sounding of the Ave Marie di S.
Lorenzo was even liable to lose his habit. Such decrees as issued on the
8 May 1568 51 prohibiting the carrying of arms other than swords were
primarily intended to avoid the molti tumulti che tra li frati di nro. ordine qui
nel convento esistenti possono nascere, massime in questo tempo nel quale
molti armati di Armi illicite di notte pi volte vanno per la Citt.
A similar decree prohibiting the carrying of asti con rotelle, di alabardi,
schioppi, spada senza fodero e altre armi was again issued the following
year 52 and is found repeated many times in subsequent years but the situation
does not seem to have improved much. A particularly violent and scandalous
rissa sive verius tumultu between various knights and Spanish mercenaries
occurred in Vittoriosa in 1574 when some soldiers lost their lives in the
fighting that ensued. An attempt to control the amount of weapons circulating
in the cities around the Grand Harbour is met again in 1586, when Grand
Master de Verdala and his council ordered that all arms were to be handed
over to the commander of artillery and deposited at the public armoury in
exchange for a receipt, to be collected only when the owners were leaving

72

the island: il Gran Maestro et il V. Consiglio fecero pubblicare per tutti gli
Alberghi, che niuno ardire portar adosso ne tener in casa simile sorte darmi
(Archibugi e pistole): Ma chi naveva dovesse consegnarle fra otto giorni al
Comm. dellArtiglieria, da cui con polize di ricevuta si sarebbero nella Pubblica
Armeria conservate, per restituirle nel partir di Convento padroni, eccetto
quelli che nhavevano licenza dal Gran Maestro per servigio della Militia. 53
In 1597, we also find a specific reference to the prohibition of smagliatori e
stiletti and pistoletti a rota (wheel-lock pistols).54 The regulations remained
in force throughout the course of the following decade and more specific
regulations concerning the type of weapons that were prohibited, unless for
military use, are found in Library Manuscript 152, dating to 1605. These
speak of scopette manco di palmi 3 di canna, spadoni, giachhi di maglia,
chianette, celade ... o dardi tanto nelle masserie, e fuori in campagnia come
nel habitato, che fossero meno di palmi nove dhasta. The keeping of carbines,
too, was prohibited but the archibuggi, moschetti e scopetti di caccia were
allowed for hunting. By 1660 only those Maltese inhabitants obliged to keep
a horse for militia duty were given licence to keep a carabina non di palmi
tre di canna in casa and then strictly for use nelle funtioni e rassegne
miltari. They were also obliged to submit the weapons to the master armour
in the Palace if their weapons required maintenance. There were exceptions
to the rules. however, and occasionally we read of various knights and noble
persons who kept their own personal weapons in their own residences. For
example, Romano Carapecchia, the renowned architect of many a baroque

Detail from DAleccios

plan of Valletta, showing
the Grand Masters Palace
and Piazza San Giorgio.

73

palace in 18th century Malta, is documented as having kept, in his Valletta

residence, two pistols, a shotgun and four swords, two of which were of
silver, possibly ceremonial and donated to him for his services.55
The primary function of the Pubblica Armeria, however, remained that of
accommodating the military hardware. By the end of the 16th century, the
Orders armoury does not appear to have been particularly well stocked
and Grand Master Garzes anxiety to redress this situation set in motion not
only the purchase of sufficient supplies from abroad but also the total
reorganization of the armoury itself, an inevitable task that fell on the shoulders
of his successor.

74

A Sala dArmi in the

Grand Masters Palace
A New Armoury
Grand Master Wignacourts transfer of the Armeria Pubblica into the
Palace in 1604 constitutes an important landmark in the history of this military
department. For once inside the Palace, the Armoury no longer remained
simply a prosaic storehouse but now also assumed the character of a
showpiece reflecting the military power and glory of the Order of St John.
And it is owing to this particular development that more is known about the
Armoury during this phase of its history than ever before. The moment it
assumed the nature of a showpiece, the Armoury quickly became a renowned
local attraction, capturing the attention and imagination of many a
distinguished visitor to Malta. Although still fundamentally a functional
depository of weapons, it also became an instrument of propaganda exalting
the Orders heroic past and the knights military role as the shield of
Christendom. That the Armoury had acquired this new role shortly after its
transfer to the Palace is attested by Count George Albrecht of Erbachs
description following his visit to Malta in 1617.1 In his account, Erbach
records how the German knights made it a point to show off the Armoury to
their distinguished guests, pointing out the armour worn by various Grand
Masters in battle displayed on the walls amidst portraits of the Grand Masters
themselves, together with the impressive mass of arms and armour.1 This
contrasts with earlier descriptions of Valletta by other visitors to the island at
the time when the Armeria Pubblica was situated elsewhere, such as that
by Herberer von Bretten, which does not even hint at the presence of an
armoury let alone exalt its splendour.2
While that the transfer of the Armoury to the Palace was primarily motivated
by military necessities of control and logistical reorganization, other
considerations were of influence, not least being Wignacourts own personal
interest in antiquarian matters. The presence of the portraits of past Grand
Masters and their armour hanging amidst the thousands of munitions weapons,
as recorded by Count Erbach, betrays a cult of heroic personalities in the
history of the Order, one revolving around the figures of Grand Masters de
Valette, LIsle Adam and possibly even DAubusson, the hero of the siege

75

of 1480. Wignacourts desire to display the arms and armour of celebrated

warriors in his Palace may have been inspired by his wish to imitate the
renowned historic collections formed by other European sovereigns such as
those at the Castle of Amboise, formed by Charles VIII of France, and
others formed by Charles V of Spain and Archduke Ferdinand, Count of
Tyrol.3 The latter constituted one of the greatest collections of armour of its
time and a book illustrating its most important harnesses was actually
published in Innsbruck in 1601, the year that Wignacourt was elected to his
grandmastership. Indeed, Wignacourts first commission on being made
Grand Master was to order a magnificent suit of armour from Milan.

Bronze bust of Grand Master

Alof de Wignacourt (Museum
of Fine Arts, Valletta).
Opposite page, Portrait of
Grand Master Wignacourt
shown proudly wearing the
harness made for him in
Milan in 1601 (Museum of
Fine Arts, Valletta).

Various portraits of Wignacourt show him posing in this full suit of armour, a
damascened harness still to be seen in the Palace Armoury, thereby revealing
both the Grand Masters fascination for armour at a time when its importance
in warfare was diminishing and his need to portray himself as the heir of his
chivalric predecessors. Actually, one of these portraits is known to have
been displayed inside the Armoury itself; It was seen there by the knight St.
Felix in 1785. The fact that the Grand Master is also recorded as going
about his daily business partially clad in armour, even in times of peace,
tends to reinforce this view.4
Count Erbachs visit to the Palace Armoury in 1617 is important because it
provides us with the first explicit glimpse of the contents of the Armoury,
throwing invaluable light on the extent of the Orders military hardware
typical of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Erbach writes of a formidable
display of lances and halberds several rows deep, great cupboards containing
swords, rapiers and daggers of every possible shape and kind and thousands
of muskets together with a collection of fine specimens of armour and long
rows of ancient firearms in a variety of hue and shape, some with costly
oriental ornamentations. According to Baron Cambrini, Erbachs guide, the
Armoury contained enough arms to equip 12,000 soldiers and everything
was kept in such a good order that in case of emergency at any hour 2,000
men could be made ready. 5 In reality, however, as revealed by the general
alarm caused by the Turkish razzia of 1614, it took more than an hour for the
knights to actually muster a force large enough to react to the 5,000-strong
Turkish army. A small, hastily summoned cavalry detachment sent out to
intercept the enemy nearly came to a disastrous end and had to wait for the
arrival of the rest of the militia before re-engaging the Turks. Certainly, the
Armoury more than catered for the needs of the Orders fighting force at
this period in history. With a population still hovering around the 30,000
mark, the knights could definitely not muster an army of 12,000 men. At
best, the size of the Orders armed forces would have been similar to that
deployed during the 1565 siege, that is some 6,000 to 8,000 men, including
the mercenaries recruited abroad. The Armoury, therefore, held a considerable
reserve of weapons.

76

77

78

Erbachs description of the Armoury shows that it was then already located
inside a large hall occupying a whole extensive wing of the Palace - the
same splendid gallery that would continue to house the Armoury well into
the 20th century until its unfortunate conversion into a House of
Representatives. By the end of the early half of the 17th century, that
great hall, or sala grande as it was known, was not the only part of the
Palace that was being used to store weapons. The Orders documents speak
also of an adjoining salette, or saletta minore 6 which, after 1658, began
to house the muskets belonging to the Lascaris foundation. An entry in the
Liber Conciliarum dated 1638 describes the necessity for the Armeria
Pubblica to remain ben fornita, and expressed the need for a new separate
place to be found for the storage of larmi dei fratelli che moriranno.
The distinction between knightly equipment and that required to equip the
common troops, although much less apparent by the mid-17th century, was
nonetheless still a relevant consideration in the armouries of the Order. The
statutes had long since laid down rules for the disposition of weapons
escheating from the death of brethren. Those enacted during the
grandmastership of Claude de la Sengle, however, show that the equipment
of deceased knights was to be retained per munitione, that is, to be
considered as part of the general equipment and redistributed to the Orders
troops as necessary: LArmi di qualunque sorte offensive, o diffensive, che
elle siano trovate fra le spoglie de Fra Morti nel Convento di qua dal mare
appartegano al nostro comune erario: le quali si debbon condurre in luogo
deputato, dove siano tenute a buona guardia per munizione, e bisogno del
nostro convento, tolte via larmi piccole come sono spade, e pugnali.7 The
swords and daggers were sold by public auction, ... le spade e pugnali ... si
vendono al publico incanto. 8 A typical spoglio of arms escheating to the
Order is that of the knight Giovanni Battista Montforte found in the Libro
dei Contratti del Tesoro (1673-1675). According to these documents the
weapons belonging to the said knight, which the Ricevitore in Naples had
sent to Malta, consisted of six matchlock muskets, a breastplate, morion,
two swords, and a dagger.9
The need to store the arms and armour of knights separately from the common
military equipment was not dictated by particular military or even social
considerations; it was mostly to ensure that the costly knightly gear was not
pilfered. And indeed pilferage and maladministration were the Armourys
most serious problems during the mid-17th century. By 1644 the situation
had deteriorated so badly that the new commander of artillery, the knight
Giovanni Battista Gerente, did not want to accept responsibility for the
Armoury due to the considerable number of weapons that had been borrowed
from it and never returned. This predicament is best described by the following
extract taken from the Liber Conciliarum:10 Tra le cose importanti che
abbia la Religione, la conservatione della pubblica Armeria, e quella
aumentare non che vederla diminuita come al presente si trova per limprestiti

79

Top, Grand Master Wignacourt

(portrait attributed to
Cassarino). Above,Count
George Albert of Erbach.
Opposite page, the main
entrance into the Palace
Armoury.

Portrait of Fr Gabriele
Cassar, the son of the renowned
Maltese military engineer
Gerolamo Cassar and brother
to Vittorio. The latter followed in
his fathers footsteps and was
involved in a number of
fortification projects, namely the
building of the Gozo Citadel and
a few coastal towers.

di diverse sorti darme con tanta facilit conviene il che si vede per linfinit
de polize esibite in questa consegna sin dallanno 1626 trasferite da un
Comm.re dellArtiglieria allaltro de quali il moderno Comm.re Gerente non
ha voluto incaricarsene ma solamente di quelle che sono in essere
controsegnate di nuovo con diverse bolle, conforme la natura di qualsivoglia
sorte di dette arme onde necessario rimediar allabusi di tanto pregiuditio,
che procedono dal mancamento dellarmi, come per evitar la spesa che del
continuo occorre per accommodarli quando si restituiscano, cio di cascie
per montar moschetti, et Archibugi Serpentine, oltre il cambiar delle canne e
perdita affatto de flaschi, e bandoliere, aste di picche et alabarde e ferri
inutili. None of the commanders formerly responsible for the Armoury, it
seems, had ever bothered to retrace and collect the missing weapons.
To put an end to these abuses the Council ordered that from then onwards
all commanders of artillery were to be held strictly responsible for the loss
of weapons and consequently made to pay for any missing equipment out of
their own pocket in accordance with an established price list issued by the
same Council; ...debbano pagar per larme che mancheranno il prezzo

80

notato, namely;11 (prices in scudi)

Moschetti di gioia segnati con la lettera A
Moschetti di gioia Turcheschi segnati con la lettera A
Moschetti Milanesi novi con lettera D
Moschetti segnati con lettera C
Moschetti segnati con B E F
Moschetti di gioia segnati con la lettera M
Moschetti di gioia segnati con la lettera N et S
Archibugi segnati con lettera A
Archibugi segnati con lettera H
Archibugi segnati con lettera O V S
Picche
Spontoni
Libardi
Ratelle fine
Ratelle di Caravana

20
25
8
20
7
50
25
20
8
5
5
2
5
4
2

Furthermore, if caught selling or disposing of any weapon from the Armoury

without the necessary authorization, the commander of artillery was to be
liable to the payment of a fine of cento scudi a favore del Commun Thesoro.
More measures were introduced four years later when it was decreed that
a commission of knights was to inspect the Armoury at least once or twice
a year and draw up a detailed list indicating the quantity, quality and state of
preservation of the weapons and armour:12 ... che si deputino almeno una,
o due volte lanno commissarij per riconoscere ocularmente la qualit e
quantit di dette arme, e dopo fare con chiarezza una lista della sudetta
qualit darme e con loro giuramento descriveranno se le havevano trovate
della qualit, che devono essere. Unfortunately, none of these lists have
ever been traced to date. Still, it does not appear that these inspections
were carried out regularly as intended, for a note in one of the registers,
written some 20 years later, laments that poco si osserva questo decreto, e
pure molto giovevole sarebbe la sua osservanza. 13 This remark implies
gaps of many years in which no stocktaking seems to have been undertaken
and hints at a possible reslackening of regulations. The only commissioners
report on the state of the armouries known to the author is that drawn up by
the knights Suriano and Riano on 19 September 1782.14
Another practice which was definitely in use by 1698 was that each time a
knight was elected to the post of commander of artillery, he was to be handed
a detailed inventory of all military equipment by the outgoing incumbent.
Similarly, few of these inventories have survived in the National Archives.
One such report, which was drawn up by the knight Fr Gio. Carlo Dampus
who was Com. dellArtiglieria dalli 6 Marzo 1696 tutto il 6 Marzo 1698,
shows that Dampus failed to account for 26 matchlock muskets among
many other items: ...Al Foglio 4: resta dare moschetti a mecchio No. 26:
de quali ne resta caricati in 93 scudi 2 tari alla ragione di scudi 3.7 luno,

81

essendo il prezzo stabilito in quan. Com. Tesoro come si vede nel libro degli
armi. 15 The most comprehensive of these reports was that produced in
1785 by the knight St Felix who was first appointed to the post in 1779 (Ref.
p.147). This is discussed in detail further on in this chapter.
That it was customary for those in charge to pay for the missing weapons is
well illustrated by an entry dated 10 April 1771 referring to a representation

Detail form a funerary

monument at St John
Co-catherdal, Valletta, showing
early 17th-century muskets with
barrels of the type shown on the
following page.

82

Details of the breech and

muzzle of a heavy early
17th-century musket
barrel, one of a dozen or
so still to be found at the
Palace Armoury Museum.
Note the letter A
engraved on the breech of
the barrel. This may
correspond to the entry
Moschetti di Gioia
segnati con la lettera A
shown on the extract from
one of the Orders
documents reproduced on
the opposite page.

made by the knight Don Luigi dAlmejda, Maggiore delle Milizie Urbane,
asking not to be made to cover the cost of tredici fucili trovati mancanti
nella consegna dellarmi causante I milizioitti rimasti disertosi. The
commander of artillery at the time, Fr Luca dArgens, had already handed
over the weapons to the commander in charge of the militia when 13 militia
men deserted with their weapons and all, putting their commander in debt
with the Order for the price of 13 muskets. However, the Congregation of
War, having studied the matter and ascertained itself that all precautions had
been taken and tutta la diligenza possible had been shown by DAlmejda in
the matter, acceded to his request. One factor which was taken into
consideration whilst evaluating Almejdas petition was that although in the
past gli accessori furono alter volte cio costretti (i.e. to pay up), questi per
non deve esser aggravato di questo incarico, avendo avuto I primi una paga
mensuale, e questi senza alcuna rimunerazzione.
Extreme measures, such as that of prohibiting altogether the issue of weapons
from the Armoury for any reason whatsoever except in cases of pericolo
evidente dassedio, may have been in force for a short while but were soon
dropped in favour of more practical steps.16 One such measure introduced
to control the outflow of equipment from the Armoury was the imposition of
a fee on all equipment issued to the fighting brethren. The commander of
artillery was to give to the Treasury a receipt of all arquebuses and muskets
delivered to the caravanisti. The value of these arms was then debited
sopra le loro tavole (caravanisiti e Novitij) and when the arms were returned
the entries in the registers were to be cancelled and the amount previously
retained, refunded.17

83

In April 1665, the prices charged for the issue of equipment were established
as follows; Moschetto con sua forcina e bandoliera, scudi cinque, Picca
scudi due e tari sei, petto a botte e morione scudi venti. 18 In December
1669 it was decreed that these items of equipment were to be charged onethird over their real value to enforce their return from those who might have
taken them; ...caricando il terzo pur del prezo che havevano costato alla
religione, acci venghino obligati restituirle. A decree of 1645, repeated
again in 1659, was designed to ensure that no knight could be given a licence
to leave the island unless he could present a certificate issued from the
commander of artillery indicating that he had no equipment belonging to the
Armoury: Successi molti disordini per non restituir li Cav. nello loro partenza
larmi che hanno pigliate dalla publica armeria, Sua Emm. e V. Con. hanno
commandato si facci commandamento nellAlberge, accioch ogni uno
restituisca quelle che haveva pigliato, e che nessuno li spedisca la licenza
di partir da Convento se prima non mostrer non haver havuto ne tener
alcune delle dette arme. 19

Detail of marble floor in

St Johns Co-cathedral
showing a corslet and
various arms of the early
17th century.

The same regulations held good for the novices, if not more so, since these
young knights-to-be were expected to train continually with their equipment
thus submitting it to a greater deal of punishment and rough handling: ...
chiascuno novizio si dia una picca e perdendola o rompendola si debba caricare
a conto della sua soldea. In April 1663, for example, the young novice, the
noble Giovanni Battista Peccio, was seriously injured when his musket
exploded in his hand while he was ...con gli altri novitij stando nellesercito
dellarmi.20 By 1652, novices were expected to train in the use of arms at
least three times a week. The Chapter General of 1574 had decreed that a
maestro schermitore (master fencer) was to be permanently employed by
the Order con salario del tesoro so as to train the brethren ad ogni esercito
darmi.21 By the late 17th century efforts were being made to keep two
maestri darmi con scuola aperta. The Orders records have retained the
name of at least one fencing master, the Italian maestro di scherma Francesco
Picconi who was employed at the Palace and entitled to a free daily ration
of bread as part of his wages.
In the 16th century it was also decreed that all the knights were to take part
in a torneo a piedievery three months, armed with pikes and swords. They
also had to train with horses, correr a cavallo la quintana and allanello
con premi di 10 scudi. Shooting competitions with arquebuses too were to
be held every three months with a prize of 10 scudi for best markmenship.
In previous centuries similar competitions were held with crossbows.22 That
these military exercises were taken seriously is attested by Count Erbachs
visit to the auberges. In his account, Erbach recalls how the French knights,
who took particular pride in the use of arms, often extended their military
exercises beyond the prescribed hours, often prolonging them till after
sunset.23 The finality of all such military training is perhaps best illustrated
by this extract from a document of 1663; ... che si facci da tutti li novitij,

84

Portrait of Fr Jean de
Fresnoy dated 1673
(National Museum of
Fine Arts).
Below, a representation
of a kneeling Hospitaller
knight wearing a buffcoat with his cuirassier
armour.

lesercito dellarmi prima di detta spartitione; perche quelli che non li faranno
ben maneggiare, il che dovran riferire i Comm. di novitij; non siano ammessi
a detta Caravana. Et a detto esercito dovran venire tutti precisamente con
moschetti, quali saran dati a chi non lavra, dallArmeria della Religione.
Efficiency was the key to the Orders success in battle.

85

The Armoury re-arms

Of all the military events that took place throughout the 17th century, the
one that was to have the most profound influence on the Armoury, indeed on
the whole island, was the fall of Candia in the island of Crete. The long
drawn-out Turkish assault on this Venetian island had lulled the knights into
a false sense of security since an attack on Malta was considered unlikely
whilst the Turks were heavily engaged elsewhere. With the fall of Candia in
1669, after twenty-four years of war, the situation changed dramatically and
the Order realized that an attack on Malta became a very distinct possibility.
Immediately, the knights set about preparing the island to withstand the ensuing
onslaught. Massive new works of fortification designed by the Italian engineer
Valperga were commenced and huge supplies of arms, munitions, and victuals
were purchased to augment the Orders military equipment and prepare for
a long siege. By 1669, the population of the Maltese Islands had nearly
doubled in amount compared to what it had been in 1600. Consequently the
Orders militia forces had grown in size and larger quantities of military
equipment were required to arm the islanders.

Portrait of Grand Master

Nicholas Cotoner, the reigning
sovereign who presided over the
military crisis following the fall of
Candia to the Turks in 1669 - an
event that was to set in motion
massive military preparations
culminating in the construction of
the monumental Cottonera
enceinte. One of the pages is
holding the Grand Masters
richly ornamented espadin and a
circular shield, while a closed
burgonet is positioned for effect
on the pillar to his rear (Grand
Masters Palace, Valletta).

86

Following an inspection of the weapons housed in the Palace Armoury, in

July 1669, the Council of the Order was notified by its Commissioners of
War and Fortification of the further need for 500 barrels di tre oncie di balla
ricche di ferro con le loro serpentine (matchlocks) e ferri da piantarsi (these
were to be used as moschettoni di posta o siano spinagradi), 6,000 musket
barrels, all of one calibre, con le loro serpentine e ferri di forcina and 2,000
arquebus barrels. The moschettoni da posta were swivel-mounted rampart
guns used extensively in siege warfare and were generally classified with
the artillery.24
In 1658, two of these had been placed in each of the coastal watchtowers,
particularly the Lascaris towers which were not designed to take heavy
artillery pieces. Six such moschettoni with breech-loading mechanisms can
still be seen in the Palace Armoury. The knight Don Giuseppe di Luna,
Ricevitore in the Priory of Navarre, was commissioned to proceed to the
arms-producing centre of San Sebastian in the Bay of Biscay (Biscaia) in
order to purchase these weapons and supervise their shipment to Malta.
Fr di Luna was also asked to advise the Order on the quality of the partisans,
halberds and pettiforti prova di moschetto (bullet-proof breastplates)
produced in S. Sebastian and of the price asked for 1,500 ferri di partigiane
e 1,500 di labarde,25 He was also to provide similar quotations from the
armaments centres of Milan and elsewhere.
Many Archibugi biscaini were already to be found in the Palace Armoury
by 1669. These were frequently used to arm the marinari, or sailors, of
the Orders galleys26 while the soldati delle galere were generally issued
with moschetti milanesi which were marked con qualche segno della
religione so that the soldiers would not be able to exchange or sell them.27
The novices too were issued with Milanese muskets. The musket was a
heavier and more powerful firearm than the arquebus. It fired a large lead
ball weighing around 2 ounces which could penetrate armour at more than a
hundred paces. Its only defect was its weight, which required a strong man
to carry it and had to be fired from a forked rest.
By 1674 the Palace Armoury housed no less than 8,938 muskets, including
3,431 moschetti Milanesi and 10,296 arquebuses.28 The muskets and
arquebuses ordered from the Bay of Biscay had not yet arrived. The Armoury
also housed 4,000 pikes, 550 breastplates, 4,400 helmets and 8,000 bandoliers,
of which 4,000 belonged to the Lascaris Foundation. Apparently not all
bandoliers were stored in the Armoury for in 1658 many were ordered to be
issued dalli magazini della Religione. 29
The Lascaris Foundation was set up in 1645 by Grand Master Lascaris in
order to provide the island with arms and munitions of war. It was an opulent
fund endowed mainly with immovable property, such as the territory of Budak
in the Parish of Naxxar.30 In 1652 its purpose was altered to serve for the

87

Above, top, detail of a

pair of flintlock carbines
with Catalan-type stocks
from the marble paving of
St Johns Co-Cathedral,
Valletta. Above, Fr
Giovanni Francesco
Ricasoli (Courtesy of
Anton Quintano).
.

Top, right, marble slab, affixed to the wall of St John Cavalier, Valletta. This was originally
affixed to a row of buildings (now demolished - see bottom picture and plan) erected by Grand
Master Lascaris in order to house the muskets and powder of the Foundation he established
for the purchase of powder and muskets. The slab reads MIGLIO SALNITRO E MOSCHETTI
DELLA FONDAZIONE LASCHERA A.MDCXXXXVI.

building and maintenance of a seventh galley by which time some 4,000

musket had been purchased and housed in a separate building, before being
transferred to the Palace Armoury in 1658. The Lascaris Foundation was
not the only trust set up to provide the Armoury with weapons. At least two
other foundations, albeit on a humbler scale, were established by other knights
for the same purpose. One had been set up by the knight Fr Francesco
Lomellina in 1603, providing for the sum of 2,000 scudi to be used for the
supply of cento moschetti con suoi guarnimenti ogni due anni. The other,
proposed by the knight Fr Scipio Pappafava (Papafava) in 1640, envisaged
the donation of 200 barrels di moschetto da fabricarsi dove, e di che qualit
sar determinato by the Order, which weapons, however, were to be issued
from the Armoury in solo bisogno dassedio. 31 In 1645 Pappafava changed
the terms of his offer to Moschettoni di Cavaletto. Some money from the
Manoel Foundation established by Grand Master de Vilhena seems also to
have been used for the purchase of arms, for in 1785 there were 80 muskets
belonging to the Manoel Foundation in store in the Falconeria.
The weapons ordered from the armament centres of Biscay in 1669 had
surely arrived by 1679 for a particularly detailed account of the Palace
Armoury by a French traveller mentions 24,000 mousquets, 19,000 pikes,
24,000 swords, 5,000 cuirasses and 500 bulletproof breastplates in the large
hall alone, together with another 6,000 muskets (with bandoliers) and 2,000
helmets in the petite sale. Apart from these, there were also 500 Turkish
sabres, 2,000 fers dAguayes and various shields, and other ancient
weapons and armour. One item of which the Palace Armoury was in short

88

supply were drums. In 1669 it was considered necessary to order 40 or 50

casse di tamburi da Napoli, trovandosi poche nellArmeria. 32
All this equipment was then considered more than sufficient for the
requirements of a siege even though, as things turned out, no attack ever
materialized. However, this was no longer the case by the time of the next
general emergency in 1714, when the knights once again felt seriously
threatened by the possibility of a Turkish attack. The hectic defence
preparations set in motion called for the further acquisition of 12,000 muskets
equipped with bayonets together with a considerable supply of spare parts
for firearms. Apparently many of the musket barrels ordered from the Bay
of Biscay in 1669 had remained unassembled once the threat had died down.
At least 2,000 unassembled barrels were still to be found in the Armoury in
1714, lacking their firing mechanisms, grilli con le loro forniture,33 which
were now to be hastily imported to ensure that these weapons could be
used to equip the Orders troops. Even the Armoury itself appears to have
been neglected during this period for one of the projects considered in 1715
was actually that of its reorganization, ...un projet pour arranger les armes
dans la grande Salle du Palais que lon appelle Armerie. 34
Similarly lacking were adequate quantities of cannon, mortars, gunpowder,
provisions, and men. An interesting document entitled Nota de munizioni di
Guerra dataci dalli Commissarii della Ven. Cong. di Guerra li 24 Sett 1714
seems to be proposing the acquisition, from Venice, of Azzarini 12,000 che
si ragionano a scudi 4 luno fanno 48,000, Grilli 2,000 che si regolano a tari

Below, copy of the front cover of a document establishing a foundation for the
purchase of 100 muskets in 1603, by the knight commander Fr Francesco
Lomellina (National Library of Malta).

89

A musketeer of the Order

armed with matchlock musket
and rapier, and equipped with
bandolier and musket-rest,
c.1660. Suspended from the
bandolier were usually twelve
wooden, horn or tin singleround receptacles, each
holding one correct powder
charge (below) . The lead
musket balls were carried in a
bag suspended from the belt.

10 luno, dodici mortari di bronzo per pietre from Genova, and Bacchtte
per Azzarini no. 25,000 a scudi 20 il miglia from Livorno. On this occasion,
however, the King of France was approached by the Order for assistance,
and Louis XIV responded by sending over 12,000 muskets, some artillery
and a corps of experienced French military experts and engineers, promising
also 4 battalions of French troops and 1,000 marines. The muskets were
acquired on condition that they were to be returned or else a similar quantity
purchased once the emergency was over: ...et haver ottenuto 12 mila fucili
con le loro baionette con lobligo di restituirli o di comprare altre tanti. 35
Of the 12,000 muskets despatched from Marseilles, 4,000 fucili came from
Paris. 36
The French military advisors opinion of the state of the islands preparedness
to resist a drawn out siege in 1714, however, was not encouraging. Apart
from the logistical problems of adequate provisions, the gravest problem
facing the Order was then seen to be the very extent of the fortifications
themselves, since these produced serious problems of manning. At least
8,000 men were deemed necessary by the French military engineer Charles
Franois Mondion for the defence of the Harbour fortifications alone which
by then had grown to include the monumental enceintes of Floriana, Sta
Margherita and the Cottonera lines, and Fort Ricasoli, over and above the
fortresses of St Angelo, St Elmo, Vittoriosa, Senglea, and Valletta. According
to the Congregation of War and Fortification, another 8,500 men were believed
necessary for the defence of the coastal areas in 1716.
The quantities of weapons, munitions, and provisions required to sustain
such a force throughout a four to five month siege were enormous, as clearly
Extract from Mondions Estat
General des Garnisons, et Munitions revealed in Mondions lengthy report entitled Estat General des Garnisons,
necessaires a la Dffence de Malte.

90

Left, portrait of Bal

Jacques de Souvre
(National Museum of Fine
Arts).

et Munitions necessaires a la Dffence de Malte.37 In firearms and small

arms alone, Mondion believed that 50,000 fusils de reserve over and above
those necessary to arm a garrison of around 18,000 men,38 together with
400 espingards ou arquebuzes crocq, 4,000 gros mousquets de rempart,
50,000 bayonnets doville (socket bayonets), 2,000 pistolets de ceinture,
20,000 pes longues et tranchantes (swords), 10,000 hallebardes, picques
& spontons, 4,000 casques, pots en tests au calottes de fer and 2000
cuirasses de devant a preuve du mousquet (bulletproof breastplates) as

91

Grand Master Antonio Manoel

de Vilhena (1722-1736).

well as an abundant supply of spare parts such as bagettes (100,000),

platines (lockplates, 10,000) etc., were required to see the knights through
the eventuality of a prolonged siege.39
The Order reacted as best as it could to this lengthy shopping list. In one
document we find a proposal for the acquisition of a further 20,000 fucili di
buona qualit di calibro uniforme scelti e provati con le loro baionette similar
to the 12,000 just received, together with 200 carbines, 1,000 Moschetti
dun piede e mezzo di Franci (of which 100 were already available), 30,000
Bachette di riserva, 100 bacchette di ferro con suoi rasciatori e cavapalle
(bullet extractors), 1,000,000 lead musket balls, 20,000 lead pistol balls and
various bullet moulds for producing lead shot trenta la volta. 40 It is doubtful
how much of this equipment actually arrived, for by the time of the next
general alarm in 1722, the stock of weapons was still far away from that
prescribed by the French military experts, owing to the threat having subsided
in the meantime. The required minimum of 40 to 60,000 muskets, twothirds of which were to be kept in reserve to replace those rendered

92

unserviceable in the course of a siege was a goal that was still very far from
being achieved. Although a surplus of weapons was always recommendable,
... bench la religione habbia pi gran numero di fugili moschetti che
dhuomini da armare, sarebbe sempre bene averne di pi, per ragione che di
queste armi se ne guasta rompe in quantit ogni giorno e che mai non si
puo avere un numero darmieri sufficienti, 41 these huge quantities of arms
cost money and the Order was already heavily committed to expensive
fortification works. The years after 1715 saw the knights absorbed in
upgrading the islands coastal and harbour fortifications leaving very few
resources for the acquisition of arms and supplies.

An Armaments Deal
A new threat of a Turkish attack in 1722 served to refocus the Orders
attention back on to the problem of its military equipment. Again the weapons
were reviewed and inspected and breathtaking lists of all the required gear
and supplies drawn up. The military reports speak the same language as
those written some six years earlier, giving the impression that nothing had
effectively been implemented. The Pope, for example, was asked to send
the Order a quantity of fucili a grillo.42 One other interesting detail that reemerges from a study of these reports is the presence of a considerable
quantity of unassembled musket barrels, but this time with the proposal to
mount these in the form of multi-barrelled weapons known as organs,
... sarebbe bene di raccogliere le canne vecchie da fucili, o moschetti
smontate per fare degli organi, attacandoli assieme sopra duna tavola, e
farli valere opportunamente. 43 Still, it seems little action was actually taken
to bring the military hardware up to date once the Turkish threat subsided.
Another 37 years had to pass before the problem of the Orders military
equipment would be tackled seriously.
The whole process was set in motion in 1759 with the arrival in Malta of a
certain Michel Gaudin, an agent of the arms factory of St Etienne en Forrest,
with a sample of arms, ...varie mostre di fucili, pistole, sciabole ed altri
armi. Gaudins arrival provided the Order with the opportunity to review
and upgrade its weapons and introduce a much needed measure of
standardization. It seems that Gaudin was actually invited over as he brought
along some weapons designed on models sent from Malta, ... alcune [armi]
formate sopra i modelli da noi inviati. The Manufacture Royale de Saint
Etienne was then an important main source of production of French service
arms. The town of Saint Etienne, capital of the Department of Loire, had a
long history of association with the manufacture of arms. It was mostly
sample weapons from the workshops of Freres Girard, Robert, Caress et
Compagnie that Michele Gaudin had brought over with him to Malta.
One of these partners, Pierre Girard, a gun-maker, was appointed
Arquebusier Royal in the 18th century.44

93

The German knight, Fr Philipp

Wilhelm Count of NesselrodeReichenstein (1677-1754) shown
wearing a corslet beneath his coat
with an espadin hanging from his
side.

In 1759 the condition of the Orders military equipment was definitely not a
satisfactory one. Indeed, an entry in the Liber Conciliarum dated 26 August
1758 speaks of the fucili delle milizie [che] sono fuori di stato di servire. 45
There were then many obsolete and old weapons in service, together with a
large variety of firearms of different make and calibre; a situation which
created numerous logistical problems and one which the knights were anxious
to rectify.46 An inspection of the sale darmi in 1761, for example, also
revealed many unassembled barrels, a total of 10,328 canne smontate, of
which only 2,724 were still fit for military service, the rest were just useful
for drill purposes and about half had to be sold off as scrap metal.47 There
was also then an inadequate amount of firearms. By the middle of the 18th
century, the Order could already muster a force of some 18,000 men, of
which 15,000 were local inhabitants capable of bearing arms.48 Effectively,
the knights seem to have had then little more than 20,000 serviceable firearms
and although the Order had been seriously considering the purchase of
adequate weapons for some years nothing had actually been done.

One of the seven hundred pairs of pistolets

dabordage bought by the Order in 1759 from the
French firm Girard et Compagnie.
The two photographs, far right, show
details from the same pistol, revealing the
manufacturers name on
the lockplate and the
eight-pointed cross
marked on the breech.
(Palace Armoury
Museum).

94

The Congregation of War immediately appointed a two-man commission to

examine Gaudins sample of arms. On careful inspection, the two
commissioners, the knights Francesco Jarente and Giuseppe de Almeyda,
found the sample weapons to be well made but noted the calibre of the
muskets and pistols to be slightly small. The Orders firearms at the time
had calibres varying from No.21 to No.30, the greatest quantity being No.26.
This was roughly equivalent to the calibre of the musket in French service.
In its recommendations to the Congregation of War, the Commission
stipulated that the muskets to be ordered were to be of exactly the same
size and proportions as those of the contemporary French infantry musket.
In 1759, the latest French military musket in service was the 1754 model.
This was in effect a slightly modified version of an earlier 1728 pattern.
Standardization in firearms was not introduced in the French army until 1717
when various prototypes were presented to the Council of War by the
armament centres of Charleville, Maubeuge, and St Etienne. The 1717
pattern was soon replaced by the 1728 model. This weighed 4.1 kg, measured

95

Above, Bal Pierre-Andr de

Suffren de Saint-Tropez.
Right, portrait of Grand Master
Manoel Pinto de Fonseca
(1741-1773 ) by Favray, shown
wearing the Verdelin harness
without the leg armour.

1.593m (barrel) and had a calibre of 17.5mm; its main feature was the
muzzle bands securing the barrel to the stock instead of the pins used until
then. The 1728 model was superseded by the slightlymodified 1746 and 1754 patterns of which more than 200,000 were eventually
produced. The next model, known as de Stainville, was introduced in 1763.49
The St Etienne muskets ordered in 1759 were to have a black walnut stock
furnished with brass, a steel baguette (ramrod) and a triangular bayonet
(i.e. a bayonet with three faces). The knights also placed an order for
cavalry pistols (pistolets dArcon des plus longs) and naval pistols (the
Cours, or pistolets dabordage), which were to be decorated in brass and

96

have the same calibre as the muskets. The sample model of the large
trombons avec fourche de fer, the tromboni a cavaletto or heavy
blunderbusses for use aboard men-of-war,50 were approved but no order
was made for the hand-held version. Of the sample of sabres brought over
by the agent, the Grenadier sabres produced by the Manufacture Royal
dAlsace were found to be the best. These had a brass knuckleguard and a
sheath of calf-skin, fodera di vitelli incollata sopra la tela e guarnita dottone.
On the recommendations submitted by the Commission, a written agreement
was drawn up on 18 July 1759 between the Order of St John and Michele
Gaudin on behalf of Freres Girard, Robert, Caress et Compagnie. This laid
down that Michel Gaudin, on behalf of the said entrepreneurs, was to supply
20,000 infantry muskets (vingt mille fusils de troops), 700 pairs of Pistolets
dArcon, 700 pairs of boarding pistols, sabres and gros trombons
fourchette. The amount of sabres, to be produced in Strasbourg, is not
stipulated, and it appears, as will be shown later on, that the order for the
swords was eventually cancelled.
The agreement laid down that the muskets were to be identical in size and
calibre to those used by the French infantry. Each musket was to be equipped
with a triangular bayonet, steel baguette and the barrel was to be of good
quality iron (dun fer de bonne qualit, egalement fourny de metal dans la
circonference de la culasse). Steel ramrods were thought best because
those of iron rusted quickly in Maltas humid atmosphere, while wooden
ones rotted away, consumed dal verme. An inventory of firearms compiled
in 1785 shows a hundred such bachette dacciaio in store in the Cittadellas
armoury.51 Before initiating production, the factory of St Etienne was first
Above, portrait of the knight Fr
Joseph dOlivari, Grand Prior of
Toulouse (1766) shown wearing a
breastplate beneath his coat with his
hand resting on a cuirassier
close-helmet of French style with
faceted bowl similar to the example
shown at N52 (see catalogue).
Left, two muskets with lockplates
signed P Girard et Compagnie
(Palace Armoury Museum).

97

bound to produce three complete examples, one to be kept by the

entrepreneurs themselves and the other two to be sent to Bal de Brison in
Marseilles, who was then to forward one of the weapons to Malta for
evaluation. The factory was then bound to deliver 1,500 muskets annually
to Mons. Simon, the Orders agent at Marseilles, for the price of 20 livres
10 sols a piece. The money was to be paid at Lyon immediately on delivery
of the muskets. The agreement also stipulated that a 100 pairs of pistolets
dabbordage (boarding pistols) were to be delivered annually for seven years,
to be followed then by a 100 pairs of pistolets dArcon for the next seven
A Grenadier trooper of the Order years.
c.1761, armed with one of the
20,000 muskets manufactured at
St Etienne en Forrest. Above,
right, detail of lockplate and
trigger guard of what appears to
be an officers musket
manufactured by P Girard et
Compagnie.

Meanwhile, the Common Treasury was instructed to obtain permission from

the French Court for the manufacture and export of the said arms and to
seek exemption from export duties, in which case if successful, 1 livre 5
sols were to detracted from the cost of each musket. Each consignment of
arms made to Bal de Brison in Marseilles was to be marked with a small
eight-pointed cross after inspection by the Orders representatives (see
photograph). An advance payment of 15,000 livres was to be made to the
entrepreneurs. Early in February of 1761, the knights received from Bal de
Brison the first model of the musket as stipulated in the agreement. The
knights Almejda and Lanscome (the latter had replaced Jurante) were
commissioned to inspect it in the company of the master armourer. This
musket was found to be well made, fornito con tutti li requisiti, and
consequently approved. On the advice of the two commissioners, the
Congregation of War also agreed to import a number of officers muskets
per lOfficiali delle milizie.

98

Sabretache and wooden paper

cartridge container (Palace
Armoury Museum).

The first consignment of firearms, 1,500 muskets, 200 pistols and some
trombons, arrived in May 1761, in time to be issued to the Maltese troops
then preparing for a Turkish attack. The capture of the Sultans capital ship,
the Corona Ottomana, in 1760 brought the knights and their island-fortress
of Malta once again to the brink of war. In the end, the bloody confrontation
was averted by French diplomacy, when Louis XV bought the vessel from
the Order and donated it to the Turks as a sign of goodwill.52 But in 1761 all
this could not be seen clearly and indeed there was a time when the Turks,
intent on a vengeful reprisal, began assembling a large armada at
Constantinople. The knights, in anticipation of an impending attack, set about
placing the island on a war footing in a manner that was never to be emulated
again throughout the 18th century. The gravity of the situation called for
serious defence preparations and all throughout the summer of 1761, knights
and volunteers, munitions, and weapons, poured incessantly into the island.
The fortifications were inspected by military experts and armed, new defensive
works commissioned, and military exercises held daily.
The timely arrival of the firearms from France coincided perfectly with the
hectic military preparations and surely the Grand Master and his Council
must have congratulated themselves for their foresight. The batch of arms
was duly inspected by the knights Lancosme and Almejda, and an expert
master armourer brought over purposely from France. The inspection was
carried out in the presence of the commander of artillery and his prudhomme,
and a small gathering of knights who happened to be in Malta in answer to

99

the Orders summons for the defence of the Convent. All firearms were
found to be well-made and in good condition but there were a number of
defects which needed to be corrected. The barrels, for example, were not
as smooth and well polished as that of the model dispatched earlier, and the
vent holes in most cases were considered too small or too high in relation to
the pans. The triggers on a number of the weapons touched the trigger
guards and consequently prevented the muskets from firing properly while
the ramrods were not easily extractable.
The commissioners also proposed a number of improvements: it was decided
that the head of the ramrod was to be pear-shaped and the strap buckle was
to be relocated to rear of the trigger guard. The pistols and trombons, on
the other hand, were found to be without any fault whatsoever. The factory
at St Etienne was duly informed of the corrections and alterations required.
On 8 December 1761 Bal de Brison wrote to inform the Order that the
manufacturers were demanding an increase of 14 sols 6 deniers per musket
in order to implement the requested changes. However, the Commissioners
only consented to accede to an increase of 7 sols 6 deniers and Bal de
Brison was instructed to inform the manufacturers accordingly.53
The second consignment of arms, consisting of 1,500 muskets, a 100 pairs
of pistols and 13 trombons, arrived in February 1762 aboard the Orders
ship, the San Giovanni. Again the knights Lancosme and Almejda were
sent to inspect the shipment. The corrections which the Commissioners had
demanded, however, had not been executed as the weapons had left France
before the arrival of the Orders letter requesting the changes. Nonetheless,
the second shipment was found to be of much better quality than the first,
the muskets being finished avec plus dattention. Aboard the same ship,
the commissioners found a second batch of firearms, one consisting of 2,325
second-hand muskets with bayonets which had been bought in Marseilles
by Commander Fra Giuseppe DAlbert on behalf of the Order. On close
inspection, the majority of these fusils de munition were found to be in
surprisingly good condition, many as good as new and others requiring only
minor repairs.54
In March 1762 Bal de Brison sent the knights two revised sample models
and two officers muskets accompanied by a letter from the manufacturers
in which the question of the augmentation de prix was raised once again.
The Commissioners Lanscome and Almejda were asked to review the
manufacturers demands and after a somewhat lengthy deliberation agreed
to give 3 sols 6 deniers more per musket, that is a total increase of 11 sols
per weapon on the original price agreed. The third consignment of 1,500
muskets arrived sometime later in March and once again the weapons were
examined and found to be in good condition, fulfilling all requirements. The
fourth shipment sailed into the Grand Harbour aboard the San Giovanni in
September of the following year.55 This is the last documented consignment

100

and thereafter no more mention is made of the arrival of weapons from

St Etienne en Forrest. The knights Lancosme and Almejda were similarly
summoned to inspect the shipment, in all 1,000 fucili con loro baionette per
ufficiali, 1,500 fucili con loro baionette da munizione and 100 paja pistole,
but their detailed report, so meticulously prepared on all previous occasions,
has not been traced. It is difficult today to ascertain if the remainder of the
muskets actually arrived in Malta as the records shed no further light on the
matter. However, it appears that these did arrive, for an exhaustive survey
of firearms drawn up by the knight St Felix in 1785 shows that the Order
had over 40,075 muskets available in 1785, of which 21,670 were service
muskets guarniti di ferro, 852 officers muskets and 17,553 fucili in ottone
(brass).56
The 1759 procurement of arms appears to have been the last procurement
of firearms to be made on such a large scale. To begin with, the precarious

101

View of a section of the

Royal Armoury at the
Bastille in Paris as it
appeared in the mid-18th
century. Note the rows of
muskets stacked with their
barrels pointing downwards, the breastplates
and helmets hanging from
the wooden beams
supporting the roof and
the cabinet with miniature
models of cannon.

state of the Orders finances, particularly after the outbreak of the French
Revolution in 1789 and the eventual loss of the Orders revenues, would
have prevented the knights from investing again so heavily in new weapons,
more so in the absence of any pressing military objective. Malta would never
again be faced with the threat of a Turkish attack. The Turkish empire too
was in rapid decline and, moreover, diplomatic alliances no longer respected
a Europe divided into Christian and Muslim camps. Only the Barbary corsairs
still presented some minor threat, more of a nuisance really, but even this
hostile activity evaporated rapidly in those final decades to deny the Order
its professed task of protecting Christendom.
The only other time when new firearms may have been imported in bulk
was in 1778 or thereabouts, when two new regular infantry regiments were
set up to stiffen the defence of the island given that the local militia regiments
lacked discipline and proper training. The Regimento di Malta, whose
formation was based on that of a French regiment of the line, was initially
made up of 2 battalions of 600 officers and men each divided into 12
companies of Fusiliers and 2 companies of Grenadiers. The Reggimento
dei Cacciatori, on the other hand was a militia infantry unit of volunteers
composed of 6 infantry companies of 100 men each.57

Colonel of the Reggimento

di Malta.

Initially it was intended to arm these troops with weapons taken from the
Armoury and indeed an order was issued in August 1777 for the issue of
1,500 muskets of the same calibre and size for such a purpose: La Ve.
Congregatione ha stabilito che si prendano dalla sala dArmi mille cinquecento
fucili dello stesso calibro e misura per serviggio del Reggimento di Malta: e
quando saranno questi consegnati al detto Reggimento, si riconsegnanno
allArtiglieria i fucili de quali si serve presentamente. 58 Again in January of
the following year, the commanders of artillery and the Reggimento were
asked to visit the Armeria per vedere i fucili che possono servire per detto
Reggimento and a few weeks later 400 muskets were actually issued to the
troops, the muskets, however, being all cut down to the same height, ... si
pigliano dallarmeria 400 fucili per farli tagliare all altezza degli altri. 59
At the same time the Orders Ricevitore in Naples was asked to send una
mostra di fucili di munizione di quella Fabbrica (Napoli) per uso della Truppa
di terra di Malta so that the knights could then order tutto il numero che
necessita per il Regimento di Malta per evitare le continue riparazioni. 60
And from a second document, we know that Bal Carignani was given
commission (with a letter dated 2 March 1778) to purchase, as a sample,
un fucile di munizione da Soldato dalla Fabbrica dellAnnunziata.
However, there is no record to show that the weapons were actually ordered
and delivered. A brief entry in a late-18th century document does mention
the sum of 2,708.4 scudi spent on a compra darmi. This, however, does
not specify the type of equipment purchased and may simply be referring to
cannon. Still, an entry dated 17 October 1796 in a volume entitle Armi

102

does mention un fucile de nuovi con sua baionetta and a French inventory
of the Palace Armoury drawn up in 1799 distinguishes between fusil anciens
and fusils neuf, implying that some new weapons had reached the armouries
in the last days of the Order, unless of course, these were actually weapons
which had been introduced by the French garrison itself. A letter from
France dated 1 December 1791 sent by a French agent of the Order who
had the occasion to examine avec soin les nouvelles armes que lImpereur
a donn ses troues recommended that these be adopted by the Orders
Bataillon de mer as he believed these to have been infiniment avantageus
pour nous soldats Marine. One advantage he cited was that their bayonette
est faite en cylindre.
By the end of the 18th century, the 1754 pattern musket would have been
considered old, though by no means obsolete. In comparison, none of the
muskets which equipped General Bonapartes Armie dOriente dated earlier
than 1777 (the Gribeauval musket).61 This may explain why various
contemporary accounts of the French invasion of Malta tend to depict the
Maltese as being poorly armed with old and unserviceable guns.

Armouries in Valletta
Evidently, such an ever-growing quantity of arms necessitated improved
storage facilities and, in fact, throughout this period one begins to encounter
the presence of more than one armoury in Valletta, together with a host of
smaller magazines scattered around the various towns and villages. By
1763, there were three large depositories in the capital city aside from the
Palace Armoury; one inside St James Cavalier, another at the Falconeria
(established as an Armeria di Rispetto in 1763) and the third being an obscure
magazine situated sopra i forni. 62
Despite the major reorganization set in motion in 1763, the profusion of
armouries did not bring about the much desired reform, for the state of the
weapons stored in the armouries does not seem to have improved much.
If anything, it appears to have actually deteriorated further. A report
submitted to the Congregation of War by Bal Lessa Sousa in September
1769, for example, speaks of the pessimo stato ove sono una gran parte
darmi, che la Sagra Religione tiene in differenti luoghi dentro lIsola di
Malta. 63 His account draws a very depressing picture of the military
effectiveness of the Orders firearms, and this only eight years after the
major reorganization begun in 1761. Bal Sousa speaks of a total of 17,000
muskets situated in the due Sale dArmi of the Falconeria (now the British
Legion premises in Melita Street) and St James Cavalier, all of which, we
are told, were in pessimo stato per la ruggine. 64 Another 7,000 muskets
used by the 6 regiments of country militia were stored inside a number of

103

armouries around the various towns and villages but were likewise found by
Bal Sousa to be in poor condition.
The main reason for this sad state of affairs, as will be discussed in detail in
the following chapter, appears to have been a critical lack of armourers.
Given the vast amount of firearms, there were very few armourers in
employment. In 1770 the master armourer was asking for the assistance of
at least 100 slaves or forzati if he was to be seriously expected to repair the
thousands of poorly conditioned firearms indicated by Bal Sousa.65 Obviously,
his request was not acceded to for by 1782, the situation had deteriorated so
badly that a commission of two knights calculated that it would take some
15 years just for the unconditioned muskets to be repaired. The situation
does not seem to have improved much in later years either, for in June 1795,
the firearms stored at Citt Notabile were found to be deteriorating badly
because they were not being cleaned, again, apparently, due to a lack of
armourers, so much so, that a few weeks later the commander of artillery
was instructed to reform the group of armourers.66
This situation, however, did not apply to the Palace Armoury. Various reports
show it to have contained the best maintained arms in the whole of the
island, especially when compared to the poor condition of the majority of
weapons stored in the other magazines; a state of affairs obviously accruing
from its privileged position inside the Magisterial Palace but also, and more
importantly, because it was the only one served by full-time armourers.
By then, however, the Palace Armoury had also assumed a secondary role
apart from its military function as a depository of munitions weapons, that of
a gallery for the display of old arms and armour. The aspect of a collection
of antiquarian interest which it appears to have been given by Grand Master
Wignacourt was developed further by successive Grand Masters. One of
the earliest documented mention of the presence of weapons kept solely for
display purposes, dates to the time of the magistracy of Ramon Despuig in
1737, and refers to the leather gun. This cannon, long thought to have either
been imported from some northern country, produced at the end of the 18th
century or, worse still, brought over from Rhodes, was actually constructed
by a local gunsmith. A petition by Margerita Ellul reminded the Grand Master
that it was one of her ancestors who had built the leather gun: ... Margarita,
vedova di Francesco Ellul di questa Citt Valletta - espone che per riguardo
daver un suo antenato fatto il cannone di pelle che ritrovasi conservato
nella sua armeria fu alli suoi antecessori, e successori concesso luso della
mina che ritrovasi in questa citt sotto il Forte Cavaliere. 67
It was not always that antiquarian interest prevailed in the Palace Armoury,
however, for one can frequently detect a practice of shedding off obsolete
items in order to make room for newer weapons. In 1640, for example,
Grand Master Lascaris, on the advice of the Gran Consiglio, ordered that
500 old archibugi be removed from the Public Armoury and sold to the

104

Trophy-of-arms crowning
the roof of the Corte
Capitanale in Mdina.

105

106

populace, the money recovered from their sale to be used for the purchase
of new weapons: ...che dalla pubblica Armeria si cavino cinquecento
Archibugi, compresi quelli che gia si ritrovino fuori, e si vendono dal
Conservatore Conventuale alli Vasalli, secondo a chi per polza del Senescalco
sar additato, Volendo che esse Conservatore tenghi a parte e separato il
denaro, che proverr dal prezzo di detti Archibuggi, per doversi impiegare in
compra daltri armi, e facendo altrimenti si tenuto de proprio. 68
Another recorded instance was that of 1703, when the commander of
artillery, Fr Giuseppe de Clapiers du Puget, together with his Prodomi,
was instructed to draw up a list of all the armi inutili in the Armoury. His
report contained the following list of weapons:
Scopette a grillo
170
Baionette
3
Archibugio
1
Moschetti a grillo
2
Mezzi moschetti
2
Moschetti a mecchio
4
Moschetti a mecchio di Francia
12
Piche di Biscaia, e Fago
52
Alabarde
5
Spontoni
21
Scarsine
5
Spade
5
Mezza spada
1
Ferri di Piche
178
Ferri di Spontoni
23
Bacchette dIlice (?)
2,000
Celate Veneziane
26
Grilli Vecchi
1,130
Tamburi
30
Una canna di mezzo moschetto
1
Suffioni, e Carabine a grillo
3
Pistole a grillo
6
Un brocchiere
1
As a result, Fr Puget was ordered, on the following 26 April 1703, to hand
over these items to the Commissioner Fr Francesco de Damian in order
that they be placed in storage in an unspecified magazine.
A more drastic process of exuviation occurred in 1763 when many of the
obsolete items were transferred to the Falconeria, newly established as a
reserve armoury: ...Incarichiamo finalmente il nominato Comm.
dellArtiglieria di andare successivamente sbarazzando larmeria di Palazzo
di tutte le armi vecchie, mentre questa non deve contenere altri armi che le
nuove venute gia da Francia, e che vanno successivamente venendo fino al

107

Opposite page, document

authorizing the sale of 1,000
old or obsolete muskets from
the Palace Armoury around
1763 (National Library of
Malta).

compimento del partito stabilito in St Etienne en Forrest. 69 A unique document

dating from this period, reproduced on p. 106, reveals the sale of Mille
Fucili from the Armoury, all in working order but of outdated design with
their azzalini a braghetta and incassature non ... alla moderna. Its
importance lies in the fact that it describes in detail the features of at least
one type of military musket in use by the Order in the early 18th century.
Later in 1790, one also encounters a special commission, known as delle
Patrone e Bandolieri whose exact role, however, is not specified, but it
appears that one of its duties was that of disposing of obsolete equipment of
this type.
By the time of the capitulation of the Order in 1798, the collection of antique
weapons had become quite renowned and at least one 18th century French
visitor to the Palace was so impressed by the tasteful manner in which the
trophies were arranged on its walls to actually record the experience in his
memoirs. Then, as now, the centrepiece of the collection was the
damascened harness of Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt. That collection
of arms and armour, together with a few later additions, still forms the basis
of the Palace Armoury Museum today, even though with the passage of
time it was lamentably despoiled of many of its contents. Thanks to the
survival of two detailed inventory lists it is possible today to have a better
understanding of the contents of the Palace Armoury during the final phase
of its existence. The earliest of the two inventories was drawn up by the
knight St Felix in 1785. The other, dated 23 September 1799 and signed by
DHennezel, French commander of artillery and engineers, was compiled
during the brief French occupation of Malta.
The most interesting of the two is undoubtedly that of 1785 for it provides a
clearly graphic idea of the way the Palace Armoury was laid out, revealing
also the presence of a portrait of Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt and a
small armourers workshop adjoining the gallery. Basically, the Armoury
was informally divided into two sections with the antique arms and armour
mostly displayed along the walls and the munitions weapons stacked in racks
(gabioni) in the centre of the long hall. The munitions weapons comprised
the functional weapons necessary to equip the bulk of the Orders troops.
These consisted of the following:70
Brass-furnished muskets (fucili di munizione nei gabioni
guarniti in ottone)
16,112
iron-furnished muskets
1,188
Officers muskets
643
Carabines
491
Hand-held blunderbusses (Tromboni a mano)
2
Heavy blunderbusses (a cavaletto)
21
Pistols
1,050
Reserve bayonets (Bajonette di rispetto)
357
Bullet moulds (Battipalle)
126

108

In other words, there were enough weapons in the Palace Armoury to equip
all the islands urban and country militia regiments. The antique arms and
armour, on the other hand, were displayed in three ways; the majority were
hung along the walls in a series of twenty-four trophies-of-arms, and the
rest placed either above the cornice moulding (sopra li cornicioni) that ran
along the top part of the walls or else assembled in five piazze (groups) in
the middle of the gallery. The items displayed above the cornice moulding
consisted of the following:
Corsaletti sopra li travi
Detti sopra li cornicioni
Casche, e morioni forti in detti
Picche, ed alabarde
Spade alla Spagnola
Rondaccie intorno i due retratti
Bajonette nei cornici
Pistole diverse in detti

131
123
124
123
429
11
284
242

The trophies-of-arms were the most spectacular feature of the Palace

Armoury and remained so right down to the 20th century even though by
then the actual composition of the individual trophies may have changed
significantly. In fact, trophies-of-arms were also displayed in the armoury at
St James Cavalier as attested by the entries balestre nei trofei and pistole
sulle porte.71 A glimpse can be caught of the original atmosphere of the
Palace Armoury from a number of late-19th century photographs. In 1785,
the size and composition of the trophies-of-arms varied considerably as is
shown on the following pages:

109

Extract from the inventory of

the Palace Armoury drawn up
in 1785.

Dietro il Sole sul ritratto Wignacourt

Balestra
1
Spada alla Spagnola
1
Canonetti di Bronzo
2
Dietro il Sole sul ritratto in fondo
Balestre
2
Spada alla Spagniola
1
Mortaretti di ferro per granate
2
1. Trofeo sul cornicione
vicino il garnicolo
Rondoccia
Pistole
Picche
Sciabole
Mezzo corsaletto
2. In Seguito
Rondaccia
Pistole
Picche, ed alabarde
Sciabole
Fucile di Spoglio
Mezzo corsaletto
3. In seguito nellangolo
sullArmario
Corsaletto
Rondaccia
Picche, ed alabarde

1
2
6
2
1

1
2
5
2
1
1

1
1
13

4. Trofeo nellangolo tra le 2 finestre

nella facciata del
Ritratto Wignacourt
Corsaletto
1
Pistola
1
Sciabole
3
Balestra
1
Picche
18
Mortaletto di ferro per granate
1
5. In Seguito
Rondaccia di ferro
Mezzocorsaletto
Sciabole
Spuntoni, ed alabarde

1
1
2
8

6. In seguito
Rondaccia di ferro
Mezzocorsaletto
Sciabole
Spuntoni
Fucili di Spoglio

1
1
2
6
2

7. In seguito
Corsaletto
Rondaccia di ferro
Balestra
Pistola
Sciabole
Picche, e spuntoni

1
1
1
1
2
20

Primo Trofeo sulla piccola porta

nellingresso
Corsaletti
Picche, e spuntoni
Sciabole
Pistole
Balestre
Fucili de Spoglio
Canna di fucile
guardareni da Cavallo
Pistole in giro della porta

2
6
8
2
2
2
1
1
45

2. Trofeo in seguito
Corsaletti
Spuntoni
Pistole
Sciabole
Balestre
Fucile di spogli
Canne de fucili
guardareni da cavallo

2
6
3
10
2
1
1
1

3.Trofeo sulla porta di Palazzo

Spuntoni
Spade
Sciabole
Balestre
Mezzarmatura
Corsaletto
Pistole

9
3
14
5
1
1
6

110

4. In seguito
Corsaletti
Spuntoni
Canna di fucile
Pistole
Fucili di Spoglio
Balestre
Sciabole
Guardareni da Cavallo

2
6
1
3
2
2
10
1

5. In seguito
Corsaletti
Spuntoni
Canna di fucile
Pistole
Fucile de Spoglio
Balestre
Sciabole
guardareni da cavallo

2
6
1
2
2
2
11
1

6. Trofeo in seguito
Corsaletto
Spuntoni
canna di fucile
pistola
Sciabole

1
6
1
1
2

7. Intorno al quadro in fondo,

e sulla guadarbrobe)
Corsaletti
Canonetti di ferro
Mortaretto di ferro
per granate
Spuntoni
Pistole
canne di fucilio
Fucili di Spogli
Spadone
Rondaccia
Mezzarmatura
Sciabole
Balestra
8. In seguito
Corsaletti
Pistole
Sciabole
Fucili di Spoglio
Canna di fucile
Spuntoni

2
2
1
20
5
9(?)
2
1
1
1
3
1

2
4
7
2
1
6

Fucili di Spoglio
guardareni di Cavallo
Pistole in giro della porta
Balestra
Mortaretti di ferro
per granate

5
1
40
1
4

9.Trofeo in seguito
Corsaletti
Sciabole
Pistole
Fucili di spoglio
Spuntoni
Canna di fucile
guardareni da cavallo

2
10
9
2
6
1
1

10. In seguito
Corsaletti
Pistole
Balestre
Sciabole
Fucili di spoglio
spuntoni
Canna di fucile
guardareni da cavallo

2
2
2
12
2
6
1
1

11. Trofeo sulla porta del balcone

Mezzarmatura
1
Corsaletto
1
Pistole
6
Balestre
3
Fucili di Spoglio
4
Sciabole
21
Spada alla Spagnola
1
Guardareni da cavallo
1
Cocchiara di rame
1
Spuntoni
9
Testale da Cavallo
1
12. Trofeo in seguito
Corsaletti
Balestre
Pistole
Cocchiara di rame
Sciabole
Fucile di Spoglio
Guardareni da Cavallo
Canna
Spuntoni

2
2
3
1
9
1
1
1
6

13. In seguito
Corsaletti
Pistole
Balestre
Sciabole
Fucili di Spoglio
Guardareni da Cavallo
Mortaretti di ferro
Canna
Spuntoni

2
3
2
10
2
1
4
1
6

14. In seguito
Corsaletto
Pistole
Fucili di Spoglio
Sciabole
Spada alla Spagnola
Guardareni da Cavallo
Balestra
Canna
Spuntoni

1
4
2
6
1
1
1
1
6

15. Trofeo intorno al quadro

dellEmo. Wignacourt
Mezzarmature
Spadone
Fucili di Spoglio
Pistole
Pugnali
Spade alla Spagnola
Sciabole
Balestre
Rondaccie di rame
(Turkish shields?)
Canne della gioja
Testali da Cavallo
Spuntoni
fiacchi fatti a maglia
guardareni da cavallo
arco di legno con
sua freccia
16. Trofeo in seguito
Corsaletto
Fucili di Spoglio
Pistole
Balestra
Sciabole
Canne
Spuntoni
Mortaretti di ferro
per granate

111

2
1
3
11
3
4
11
5
4
4
2
13
2
1
1

1
2
4
1
6
2
6
4

17. Trofeo Sotto il ritratto Wignacourt

Armature
3
mezzarmature
2
Spuntoni
44
Canne della goija
9
Spingardi
2
Balestra
1
Rondaccie
2
Cannonetti di Bronzo
3
Mortaletto di Bronzo
1
Spade alla Spagnola
3
Fucili di Spoglio
2
Carabina di Scarto
1

The arms and armour grouped in piazze in the centre of the hall, in a manner
which is not yet clearly understood, were arranged as follows:
Prima Piazza in faccia ai gabiani
della piccola porta
Armature
4
Spade alla Spagnola
4
Balestre
2
Sciabole
2
Spuntoni
16
2da. Piazza
Armature
Balestre
Sciabole
Spuntoni

Hospitaller knight of the early

1700s wearing the ubiquitous
red sopraveste during military
and carovana duties.

3za. Piazza
Armature
Spadoni
Spade alla Spagnola
Balestre
Sciabole
Spingardi
Spuntoni
Mortaretti di ferro
per granate
Cannonetto di
bronzo scolpito

4a. Piazza
Armature
Spuntoni
Balestre
Sciabole
5. Piazza
Armature
Spade alla Spagnola
Balestre
Sciabole
Spuntoni
Cannone di quoiro
Cannonetti di bronzo
Cannonetto di ferro
cannonetti di piombo con
anima di ferro
mortaretti di bronzo

8
4
4
40

12(?)
4
8
4
4
4
32

8
40
4
4

4
4
2
2
16
1
5
1
2
2

4
1

Various other items were then to be found at the entrance to the Armoury
and in the armourers workshop situated in a room adjoining the gallery itself
:
NellIngresso ed ove puliscono le armi
Armature
mezzarmatura
Corsaletti
cannonetto di bronzo
mortaletto di ferro per granate
Petti e schinati forti
Alabarda
Rondaccie di ferro
Spada alla Spagnola
Pistole
Sciabole di scarto

2
1
203
1
1
18
1
2
1
78
40

Judging by the above inventory, todays collection in the Armoury , although

still a substantial one, is only a pale shadow of what it was in 1785. Most

112

tragic has been the loss of a large number of suits of armour. That many of
these were richly decorated is made evident by the few remaining pauldrons
and tassets that once formed part of these harnesses. Still, any attempt to
compare the above list with the surviving display would present various
difficulties since the present collection is in reality a combination of the
remains of the munitions weapons, the dcorations de la Salle darmes,
and many other items which came from the other armouries of the Order as
a result of their dissolution in the post-1798 period.
Thus, to give a few examples, the above list gives no account of the hundreds
of 17th-century powder flasks to be found in the present collection and
mentions only two of three mail vests. Similarly, there is no mention of the
Venetian schiavona, now housed in the Armoury. This, together with twelve
other such swords, is found listed in the inventory of St James Cavalier,
similarly drawn up by the knight St Felix in 1785. By the mid-18th century
the armoury in St James Cavalier was as important a military depot as the
Palace Armoury itself, housing thousands of weapons and armour of the
same type as those found in the Palace, besides morions, corselets, swords,
pikes, halberds, muskets, pistols, all placed inside four large, adjoining vaulted
magazines. How many of these items ended up in the Palace Armoury will
probably always remain an open question.
The 1785 list gives some interesting details about the contents of the Armoury.
One curious item long since lost was a singular wooden bow and arrow,
arco di legno con sua freccia, possibly a relic of the Great Siege, when
wooden bows were still in use, particularly by the Turks. The inventory also
reveals the presence of the Grand Masters own private collection of 40
hunting muskets, which were then being temporarily deposited in the
Armoury. Many of the richly decorated fowling pieces which can still be
seen on display appear to have formed part of the Grand Masters collection,
although it is difficult to distinguish these from the other fucili di spoglio
mentioned in the list.
Hunting pieces constitute the greater percentage of the muskets still to be
found in the Armoury, very few service firearms having actually survived.
Other weapons belonging to Grand Master De Rohan (ricevuti in deposito
sotto il di 6 Maggio 1785) consisted of 64 Fucili di munizione guarniti in
rame and another 10 guarniti in ferro, 21 Pistole diverse, a Trombone
piccolo, 80 Lame di Sciabole and a single Lama di Spada. Surprisingly,
there is no specific mention of the Turkish firearms. Probably these were
included under the term fucili di spoglio for Turkish muskets are mentioned
in the French inventory of 1799. Moreover, their presence in the Armoury
is revealed by another source, because in 1796 a fucile turco guarnito in
argento e avorio was submitted to the armourers workshop for restoration.
The entry ronadaccie di rame most probably also refers to the four Turkish
brass shields.

113

The second inventory, that drawn up by the French commander of artillery

and engineers gives us a glimpse of the Palace Armoury in September 1799.72
At that time, neither the Palace nor the Armoury were any longer in the
hands of the Order of St John. More than a year had already passed since
Napoleons troops had invaded, defeated, and expelled the knights from the
Maltese islands. The Grand Masters Palace had become the seat of the
local French government and the military headquarters for the 3,000-strong
force under the command of General Vaubois. By September of 1799,
however, the French troops had been blocked-up within the Grand Harbour
fortifications for over twelve months, ever since the Maltese rural population
had risen up in rebellion.
Still, General Vaubois and his men were not particularly worried. They
were protected by formidable fortifications and were well armed and
equipped. Apart from their own arms, the French could also count upon the
thousands of weapons captured from the knights. The Orders armouries,
as shown by DHennezels lists were still stocked with all types of weapons.
The Palace Armoury in particular had changed little in the meantime. It still
contained all its decorative trophies and thousands of weapons as shown in
the inventory reproduced on the following pages.
Salle darmes du Palais
il Cest Crocire au ratelier marque AA fusils anciens modeles
a celui marque AB (ancien modele) nettoyer
a la marque AC
a lEtiquete le AD fusils nettoyer (anciens modeles)
a la marque AE fusils nettoyer anciens modeles
a letiquette AF fusils nettoyer
au ratelier AG gros tromblons
au ratelier marque AH fusils (an. mod.) nettoyer
tromblons en cuivre
Sous letiquette AI fusils netoyer (anciens modeles)
dans la salle de reparation fusils anciens modeles - mme
garniture en fer
dans la meme salle tromblon de fer de differents grandeurs
au ratelier AL fusils (nouveaux models)
sous letiquette AM fusils neuf
AN, AO les deux rateliers contiennent ensemble fusils neufs
AP, AQ contenant entreux fusils (nouveau modle)
au ratelier AR carabine
plus fusils bronz garnis en cuivre (compris 50 fusils
bronzes lesquel sont dans la Salle darmes l on nettoyer)
au ratelier AS fusils neuf
AT, AV fusils de chapes
fusils neuf
AX, fusils neuf

114

80
94
96
194
257
79
21
33
5
133

103
24
458
620
919
1138
489
153
444
77
848
380

AZ fusils neuf
BA, fusils neuf
BB fusils neuf
BC fusils neuf
BD fusils neuf
BE fusils court garnis en cuivre
BF fusils court garnis en cuirve
BG fusils neuf
BH fusils neuf
BK au ratelier fusils neuf
BM ditto
BO ditto
BQ ditto
BS ditto
BT Tromblon en fer
BV fusils neuf
E au ratelier e, la gauche de la garderobe fusils neuf
F au dessus de larmoire situe pris la garde robe fusils de
chevalier anciens modele
L au dessus de larmoire marq.BX fusils de chevalier (an. mod.)
M audessus de larmoire BZ fusils de chevalier (nouv. mod.)
N fusils garnis en fer (anc. mod.)
O fusils garnis en fer (anc. mod.)
P fusils ancien mod. garn. en fer
Q fusils ancien mod. garn. en fer
R fusil (modle francais)
S fusils (modle francais)
T ancien fusils
U ancien fusils
X fusils ancien modle
AR fusils de chape
AS Mousquetons garnis en fer
tromblons en cuivre
dans larmoire marq. BX pistolets garnis en cuivre
dans larmoire marq. BZ pistolets (dont 39 garnis en fer)
armoire situe pres la garderobe pistolets (dont 27 garnis en fer)
sur les cotes des rateliers et au dessus des deux portes de la face
pistolets garnis en cuivre

578
266
427
450
615
128
249
108
204
324
218
219
319
223
229
245
213
27
26
18
58
137
61
92
270
180
95
94
101
30
24
37
236
257
287
285

Decorations de la Salle darmes

Sous le titre doit tre compris les objets refermes dans la garderobe trophes &
dans la garde robe:
fusils turc
4
fusils Espagnols
6
ditto roue
2
ditto mche
1
fusil double
1
fusils Romains
3
fusils de chapes
52
Carabine francais
3

115

Portrait of Bal Jacques

Franois de Chambrai
(1687-1756).

Carabine almandes (allemande)

Carabine Venitiene (Venitienne)
paires de pistolets dont deux garnis en cuivre
tromblons dont 2 Espagnoles et une Venitienne
sabres turcs
sabres dabordages
sabre portant pistolet
poignard
Bayonnettes
masser (?) darmes a tte dore
hacher darme
pics Mche

3
1
20
3
6
1
1
1
3
2
1
4

chaque bout de la Salle se trouvant un tableau surmont chacun dun Soleil

au dessus de fnetres principales et les deux portes dentre quatorze trophs
placs symetriquement
deux cents cinquante cinq (255) cuirasses distribus autour de la Salle sur
deux rangs, le 1r. portant sur la corniche et le segond [second] au dessus
entre les deux ranges de Cuirasses 114 pairs de pistolets croiss
114
cornes damorce
220
Epes
418
Bayonnettes
284
Piques en fer
123
piques en fer places autour de la Salle au dessus du 4e rangs
de fusils
932
articles suplementaires
un canon de six (ce canon est en bois - recouvert de cuivre)avec son affut
dix petit pieces en bronzes sur leurs affut dont quatre de une livre de bale
deux de 12 ounces et quatre de une 1/2 liv
quatre autres en fer de une demi livre
deux en plomb de 1/2 liv.
quatre canons de rempart
dix huit petites Eprouvettes en fer du calibre de six 73
de autres en cuivre du calibre de trois
trent neuf armures en fer completes dont trois sont bronzs et dors quatorze
bronzs seulement et vingt deux en fer poli
dans la 1r caisse plac sous les fentres de la salle darmes du palais sabres
dabordage
34
2e caisse ditto
82
3e caisse plaque de bouche en cuivre
158
sous garde de pistolets
96
4e caisse lames de sabres neuves
23
longues Epees
39
6e caisse canons de tromblons en cuivre
26
7e caisses bayonettes
710
8e bayonnettes dont 104 ont leur fourreau
286
9e Bayonnettes
1,062
10e Capucine du bas
245
Embouchoirs
156
13e caisse porte Baguettes a quive
185

116

porte baguette rond

Capucine du Milieu
Balon de pistolet
sousgarde de pistolet
vieux hausse
16e caisse tte de baguette en fer
hallebardes
Poignard

178
300
196
188
36
118
8
1

Of particular interest are the double-barrelled musket, the fusils espagnols,

a single matchlock arquebus and a sabre portant pistolet (combination
weapon - sword with gun) all of which are still to be found in the collection.
However, what is most important about this detailed inventory is that it helps
dispel the myth that the French carried away most of the items from the
Palace Armoury for it clearly shows that the Armoury was still amply stocked
with thousands of weapons during the blockade. True, the number of firearms
had fallen down from 18,643 (in 1785) to 12,253, a thirty-four percent drop,
but this was nothing compared with the virtual disappearance of all the
Orders firearms in the following fifty years or so. The only documented
instance where weapons are believed to have been removed from the Palace
Armoury during the French occupation was when, according to Lt Vivion, a
quantity of pistols, muskets, and swords were transferred on board lAthenien
in June 1799.74 DHennezels inventory, however, was compiled three months
after this event, and so the hoard of weapons shipped out on l Athenien
does not change the overall picture.

Extract from the French

inventory of the Palace
Armoury drawn up in 1799.

117

Nonetheless, Napoleon does seem to have carried off with him a number of
the Orders firearms for DHennezels detailed lists show that in 1799 there
were 24,000 muskets in store in all the armouries together as compared to
the 40,000 firearms recorded in 1785. Although a number of other muskets
are known to have been housed in the village armouries at the time of the
Maltese insurrection in September 1798, what we know of the insurgents
indicates that these would not have amounted to more than a few hundred
weapons. Consequently this leaves a hefty load which, unless shipped off to
Egypt on the LOrient, is otherwise unaccounted for.
The dramatic events which occurred in 1798 represented the last time that
weapons were issued from the Palace Armoury, indeed from all of the
knights armouries, in order to equip Maltese troops. In the panic and chaos
that accompanied Napoleons lightning invasion, many of the militia troops
abandoned both their positions and their arms and, with the rapid surrender
of the Order, all the equipment quickly fell into French hands. What
arrangements were made for the disposition of the captured material is not
known. How many of the weapons issued to arm the 15,000 strong force of
the country and urban militias eventually found their way back to the
armouries or were otherwise commandeered for shipment to Egypt will
probably always remain a matter for speculation. What is known is that the
French retained most of the armouries that were originally employed by the
Order. Of all these military storehouses, however, it was only the Palace
Armoury which was to survive into the following century, undoubtedly, due
to its privileged position inside the Palace of the Grand Masters.

118

A Profusion of Armouries
in the 18th Century
The Main Armouries
The massive procurement of arms which accompanied the 18th century
necessitated a greater storage arrangement than could possibly be provided by
the Palace Armoury alone. One of the first steps taken to solve this problem
was that of clearing the Palace Armoury of all obsolete and useless weapons in
order to make room for the new supplies that were arriving from France. Earlier
in September 1763, the commissioner of works, Don Garcia Xarava and the
Orders engineer, Bal de Tign, together with some master-masons were
ordered to inspect the two magazines of the Falconeria with a view to
converting them for use as an armeria di rispetto, i.e., a reserve armoury, so
as to house all the older weapons: ...che li nominati fucili accommodati e
rimontati si conservino nellarmeria della falconeria che dovr da ora in avanti
servire per armeria di Rispetto tanto per cambiare o somministrare le armi che
giornalmente potranno occorrere per il servizio delle piazze, e delle squadre,
quanto per cambiare quelle che si possino rompere o guastare nelle armerie
della Notabile, Vittoriosa, Senglea, Cospicua e della Campagna. 1
Particular attention was taken to render the building damp-proof, che l umido
non si possa penetrare, and once completed, the Falconeria received all the
old weapons from the Palace Armoury and a number of old unassembled barrels
then in store inside the two magazines sopra i forni.2 At that time both the
Falconeria and these two magazines were being used for the storage of
unassembled musket barrels: ...che da lungo tempo come inutili si conservano
nei Magazzini sopra i forni ed in quelli della Falconeria. 3 The two magazini
sopra i forni formed part of a group of six magazines situated in old Bakery
Street which were under the control of the commander of artillery and used for
the storage of military supplies such as meccio, salnitro and iron cannon balls.4
It appears that the Falconeria, located at the bottom of Melita
Street and today occupied by the premises of the British Legion, had long been
earmarked to serve as a reserve armoury (da gran tempo a ci destinati) and
continued to serve as such until the last days of the Orders stay in Malta. It is
specifically mentioned in 1782, when a portion of its equipment, together with
that of the Palace Armoury were the only properly conditioned weapons to be

119

found in the whole of Malta. St Felixs inventory shows the Falconeria as

containing the following equipment in 1785:5
Fucili guarniti in ferro, e bajonette
6,444
detti in rame e bajonetta
99
Pistole diverse
767
Sciabole
36
Spade
708
Picche ed Alabarde
884
Petti e Schinati Forti
152
Corsaletti
64
Fucili guarniti in rame spettanti
alla Fondazione Manoel
80
Another 219 fucili de Cavalieri, 4 corsaletti and 42 buttafuori were housed in
the sala del Sig. Commandate, adjoining the Falconeria itself. 6
Sometime after 1763 an armoury was set up in St James Cavalier. This Cavalier,
as noted earlier, had served as a makeshift storehouse during the early stages
of the fortification of the Valletta peninsula but it only began to feature as an
official armoury from around 1769, when it is reported by Bal Sousa as consisting
of due Sale dArmi with around 8,000 fucili all of which were consumed by
rust, totalmente in cattivo stato.7 By 1785, it had become an important artillery
storehouse containing cannon, powder, and ceppi. Then, at least five of the
six magazines inside it housed small arms, including 6,765 muskets, nearly all
with bayonets, of which 567 were fucili buccanieri, 1,192 muschettoni, 122
pistols, 19 spingardi and 3,814 unassembled barrels, together with 431 swords,

The magazines of the

Falconeria in Melita
Street, once the Orders
Armeria di Rispetto
(reserve armoury),
established in 1763 so as
to house the old weapons
removed from the Palace
Armoury.

120

of which 12 were Venetian Schiavone,8 and a quantity of sword blades. There

was also a considerable quantity of armour, namely reinforced breast and back
plates, petti e schinati forti, and some corsaletti, 3,900 pikes, spontoons, and
halberds and 860 partisans, together with shields and daggers. This explains
why St James Cavalier was taken over by the Maltese rebels during the illfated rebellion of the priests in 1776.9 Their intention was definitely to lay hands
on a huge supply of weapons in order to equip a national uprising.
Apparently the older weapons were displayed in trophies or hung along the
walls in a manner similar to the Palace Armoury, as the entries balestre nei
trofei seem to suggest.10 A number of pistols were also displayed above the
doors. Various antique items were to be found in St James Cavalier, for apart
from the crossbows already mentioned there were a number of fucili and
spade di spoglio, rondaccie and, most interestingly, 167 Celate
Veneziane,Venetian salades. Another considerable hoard of weapons was
stocked inside a magazine situated in the nearby St John Cavalier. This
magazine, which was located off the ramp leading up to the roof of that cavalier

Sectional elevation and

interior view of the armoury
in St James Cavalier,
Valletta, which was used to
house the weapons of the
country militia regiments.

121

Plan of a section of
Mdina dating to the
1600s showing the
building which housed
the towns Armeria
antica (inset).

(magazzino nella salita), contained 1,625 fucili in ferro e bajonette, another

654 without bayonets, 1,202 fucili in ottone of which 256 were without bayonets,
24 Petti e Schinati forti and 4,031 Mattoni o siano Bricche (bricks, for the
nearby furnaces of the Ferreria).11
The other principal armouries existing throughout the 18th century could be
found at Mdina, the Citadel in Gozo, Birgu, Senglea, and Cottonera. The oldest
of these was the armoury of Citt Notabile. Until 1728, the armoury at Mdina
was found in a house adjoining the citys archives situated along Strada Reale,
today Villegaignon Street. In 17th century plans of the city, this house is marked
as Armeria antica, suggesting that it had served such a purpose for a number
of centuries, at least since the end of the mid-15th century. Arms storage
seems to have been a problem in Mdina during that period as in 1454 each
inhabitant of the city was asked by the Universit to keep a mail-coat at home
until a proper armoury was built.12 The city council was still deliberating where
to locate the military storehouse in 1461, and although a new armoury was then
proposed to be built in the old tower near the gate, this project does not seem to
have materialized because in 1516 there again appeared new proposals for the
construction of storehouses for arms and munitions.13
Most of the medieval military equipment necessary for the defence of Mdina
was then procured from Sicily, although Genoese and Catalan merchants of
arms are also mentioned.14 The medieval records speak of curaczi (breastlates)
mantillecti (mail-coats), lanzi (lances), targueckti (shields) and balisti
(cross-bows).15 There was also heavier hardware such as bombardi, spingardi
and balistri (catapults). Thes artillery would have been permanently deployed
on top of the few wall-towers rather than kept inside the armouries. In the
absence of bastions and proper gun-platforms, there would have been very
few places along the enceinte from where cannon could have been fired

122

effectively, and these would have been the towers. In fact, one of the knights
first interventions on taking over the defence of the city was the addition of two
adequate artillery bastions.
The Mdina armoury actually provides a tangible insight into the amount and
forms of weapon issued to arm the inhabitants of the town at the time of the
Great Siege in 1565. As already mentioned, from a document entitled li scuppetti
della Universit di Malta, drawn up in April 1565, we see that 41 scupetti and
their powder flasks, a crossbow (balestra cu sua gaffa) and nine morions
were issued from this armoury to equip the people of Mdina.14 Considerable
reference to the Mdina armoury is also encountered in the documents relating
to the immediate post-siege period. In 1568, for example, the Universit paid
for the construction of dui banchi di li arcabusi and again in 1594 per tre
serraticci che han servuto per li scaffi della armeria, the storage arrangement
however not having been fully settled for in the following year another sedici
serraticci were purchased per li scaffi et armarioi della armeria. In the late
1580s it had also ordered various rastelli delli archibusi delli soldati. During
this time the armoury seems to have been kept well stocked with fiaschi
archibugi michio alabarde, piche et coffi many of the items having been brought,
from the main armoury from Valletta, an exercise which involved payment to
the various burdnari per haver portato li detti armi, including a certain Matheo
Bugeja who was paid for having brought from la Valetta li archibusi et archi.
Interestingly, much of this activity was taking place between 1598 and 1604,
the year in which the main armoury was being reorganized and established
inside the palace by Grand Master Wignacourt.
The Universit took considerable interest in the good maintenance and repair
of the weapons under its charge, as various extracts from the towns accounts
attest. In 1574, for example, Mro Leonardo de Alban and Mro Vincenzo

123

Above, building in
Villegaignon Street which
housed the new armoury as
rebuilt by Petruzzo Debono
in 1734. Below, plan of the
Magistral Palace in Mdina,
showing the small hall that
once housed a small
armoury.

Close-up of the trophyof-arms above the

doorway into the hall
which once served as
the armoury of the
Magistral Palace in
Mdina.

Lestech(?) were paid slightly less than two oncie per inconciare certi archibusj
di posta et alter cose, as was Orlando Zarb mro dascia for the manifattura
di octo cascie di archibusetti da posta et uno piccolo. Other sums were
disbursed by the Universit treasury for the facturi di rascaturi 21 di scupetta
et una serpentina per tari dui in tutto, per factura di bacchetti vinti tre a Mro
Battista una serpentina, munitioni, per guarnire le armi, per comprar trenta
armi, al ferraro p[er] haver fatto un bottone di ferro che servi per forma
p[er] li balli delli archibusi di porta (1594), and per dodici caxi con loro bachetti
per dudici archibusi 8 scudi (1598). In 1588, the town jurats also commissioned
the cleric fra Mariano Casha per aver accomodato li armi et haver fatto il
gioico della aqua et altri travagli.
The building housing the Armeria antica in Mdina was demolished in 1727
and replaced by a new municipal palace, the Banca Giuratale, flanking
St Paul Square.16 The weapons were removed from the old armoury and
transferred to a magazzino grande where they remained until the end of
December 1728, when Alessandro Tonna was then commissioned to remove
the azzarini, balle et altro dallArmeria vecchia alla nuova.17 The building
chosen to serve as the new armoury was located opposite Palazzo Testaferrata,
in Villegaignon Street. In 1734, however, it was decreed that this building be
pulled down and replaced by a new armoury designed by Pietro Debono:
...ordinato che si debba sfabbricare e rifabricare larmeria secondo il disegno
fatto dal capo maestro Pietro Debono e che il denaro perci bisognevole si pigli
dalla massa di codetta Universit. 18 Pietro Debono was one of the capomastri
who worked closely with the resident French military engineer Charles Francois
Mondion in the rebuilding of Mdina during the reign of Grand Master de Vilhena

124

Front, sectional elevation, and plan for a new

armoury proposed to be built in Mdina around
1720 (National Library of Malta).

and was involved in the construction of many prominent buildings, including the
Magistral Palace.19
The design of this new armoury, like that of its large cousin in the Grand Masters
Palace, was based on a large first floor hall. The lower rooms in the building
were designed to serve as shops.20 The practice of placing armouries on the
upper floors of buildings, encountered also in the armouries at Valletta, Vilhena
Palace and Birgu, was primarily intended to counter the problem of rising damp.
A display of trophies-of-arms carved in stone can be seen crowning the faade
of the Corte Capitanale. This building, which opened onto the courtyard of
the old palace built by Grand Master LIsle Adam, formed part of the newly
built Vilhena Palace complex designed by Mondion in the 1720s. One of the

125

Above, plan and view from

the south of the building
housing the sala darmi at
Birgu. Right, detail of the
trophy-of-arms crowning the
entrance into the Birgu sala
darmi. The equipment
represented in the trophy-ofarms (corslets, muskets and
polearms) is typical of the
early half of the 1600s.

rooms once forming part of LIsle Adams old palace was actually converted
by Mondion into an armoury. This room, which has two entrances, each
surmounted by a trophy-of-arms has unfortunately lost its roof and most of the
exterior wall overlooking Saqqajja. Although quite a spacious hall, it is known to
have contained only a few arms in 1785, namely 40 brass-furnished muskets
with bayonets, 40 halberds, a Picca per il Capitano della Verga and two casse
per tamburi. 21 The main armoury in Mdina, on the other hand, was much
better equipped as the following list clearly reveals: 22
Fucili in ferro, e bajonetta
Padrone da Soldato
Pistole

600
904
25

126

Detail of the trophyof-arms crowning the

doorway leading
into the armoury at
Birgu.

Padrone dOfficiali
Golere
Picche, Spontoni ed alabarde
Mirioni leggieri (morions)
Bacchette di ferro

46
5
75
39
24

The Sala dArmi of Birgu was situated in the Palazzo dell Abadia o si del
Governatore. 23 This was originally a bare, isolated utilitarian structure all at
ground floor level with a door in each of its four sides to facilitate the rapid
issue of equipment. The first floor was added later, possibly around 1636, as
attested by the date inscribed on one of the doors of the great hall. A ponderous
trophy-of-arms bearing the coat-of-arms of Grand Master Cotoner would
suggest that some intervention was undertaken also during his magistracy.
By the early decades of the 18th century it was this upper hall, the gran
salone, which was being used for the storage of arms. The lower magazine
was then being employed to house the grosso legname della Fortificatione.24
The six rooms adjoining this armoury on each side were used to house invalids
and meritevoli: ... sei camere per ogni lato distribuite in parte con decreto
persone benemeriti, parte a soldati invalidi di St Elmo et altre quattro in servitori
dhabitazion al Capo Mro. d Artiglieria del Borgo. 25 The 1785 inventory does
not mention any military equipment in store inside the Birgu armoury. Nor is
there any record of weapons being stored in the armouries of Senglea and
Cottonera around that time. Apparently these last two storehouses, the precise
location of which has yet to be established, were no longer in use by then. That
Birgu, Senglea, and Bormola had their own separate armouries is attested by
an entry in the minutes of the Congregation of War dated 1762, empowering
the governatori delle tre citt Vittoriosa, Senglea e Burmola to forward their
receipts for the costs involved in the cura e custodia delle sale darmi to the

127

Seneschal for reimbursement from the Comun Tesoro. In that year Birgu also
acquired a second armoury. The Congregatione delle Navi had requested, and
received, from the Congregation of War un magazino no.385 spettanti alle
Fortificationi per servire di sala darmi di dette navi.
Many of the forts surrounding the harbour area, though not all, had their own
armouries, althouh none of these were classified as armerie but simply as
magazines utilized for the storage of arms. In 1785, only Fort St Angelo and
Fort Ricasoli had their own supplies of small arms. The former had 547 muskets,
26 pistols, 53 polearms, 4 spingardi and 1 drum in consegna del Sergente
whilst the latter held 205 muskets and 47 polearms.26 The statutes of the Order
also decreed that Greek ships visiting the Grand Harbour had to deposit their
arms at Fort St Angelo. Neither Fort St Elmo, nor Fort Chambrai, nor Fort
Manoel are mentioned as having any deposits of small arms in 1785. However,
as late as December 1783, Fort Manoel is known to have had a resident armourer
and a small armoury which was housed in one of the rooms adjoining the
Commanders quarters.27 The 80 Fucili guarniti in rame spettanti alla Fondazione
Manoel, then in store at the Falconeria, may originally have been kept at Fort
Manoel. This fort was built with bombproof barracks that could accommodate
some 500 men. Fort St Elmo, on the other hand, had a barracks capable of
billeting 200 soldiers of the Regiment of Grand Masters Guards after its
Above, the armoury of Fort Ricasoli
reconstruction of 1727-1730. Generally, it was only in times of emergency that
was housed inside the Governors
residence. This building, which stood some of these forts were supplied with small arms as can be seen from the
over the main gate, served also as a
militia regulations of 1758 which made provisions for the issue of casse con
gatehouse. It was demolished during fucili e cartucci to those castelli outside Valletta.28 At Fort Ricasoli, built in
the Second World War after it was hit
1670-1698, the armoury was housed inside the gatehouse which itself also
by a bomb.
served as the governors residence.
Opposite page, extract from a
Hospitaller document recording the
state of the armoury in the Gozo
citadel around 1650.

An Armoury in Gozo
The Cittadella too had its own armoury. Being the military and administrative
centre of the island of Gozo, and effectively the Orders most distant outpost
from Valletta, this fortress was generally kept well-equipped and garrisoned,
and frequently reinforced in times of greater danger. For a long time after the
arrival of the knights in 1530 the Gran Castello, as it was then known, retained
its medieval defences, notwithstanding the fact that it was violently sacked and
ravaged during the infamous razzia of 1551. It was only in the early decades
of the 17th century that the old castle was rebuilt and fitted out for the gunpowder
era with bastions, curtains, cavaliers, and outerworks, together with stores,
magazines, and a new armoury. Once these modifications were completed,
the Order believed that the Castello was rendered defensible. However, this
was not an opinion that was shared by the majority of the engineers who were
to inspect Gozos defences in subsequent years, for the fortress principal
weakness lay inherent in its landlocked position dominated by adjoining heights.
Severe criticism of the Castellos ability to withstand a siege eventually led to
its evacuation during the general alarm of 1645. All heavy equipment was then

128

129

130

One of the barrel-vaulted

casemates situated beneath
St John Cavalier said to
have served as the
Cittadellas armoury.
Opposite page, list showing
the strength of the local
militia in Malta around the
beginning of the 18th
century (National Library of
Malta).

withdrawn to Malta while the citadel itself was mined for destruction to prevent
it from serving as a Turkish base.29 Fortunately, the Turkish armada never
appeared as it was destined for the island of Crete.
That the Order could derive very little military advantage from the possession
of this fortress during the closing decades of the 17th century is also attested
by a description of the miserly contents of the Cittadellas armoury. This
storehouse then contained only 163 Moschetti di diverse calibro the larger
part of which were considered inutili, in all 10 Moschettoni da posta, 230
Archibusi con le sue casse fradice ed del tutto inutili, 101 pikes and mezze
picche, 68 Alabarde e partisane, 32 swords senza foderi and 172 bandoliers
- an impoverished arsenal by any standards.30 Indeed a marginal note added to
the same report stresses the fact that the arquebuses then forming the bulk of
the citadels armament were an inferior weapon to the Turkish muskets:
Larchibugio un arma troppo svantaggiosa a combatter contro il turco il
quale si serve di Moschetti di gran portata. The pikes, too, were seen to be of
little use in the defence of a fortress: molto pi atto ad offendere il nemico lo
spontone che la picca, essendo questa propria di applicarsi contro le cavallaria,
e non difesa delle trinciere e parapetti. This was not the case, however, prior
to the general citation of 1645, when the Gozo citadel was well provisioned and
armed, Prima del ultima citatione vi era lartiglieria tutta di bronzo, e larmeria
ben provista, e di buoni armi, ma in quel occasione furono levate le cose buone.31
Even so, the Gozo garrison was never a large force. At the time that the report
quoted earlier was written down there were only a sergeant, 9 soldiers, a capo
mastro dellartilieria, 4 bombardieri et un aiutante, and 100 militia men
recruited to keep watch day and night around the castle and the other watch-

131

posts scattered around the island.32 The islands inhabitants were grouped into
three squadrons - a cavalry detachment of 70 horses, a company of 250
musketeers and another of 400 persone armate parte di moschetti, e parte di
spontoni e fionde. 33 By 1701, there were still little more than a thousand men
available for the defence of the island. The cavalry force was actually smaller,
consisting of just 64 mounted troops divided into two squadrons, each under the
command of a turcopolier and armed with spontoni, e alcuni di loro di
carabina.34 There were also a company of 76 musketeers, an infantry regiment
of 434 soldiers and a stuolo of 479 men detailed for guard duty around the
island.35 The infantry regiment was divided into four squadre each sotto una
istessa bandiera, and the men armed with spada, moschetto, bandoliera e tal
anche di forcina. 36 The men detailed to perform watch duty were expected to
reinforce the garrisons of the coastal towers at night.
In late 17th century Gozo, an important element in the defence of the island
comprised a string of quite powerful towers scattered around the coastline.
These were designed to serve as lookout posts, artillery platforms, and rallying
points for the militia in case of attack. Between them, the six towers held 77
muskets, 22 muschettoni da posta and 83 spontoons and halberds, a considerable
quantity of arms when compared to the equipment kept inside the citadel.37
By the end of the 1720s, the coastal defences had been expanded to include a
Below, the manner of
deployment of the country larger network of batteries, redoubts, and entrenchments covering nearly all
militia regiments as
the bays and inlets. As the century progressed and increasing emphasis was
established by regulations laid on coastal defences, the landlocked citadel came to be seen more and more
in 1716.
as obsolete until finally a new fortress was built at Ras-et-tafal in 1749. Despite

132

Frontispiece of the regulations

for the deployment and
service of the country militia
regiments published in 1761.

the erection of Fort Chambrai, the old citadel never really lost its role since for
one thing, the new fortress failed to attract settlers. The importance of the
Cittadella as a military and administrative headquarters throughout the 18th
century can be seen mirrored in its well-supplied armoury. By 1785, this had
come to contain 1,466 fucili guarniti in ferro e bajonetta, 100 pistole guarniti in
rame, 20 mezzespade, 87 picche, spontoni ed alabarde, 12 tamburi, 1,000
granate di ferro and 100 bacchette dacciaio (steel ramrods) per fucili.38 On
the other hand, Fort Chambrai had no armoury whatsoever and only 18 guns
when compared to the 39 cannon deployed along the old citadels ramparts.

133

The Village Armouries

Throughout the 18th century many thousands of weapons were required to
equip the country militia units. Grand Master De Redins plan to forge the
islanders into a corps of 4,000 musketeers never reached the high standard that
had been envisaged but by 1716, the eight rural regiments, totalling 3,095 men,
had been reformed into six units under the overall command of the Senescalco,
or Captain General, who held the rank of a Bal, and were brigaded into the
Northern and Southern Brigades.39 Each regiment was made up of a number
of Bandiere, in turn composed of a number of companies. A number of small
villages, such as Attard, Balzan, Mosta, and Siggiewi, did not have enough men
to form their own separate regiment and therefore had to attach their respective
companies to the nearest regiment.

The frontispiece of the

regulations issued for the
deployment and service of
the newly formed Regimento
di Malta published in 1777.

134

These troops wore no uniform and were each equipped simply with a musket,
bayonet, and a small number of cartridges held in a canvas bag. In 1769,
according to Bal Sousa, there were 7,000 muskets set aside for use by the six
regiments of country militia. Most of these arms were kept in small village
sale darmi scattered about the island but this practice seems to have been
abandoned some time around 1769 and thereafter the buildings were only used
temporarily since the weapons were returned to the central depositories once
the shipping season was over. This new procedure appears to have followed
from Bal Lessa Sousas recommendations; ... sarebbe bene di non conservare
le sale darmi di Campagna, che per una occasione premurosa, e dare
semplicemente in tempo destate gli armi necessari per la custodia del Paese.40
This was definitely the practice by 1770, when the commander of artillery was
ordered to hastily remove the weapons from the armoury at Zejtun so that the
building could be returned to its owner, ... ritirare tutti gli armi e attrezzi ...del
pi presto sar possible per consegnare le chiavi al padrone. 41 It is attested
again by the following entry in the minutes of the Congregation of War and
Fortification for 1795: ... che non si consegnano alla milizia che nei giorni di
parata o desercizio, ritirando larmi subito terminata la funzione; e che qualora
saranno ritirate larmi dei casali, si ritiranno parimento quelle della Notabile per
essere custodite nella Valletta nei luoghi consegnati. 42
By 1792 it was the colonelli delle milizie themselves who were encharged
with establishing per ogni regimento un Armeria dove si conservassero gli armi
e da dove tanto per gli esercizi che per ogni altra occassione si prendessero.
Some of these armouries were in fact nothing more than hastily converted
private residences, or parts thereof, such as those of Zurrieq, belonging to

Main faade of the

building which once
served as the armoury
in the village of
Zurrieq.

135

Giovanni Francesco Cutajar and of Bormola, property of Debertis, who was

the Ajutante maggiore of Bormola. In 1793, the Congregation of War and
Fortification petitioned the Grand Master in order to bestow la mezza croce
on Debertis for his services, particularly for having prestato gratis un luogo
della sua casa per lArmeria, ed a proprie spese ha fabbricato una camera per
il corpo di guardia di detta Armeria. 43 Cutajar, too, had similarly prestato
gratis una sua casa nel Zurrico per Armeria di quel Regimento but in November
1793 he requested that it be given back to him for his own personal use.44
Consequently, it was agreed to rent the house of the colonel of the Zurrieq
regiment instead: ... si deliberato di prendere in affitto per armeria la casa in
cui abita lattuale Signor Colonello nel Zurrico. Earlier in 1762, the house of
Lorenzo Farrugia had been chosen to serve as the armoury, after the ordinary
commissioner of fortifications and the resident engineer were both ordered to
go to Zurrieq per fare le misure e stime dun luogo di case quale dovr servire
per Sala darmi di detto Casale. 45 In another document we read of the sum of
1,334 scudi payable to the priest Don Pietro Paolo Farrugia for un porzione
dun luogo di case posto in casal Zurrico preso per uso dellArmi delle milizie.
Provisions were also made for the establishment of a number of temporary

The Qormi armoury,

now used as a police
station.

136

reserve depositories of arms in various rural places in the north was well as in
the south of the island. The militia regulations of 1761 mention Torre Falca,
St Paul tower, Qrejten tower, St Julian tower and Torre Rossa (Fort St Agatha,
Mellieha), St Lucian Tower, St Thomas Tower, and the old church of St Gregory
as the official magazzini di Deposito per la distributione della polvere ed armi.46

Colonel and trooper of

the Regiment of
Cacciatori (green jacket
with white trimmings),
based on the painting by
Zimelli,above.
Above, left, an
18th-century
representation of the
Cacciatori regiment in
action repelling the
Turkish raid of 1614.

137

These were to hold 100 muskets each, except that of St Lucian which was to
have 300 muskets. Apart from the muskets, their bayonets, and ramrods, these
depositories were also to be stocked with adequate supplies of scartocci
(cartridges) and pietre di fucili. Being situated in remote places, the depositi
had to be serrati e ben custoditi dalle sentinelle and each was placed under the
command of a knight who was assisted by a uomo di penna whose job it was
to take note of the issue of weapons and supplies.47 Earlier in August 1758, and
citing the regulations of 1740, the Congregation of War enabled the commander
of artillery to construct wooden boxes large enough to contain 4,000 cartucci
in order that these could be transported al rendevus dogni Reggimento.

Figurines representing the

various types of troops in the
armed forces of the Order in
the late 18th century (St John
Gate, Clerkenwell).

The state of the armouries outside Valletta was to prove a constant source of
worry for the Order, since these places were poorly maintained and guarded.
The bad state of the equipment in the village armouries was primarily due to
the fact that the weapons were hardly ever serviced and cleaned, but also
because they were frequently being shifted from one place to another owing to
makeshift storage arrangements, since buildings had to be vacated to satisfy
other uses. For example, in 1778, we find that the magazines which served as
armouries for the urban militia were emptied and returned to the Universit in
order to help cut down on the expenses incurred in rents.48 Theft, too, was a
problem. In 1795 it was decided to remove the firearms from Citt Notabile to
Valletta because it was discovered that there was a considerable haemorrhage
of weapons from the armouries there. 49 Indeed, in October 1795, the
Congregation of War ordered an inquiry to discover why there were many
militia firearms, stored in the towns and villages, unaccounted for. A few weeks
earlier, all the militia firearms had been numbered, possibly in preparation for
such an investigation, Si eordinato che si numerino I fucili di campagna affinche
non si meschino larmi dun reggimento con quelli dun altro.50
It was not only the village armouries which suffered from the loss of weapons.
The central armouries too were likewise plagued by the loss of military
equipment, particularly that leased out to the many corsairs who operated under
the Orders flag. These weapons, handed out on payment of a stipulated fee,
had to be returned after an agreed period, in default of which a fine equivalent
to the value of the weapons had to be paid to the Comun Tesoro. A typical
armamento of an average-sized corsair vessel, such as that belonging to Capitano
Leopaldo Desira (May 1782),51 consisted of 40 muskets (at 4 scudi each), 20
blunderbusses (10 scudi each), 30 pistols (2.6 scudi each), 40 bayonets, 50
sabres (4 scudi each), 60 partizans and 12 spontoons all leased out for
797.8 scudi, a hefty sum that shows the high stakes involved in corsairing
activity. In practice, however, the regulations were not strictly enforced although
half-hearted attempts were occasionally made to collect unreturned weapons
left in mano de Cavalieri o particulari, and the money collected from fines
used alla compra daltri armi. 52 In 1797, such were the perdite accadute ai
corsari nello scorso anno that the number of firearms to be leased out was set
at only 500 muskets, 200 pistols and 50 tromboni.53

138

Keeping track of issued weapons was not an easy task and various control
mechanisms were introduced. The loss of weapons was, in most instances,
taken very seriously. In 1722, for example, a magisterial inquiry was held to find
out why four muskets had gone missing during the course of military esercizij
held in Gozo, wherein cinque cento azzarini from Malta had been distributd to
the Gozitans. From the investigations carried out it transpired that Quattro
soldati non havessero restituto li azzarini ed essendo successivamente ricercati
per la dovuta restitutione uno disse daverlo consegnato per essere accomodato
allarmiere dei vasselli che allora si ritrova in dettIsola et in fatti essarmiere
conoscendo il suo torto ha gia riconsegnato il suo azzarino diverso per da quelli
di questa S Religion e latri tre asseriscono dhaver roconsegnati in detta marina
del migiarro. The three culprits were imprisoned but it was eventually the Notaro
who was made to reimburse their loss, having been assigned the responsibility
of overseeing the weapons
On the other hand, we find that an order for the payment of tredici fucili trovati
mancanti nella consegna dellarmi causante I miliziotti rimasti disertosi, in 1771,
was dropped when it was ascertained that the Maggiore delle Milizie Urbane,
the knight Fr Don Luigi dAlmejda, had acted diligently and was not to blame
for the incident. This ruling smacks of favouritism when one realizes that earlier
in 1766 the Maggiore della Milizia was officially encharged with the
responsibility for tutte larmi di detta Milizia once issued from the armouries in
order to equip the rural troops. He was in turn encharged with distributing the
weapons to the respective capitani delle Campagnie quali capitani restano
incaricati de loro respettivi armi.
The recovery, rather than the issue, of the 4,000 or so firearms issued each
year in order to equip the country and urban militia regiments, was evidently not
an easy nor straightforward task. One enterprising individual, a certain Antonio
Rodriguez , approached the Order with a proposal for undertaking the necessary
work, obviously for a fee. An evaluation of his memoriale per la distribuzion
dellArmi to Grand Master de Vilhena makes very interesting reading as it
sheds important light on the manner in which the weapons were distributed to
the country and city folk in the period before the system of village armouries
was actually adopted in later years. Apparently at that time each person issued
with a firearm was bound to pay a small sum of money as a guarantee for the
proper care of his weapon. Antonio Rodriguez, therefore, proposed to spend 16
days a year going round the towns and villages per esigere dalla gente che si e
provista con larmi tari uno per ciascuno al mese. Given that the large part of
the inhabitants were not so eager to comply (la maggior parte della gente non
sara cosi pronta a comparire per il pagamento) he recommended that a further
four days would be needed to go around the countryside in order to track down
the absentee debtors. All this in exchange for a percentage cut on the money
collected.

139

The Orders officials were not very enthusiastic about the apparent ease, and
the short period of time which Rodriguez had estimated for the completion of
such an undertaking, given that the operator would also have to make allowances
for the collection of the weapons di quelli che moiono e che abbino esenzione
per leta avanzata. Furthermore, it was estimated that such an undertaking
would require an additional annual expenditure of 66 scudi to cover the cost of
the scrivano che assiste (18 scudi), sedici calessi e mantenimento dell esattore,
scrivano, e aiutante per esigere dalla campagna per ogni anno sedici giorni (24
scudi) and per la gente che si manda in giro delli casali per li falliti (24 scudi).
For these expenses Rodriguez was offered cinque percento del denaro che
andera esigendo del prezzo dellarmi, senza che possa pretendere niente altro.
It is not known, however, if this scheme proved profitable and for how long it
was operated, or if it ever was introduced. The Orders documents make no
further mention of such methods.
The role that the secondary military storehouses played in the dramatic events
of 1798 has not been well documented by the chroniclers of those dramatic
days. The Orders records stop short of this ordeal. The dramatic events of
those few momentous days left very little time for adequate record keeping.
Presumably, most of the weapons necessary to arm the 15,000 strong militia
would have already been issued from the Palace Armoury by the time of the
arrival of the French fleet in June. Most of the weapons would probably also
have been distributed to the village armouries and the special depositories in
accordance with the Orders established practice following the commencement
of the shipping season. At least one temporary deposit of weapons and munitions
is known to have been set up along the road from Zebbug to Qalet Marku in the
manner established by the Regolamenti for the deployment of the country
militia.54 One village armoury, that of Zebbug, is known to have still held
firearms when the insurrection broke out against the French in September 1798.
Stanislaw LHoste, the president of the Zebbug municipality, was in fact killed
by the Maltese peasants when he refused to hand over the keys to said
armoury.55 A group of peasants under the direction of Notary Saver Zarb also
managed to ransack a small armoury situated in San Anton Palace but this
probably consisted mainly of hunting pieces.56 Even so, the number of weapons
available in the countryside was not large. One document only mentions 300
muskets and 500 fowling pieces as being the equipment available to the Maltese
rebels at the outbreak of hostilities.57 The bulk of the muskets and munitions
that later served to arm the Maltese inhabitants was eventually supplied by
their British and Portuguese allies.

140

The Organizational
Framework
The Commander of Artillery
Ensuring that the military storehouses were kept well-equipped and supplied
with sufficient weapons necessary to arm the knights and their men, difficult as
this effort may have been at certain times, was only but part of the perennial
task facing the Order. Seeing that all this equipment was administered properly
and regularly serviced so as to guarantee that the knights war machine functioned
efficiently in times of war was another. In the early days of the Order the
control and administration of all military hardware fell directly under the
responsibility of the Marshal, who was the Hospitallers military commander.
By the closing decades of the 13th century it was necessary for the marshal to
delegate the administration of the armouries to a subordinate knight and the
statutes of the Order were amended accordingly. This arrangement held good
throughout most of the Rhodian period but with the appearance of firearms, the
responsibility for the armouries became gradually that of the commander of
artillery. It is not clear when this transformation actually took place for the title
of commander of artillery only begins to appear in Malta.1 As late as the
military preparations of 1471, one finds two knights being appointed super
Arteliaria,2 suggesting that no such specific command had been established by
then, while during the emergency of 1475, it was the Seneschal who was
instructed to distribute the arquebuses and crossbows from the armouries to
the country folk who had sought refuge within the citys ramparts. It is only
with the statutes of Grand Master de la Sengle that we have the first mention of
the commander of artillery as the person in charge of the armoury.
The post of commander of artillery, always occupied by a senior knight, became
an important position in the military hierarchy of the Order once cannon and
firearms began to constitute a crucial component of the defensive armament of
fortresses and galleys. Many an illustrious knight occupied this position through
the centuries, such as Jean Jacques de Verdelin, Giuseppe de Demandolx and
St. Trop, though only one of those who are known to have held this post
appears to have ever made it to the magistracy, Fr Hugues Loubenx de Verdala.
Commanders of artillery were nominated by the grand commander subject to
the approval of the Grand Master and his council and generally served for a
period of two years although a few, such as Fr Renato de Gras Preville (172125), Fr Giovanbatista Durand Sartoux (1755-61) and Fr Luca dArgence

141

Detail from frescoe panel at

Verdala Palace showing Fr
Hugues Loubens de Verdale
(later Grand Master) when he
was serving as commander of
artillery in 1561.
Pages 143,145 & 149 show
official lists naming the knights
who held the position of
commander of artillery from
1595 to 1779.

(1767-77) served for longer periods and at least one, the knight Verdelin was
appointed twice, first in the year 1631 and then in 1637. Commanders of artillery
were required to sit on the Congregation of Fortification, and after 1660, the
Congregation of War and Fortification, an important permanent commission
which had oversight of everything connected with the defence of the island:
fortifications, artillery, firearms, munitions, armouries, troops, militia, and the
provision of victuals and fresh water. Inevitably, as the commanders in charge
of the armouries, they were subject to the rulings of this congregation; the
order for all militia muskets to be numbered, mentioned earlier on, to name but
one typical example, was issued by this congregation in its sitting of 20 June
1795. Moreover, important matters dealing with the procurement of new arms
and the manner of their distribution were issues which were decided at a higher
level than that of the commander of artillery, generally involving the council of
the Order after deliberations of the congregation of war and fortification,
following inspections and reports by special commissions of knights appointed
ad hoc. Thus, the decision as to what types and quantities of arms were to be
procured from the arms manufacturing centre of St Etienne en Forrest in 1759
was based on the report prepared by the two commissioners Francesco Jarente
and Giuseppe de Almeyda. The commander of artillery was only consulted for
his opinion.

142

143

144

It would appear that the knights had the custom of having the coats of arms of
the commanders of artillery displayed inside the Armoury, either painted on
wooden shields or on the walls. Blanche Lintorn Simmons, in the late 1800s,
could still see several of these and identified one of them as belonging to Fr
Jean Baptiste Durand Sartoux, commander from 12 June 1775 to August 1761.
She also noted a wooden shield with the arms of Fr Henri de Robin Beauregard,
commander from 23 September 1739 to September 1743.
In todays administrative jargon, the commander of artillery would have been
the executive manager of the armouries, his role being mainly to oversee that
the weapons were adequately stored, duly issued and returned, and repaired
when necessary, a role clearly spelt out in a document of 1762, ...Il
Commandante dell Artiglieria havera la cura di pulire glarmi, e sale darmi de
regimenti di Campagna, e per la loro custodia, e spese darmieri et altro. The
records show, however, that this duty was not always one which was diligently
carried out. Repeated references to periods of slackened control over the issue
and recuperation of weapons and a disregard for the state of repair of the
military equipment stand witness to a not-so-efficient military depatment. The
latter can more readily be saddled on the overall state of inadequate resources
available in the armoury setup, particularly throughout the 18th century, rather
than a reflection of negligence on the part of artillery commanders. Exceptionally
lacking then was the presence of armourers, the skilled workers who repaired,
cleaned, and arranged the weapons in the Armoury.
By definition the word armourer refers both to a manufacturer of arms and to
an official in charge of the storehouses where military equipment was kept.
In the context of the military organization of the Order of St John the term is
used to refer to the latter, but also in his capacity to repair and service equipment.
There is no documented evidence to show that there were ever any armourers
in the service of the Order who were employed specifically to manufacture
military equipment. A few cottage industries for the production of swords did
exist in Malta, and possibly even Rhodes. Dal Pozzo records an incident which
occurred in 1601 between the knight Fr Don Francesco Pontoisa and an
Artigiano Spadaro della Valletta,3 and the 18th century records speak of the
sword-maker Carlo Labruna,4 while a few items of arms and armour to be
seen at the Palace Armoury also point to a local reassembly, adaptation, and
cannibilization of equipment. There were instances, however, when firearms
were assembled locally with parts procured from abroad. The bulk of arms
and armour, however, was purchased from the leading arms manufacturing
centres of Europe. The Order spared no expenses in acquiring the best weapons
available on the market when it was necessary to do so as it similarly spared no
effort in building the best fortifications that could be designed by the leading
military engineers of their time.
References to armourers are indeed rare, especially for the early periods of
the Orders history. Their presence was noted in the city of Rhodes by an

145

Portrait of Fr Jean
Jacques de Verdelin,
commander of artillery,
and, consequently, in
charge of the armouries
during the years 1631-33
and 1637-39. In 1638,
Verdelin was placed at
the head of a 200-strong
infantry force which was
dispatched to Gozo to
reinforce the garrison of
the Cittadella after a
number of Algerian
vessels were sighted off
the island (Palace
Armoury Museum).

146

English visitor in 1345 but it is only in the 18th century that their names begin to
feature in the Orders records.5 At that stage, however, the Orders armouries
were experiencing an acute shortage of armourers particularly as a direct result
of the massive procurement of arms that accompanied the gargantuan military
preparations of the 18th century. A situation that was aggravated further by the
inadequate storage facilities and the peculiar local climatic conditions so
unconducive for the preservation of steel.
This predicament first comes to light in 1769 with the report of Bal Lessa
Sousa which speaks of some 24,000 muskets in pessimo stato per la ruggine,
a large number of which were totalmente inservibili, particularly those issued
to the militia. 6 The same situation is echoed in a later report by two
commissioners, the knights Fr Francesco Riano and Fr Antonio Suriano, drawn
up in 1782. This commission was appalled to find that, with the exception of
the firearms stored in the Sala di Palazzo and a portion of those in the Armeria
della Falconeria, the remainder of the military hardware was in a ruinous
state, mostly consumed by rust: ...il rimanente in pessimo stato, ed in necessit
duna forte riparazione, e fuor di modo rugginite, di modo tale, che ci ha impedito
di fare la dovuta diligenza, se trovarsi le canne di dentro pulite, ed in caso di
poter servire.7 They were quick to point out that the real cause of the problem
lay in the fact that the weapons had not been cleaned and serviced for a very
long time due to an acute lack of armourers and an insufficient supply of cleaning
materials. The two commissioners calculated that it would have then taken
some 15 years for the few armourers in employment to repair all the
unconditioned weapons which were indicated in an attached list shown below:
...Il numero delle armi, che potrebbe accommodarsi ascende a tredici mila,
ottocento e quattro, quantit in vero, che proporzione delli pochi Maestri
Armieri, che si ritrovano nellIsola non basterebbe il tempo di quindici anni per
riparale, quando che detti Maestri non facessero altro travaglio, e la spesa
sarebbe considerevole.
Fucili
buoni con loro bajonette
per accomodarsi
di scarto
Schioppi di caccia
per accomodarsi
di scarto
Muschettoni
per accomodarsi
Buccanieri
per accomodarsi
Suffioni
per accomodarsi
di scarto
Scopacoverti
in buon stato

Bajonette
buone
26,752
di scarto
10,508
1374
2,977
Canne di diversi generi
44
buone
32
1388
76
di scarto
1,636

613

147

284
133

Spade
buone
per accomodarsi
Spadoni

777
150
42

567

Sciabole
buone
di scarto

113
57
93

147

Spingardi
buoni
Carabine
buoni
Pistole
buone
per accomodarsi
di scarto

29
491
1836
914
349

Spadoni alla Spagnola

buoni
di scarto
Lame di diverse qualit
buone
di scarto

581
5
384
31

Such was the gravity of the situation that there were even proposals to ship the
weapons in bulk to one of the large manufacturing centres abroad where they
could be cleaned and repaired much quicker; Onde a nostro giudizio stimiamo
a proposito di mandar le su cennate armi in una delle Grandi Officine fuori di
quest Isola ove con il vantaggio de giochi dacqua con la quantit proporzionata
de Maestri, ed in conseguenza con minor spesa, e con sollecitudine questa S. R.
Potra averle in buono stato. The term giochi daqua may be referring to the
use of acid baths (aquafortis) or some rudimentary form of electrolysis. This
same type of practice was already being employed at Mdina in 1588, albeit on
a smaller scale, when Marino Casha is reported to have received payment
from the Universit for having accomodato li armi et aver fatto il gioco
dellacqua.
At best, the Orders armourers could only be expected to repair one musket a
day given the terrible state in which most of the weapons had been reduce to,
al pi rettare un fucile per giorno della qualit cosi rugginita. Only when one
realizes that there were literally just a handful of armourers does one begin to
appreciate the sense of alarm expressed in the commissioners report. Indeed,
a register of the stipendiati of the Order for the year 1762 reveals only three
armourers in employment - a certain Pietro Darmanin, who was head armourer
or Capo Maestro Armiere, with an annual salary of 120 scudi, Paolo Cauchi,
Sotto Armiere, with a salary of 84 scudi and Michele Cal , ajutante de Armiere,
with a salary of 84 scudi. Another sottarmiere known to have worked in the
armoury was Giuseppe Xicluna. He was, however, sacked from his job in 1738.
These men were all employed at the Palace.8
It was the head armourer who was effectively in control of the armouries,
reporting directly to the commander of artillery. All persons employed in the
Armoury were assolutamente subordinati to the Capo Maesro Armiere della
Religione, od al suo primo lavorante allorche egli si occupato alla sala darmi
od altrove, ed il capo Mro. Armiere render esatto conto delli lavori, e del
profitto che i giovani fanno nellarte adrittura al Comm. dellArtiglieria proibendo
a qualunque altra subalterna persona dellartiglieria dingerirsene volando che il
solo capo mro. abbia tutta lautorit nel suo Magazzino sotto posta per sempre
al Comm. dellArtiglieria dal quale, e non daltri deve ricevere gli ordini. 9 The
Capo Mastro Armiere was usually a master craftsman, expert in the repair
and construction of arms, principally firearms.

148

149

Portrait of a knight
commander of the
Regiment of Cacciatori
(Palace Armoury
Museum). Bottom, the six
regiments of country
militia had no uniform
and comprised largely a
mass of peasants.

150

Far left, an
18th-century hanger
with brass hilt, similar
to those that would
have been made by
Carlo Labruna in his
local workshop
(Palace Armoury
Museum).
Left, sword possibly
the product of repair
works by the Orders
armourers the brass
hilt, minus the
knuckle-bow, is that of
a British hanger of
c.1700, while the
blade came from a
larger cutting
weapon.

At least one Capo Maestro Armiere, Carlo Labruna, was a local sword
manufacturer before he was employed by the Order.10 His is an interesting
story. Prior to 1759, Labruna had entered into an agreement with the Order to
produce a quantity of schiable (sabres) in his local workshop.11 The arrival of
the arms merchant Michele Gaudin with his sample of grenadier sabres produced
by the Manufacture Royal dAlsace, however, threatened to put him out of
business since he could never aspire to match the price and quantities offered
by the French firm. So he asked the commander of artillery to intervene on his
behalf. In his relazione, the knight Durand testified to the superior quality of
Labrunas swords stating that these were pi perfette e di miglior tempra di
quelle venute da Francia. 12
Consequently, it was decided to give the contract to Labruna on condition that
he produced sabres of the same model as those received from France with
their brass knuckleguards and a fodera di vitelli incollata sopra la tela e guarnita
dottone, and that any judged faulty were to be returned to him to be remade at
his own expense. This may explain why, contrary to the case of the muskets
and pistols ordered from France, there is no specific contract for the purchase
of sabres, nor are any recorded to have ever arrived from France.13 Still,
Labrunas sword manufacturing business does not appear to have been
particularly successful for in May 1772 he applied for the vacant post of master
armourer. There were two other contestants for the position, namely Carlo
Cauchi and Nicola Catania.14 In July, they were all made to sit for a practical
examination to try out their abilities and the commander of artillery, the knight
DArgens, was asked to supervise the test. On the appointed day, Labruna did
not attend as he was ill, but was nonetheless still allowed to carry out the test at

151

Right, detail of the

breech of a musket
barrel showing the
carved inscription
Me=PATzi= n10
together with an
eight-pointed cross .
Another musket has
no 285 carved on the
barrel (opposite page Palace Armoury
Museum).

home, obviously in the presence of the commander. The tasks they were each
asked to perform consisted of the construction and decoration of a lockplate
and its fitting onto a wooden musket stock: ...facendoli separamente fare una
platina intieramente nuova, e bulmata, e portare la montatura del suo ceppo
intagliato, e filettato secondo larte allo uso moderno, e tutti li ornamenti tanto di
un fucile da guerra, che da caccia. 15 A three-men commission, composed of
the knights La Villatte, La Pata and DArgens himself, was appointed to review
the results. All three applicants proved to be expert armourers but it was
eventually il Donato Carlo Lubrana who was chosen for the job.
Frequently, however, the Capo Maestro Armiere was a foreigner. In the year
1763, a Frenchmen by the name of Giovanni Enarmes, engaged by Commander
Grieux in France, was appointed to the position, while earlier in 1761 an expert
Maitre Armurier was purposely brought over from France to evaluate the
newly arrived weapons from St Etienne en Forest.16 Giovanni Enarmes served
for more than a decade, well into 1772, and for a few years he was even
assisted by four French lavoranti. He was succeeded by Labruna who went
on to serve for less than two years, for in 1773 Nicola Catania, one of the three
contestants for the post in 1772, was appointed in his stead. The records show
that he was still in employment in 1792 but not after; so was Carlo Cauchi who
in the meantime had made it to Sotto Armiere. The documents also reveal the
presence of a second Capo Maestro Armiere during the years 1786-1792. His
name was Valentino Grech and in most probability it was he, together with
Carlo Cauchi, who oversaw the last distribution of arms from the Palace Armoury
during the French invasion of 1798 for both were still employed in such a capacity
late in 1797.17

152

Under the master armourer came the regular armourers and a small unskilled
labour force of forzati and slaves who were expected to perform the donkey
work, such as scraping off rust and polishing weapons. A report of 1763 speaks
of the Artisti, Lavoranti, Garzoni, Figlioli e gente di Catena che ...lavorano in
tutte le armerie della Religione.18 The artisti were the skilled craftsmen who
decorated weapons. The lavoranti were also skilled labourers working for
pay. Some were foreigners, such as the four lavoranti armieri Francesi fatti
venire per rimettere in stato conveniente queste varie sue armerie. These
Frenchmen, in fact, were very skilled craftsmen much sought after per i lavori
fini. The ablest of these, by the name of Prev, was eventually proposed for
the post of primo lavorante in order to supervise the work of the other labourers
and the slaves: ...che abbia autorit dinvigilare sopra i schiavi, per che questi
non perdino il tempo, come anche non maltrattino quelle armi dateli a ripulire,
con cattivo lavoro. 19 The skilled craftsmen were also expected to teach the
apprentices, ...communichi (la loro arte) ne loro allievi. This Prev may have
been the Armiere Giacomo Peron (Armiere) mentioned in another document,
who died sometime before 1719 and whose place was taken over by Carlo
Farrugia, an assembler of muskets. Encouraged by his brothers success,
Giuseppe Farrugia petitioned the Grand Master in order to be allowed to
subentrate a servire per compagno di detto suo fratello.
The knights Suriano and Riano reveal that it was also the practice to employ a
number of persone invalide(invalids) to clean weapons. These were soldiers
who had served on the galleys and had been wounded and disabled in one of
the many sea-battles.20A good description of what was expected of an armourer
is given by Commander de Rossellon Chattes in 1716 in his recommendation
for promotion of sotto armiere Carlo Farrugia to armourer with a salary of 10
scudi a month on condition that Farrugia was to perform tutti i lavori che
bisognano per dett Armeria, di montar fucili et altro ... anche di far stelle di
canoni e cocci per lArtiglieria tanto di bronzo come di ferro, e stigli per dett

153

A sawn-off service
musket converted into a
carbine; apparently this
was known as a fucile
buccaniere or mezzo
fucile and was used on
board galleys and
sailing ships-of- the-line.
Below, a forzato and a
slave as representated
on the sepulchral
monument of Grand
Master Pinto inside
St Johns Co-cathedral.

opera, come pure daccomodare tutti glarmi delle galere. Chattes was then
particularly anxious not to lose the services of Farrugia given that the work in
the Armoury had increased considerably with the recent arrival of tredici milia
e pi fucili. Farrugia had petitioned for an increase in his daily wage of 10 tari
given that the pressure of work was preventing him from running his own
business.19a
The forzati were men condemned by local tribunals to serve a sentence
performing public works and were in their majority foreigners. The more unlucky
ones generally ended up on the rowing benches of galleys. 21 Early in 1716,
there were five French Armieri Forzati working in the Palace Armoury under
strict surveillance.22 In 1770 the master armourer asked for the assistance of
at least a hundred forzati, or gente di ciurmaas he also calls them, if he was
seriously to be expected to repair the thousands of poorly conditioned firearms
indicated by Bal Sousa in his report: ... almeno di cento forzati di pi ogni
qualvolta questa Ven. Congregatione sarebbe del sentimento di voler le armi in
buon stato: almeno di cento persone di ciurma per accomodare, e pulire tutte le
armi che sono in questArmeria quali presentemente si trovino in pessimo stato,
e di trascurare su tal particolare sar di grandissimo danno a Sacra Religione,
stanteche se si tralascia pi tempo si renderanno del tutto inservibili. 23
In 1769 the number of forzati employed in the cleaning of arms just barely
managed to cater for the requirements of the Palace Armoury and those of the
squadra delle galere e de vasselli. 24
Slaves too, surprisingly, were made to work in the Armoury, although under
supervision. Given the strict regulations prohibiting slaves from carrying arms
(mannare o altre armi) or even approaching the ramparts particularly where
these were armed with artillery, under pain of 100 lashes, it is indeed strange to
find that they were then given access to such an important storehouse. Evidently,
this was an arrangement necessitated by the lack of resources.25 That it was a
risky arrangement can perhaps be best illustrated by the slave conspiracy of

154

1748. Although this rebellion was nipped in the bud, many slaves revealed
under torture that their plan was to take over the Palace Armoury with which
they were well acquainted. Indeed, one slave blacksmith by the name of Halil
was even detailed to force open the door of the Armoury after overcoming the
few palace guards.26 Even so, this incident did not prevent the Order from
continuing the practice of employing slaves although, as happened in 1761, the
Armoury, and the whole Palace risked going up in flames had not a stable lad
noticed smoke coming out of the Armoury after a Turkish slave,27 detailed to
work there, had left his lighted pipe on some gun-wadding. The slave got cento
bastonate for his carelessness but there were still four slaves working at the
Armoury in 1766, and their work was considered important enough to necessitate
their retention during a cost-cutting exercise which foresaw the sale of all
superfluous local slaves who were to be sent to Sicily and the continent.28
The schiavi working in the Armoury were sent back under escort to the slave
prison every evening but the prison wardens could not always guarantee that
same slaves were sent back to work at the Amoury on the following day.29 This
obviously was a serious handicap since the armourers had frequently to waste
their time teaching the newly arrived slaves how to handle and clean the weapons.
An attempt was made to rectify the situation but apparently to little avail:30
...Pare che il Ven. Comun Tesoro non possa dispensarsi dordinare agli aggozini
della Prigione di rimandar tutti giorni medesimi schiavi destinati al servizio di
questa ufficina per repulire le armi.
Effectively, the Palace Armoury was the main place where armourers were
employed throughout the 17th and most of the 18th centuries. There were,
nonetheless, instances where armourers were engaged outside the Armoury.
For example, the Orders fighting ships, particularly the large men-of-war, were
each equipped with their own small armouries and armourers. In 1796, the
crew of the Nave San Giovanni contained an armourer who had a salary of
7.6 scudi a month. So did the Santa Zaccaria. The Gozo armoury, too, had a
resident Maestro Armiere; the last one recorded to have occupied this post
was Michele Cauchi who was first engaged in 1786 and was still in employment
late in 1797. Possibly he was still serving in this capacity in 1798 when the
Cittadella surrendered to the French. In 1769 there was a proposal for an
armourer to be deployed in each of the village armouries; Se per ...lasciare le
armi come sono al presente, necessario assolutamente di nominare un Armiere
ad ogni Sala di Campagna, li quali saranno pagati da chi giudichera l. Em. Sig.
Gran Maestro. 31 This exercise would have necessitated the employment of at
least six armourers and it is not clear if it was ever implemented to cover all the
armouries. A number of armourers, however, do seem to have been employed
for this purpose, for in September 1795, the commander of artillery was ordered
by the Congregation of War and Fortification to reform the armieri di
campagnia. 32 In 1777, it was also proposed to deploy un armiere al quartiere
of the Reggimento di Malta. One armourer known to have been deployed to
a village armoury was Michele Balzan. He was stationed at the Qormi armoury

155

but was exiled from the island in June 1797 for his part in the conspiracy led by
Mikiel Anton Vassalli after he was charged and convicted for the theft of
gunpowder and arms from the said armoury. In the investigations that followed
his arrest, armourers Nicola Catania, Carlo Cauchi, and Giuseppe Bonanno
testified that Balzan had failed to account for all but 50 of the muskets under his
charge and when the cistern in the Qormi armoury was emptied and searched,
it was found to contain a considerable amount of equipment, including 133
bayonets.32a
Some of these armourers also performed secondary duties, like for example,
Pietro Monpalao Apap who was Armiere e munitionere salariato at the Mdina
armoury in 1726.33 He was assisted in his duties by Armiere Giuseppe Farrugia
and Tomaso Tagliana who was engaged occasionally to clean weapons. Still,
the overall number would not have been high. In 1722 it was reported that
there were only dodici o quindici di tal mestiere available in the whole of
Malta and Gozo.34 The Orders military planners then believed that at least
Venti Maestri armieri con circa ottanta lavoranti were necessary in the event
of a siege, together with a further 6 spadari colli stigli necessari alla loro arte,
per riparare il bisogno delle sciabole, spade, baionette, e tutte sorte darme
bianche. 35 Mondion, earlier in 1715, was even more ambitious and called for at
least a hundred Maitres Armuriers as he believed on ne peut trop avoir ceuxci, pour reparer tous les fusils et mousquets qui se gastent tous les jours.36
An important part of the Palace Armoury was the armourers workshop, the
so-called Ufficina dellArmeria, which was situated in a room adjoining the
main gallery.37 This workshop was under the control of the master armourer
and was generally well-equipped with tools, spare parts, and with the necessary
supplies of cleaning materials. The knights Suriano and Riano tell us that the
principal materials then used to clean the weapons were oglio and smeriglio,
oil and emery.38 The oil was applied as a coating to prevent the weapons from
rusting. All the 6 armourers in charge of the armouries dei sei regimenti di
campagnqa were issued with lolio necessario per la pulitura, e mantenimento
degli armi. The armourer employed at Fort Manoel, for instance, was supplied
with two scudi worth of oglio che da alle armi di quell armeria every semester,
a recurring expense which was covered by the funds of the Manoel Foundation.39
Emery is a coarse variety of corundum powder, used for the polishing of metal.
Cleaning weapons with emery was still the method being employed at the Palace
Armoury in 1969 as attested by Zygulski and Czerwinski. In essence, this
abrasive method of cleaning armour in still that being used in the Armoury
today, the emery cloth having been simply substituted by fine steel-wool wire.
Emery and oil were in short supply at the Armoury in 1782, and the two
commissioners reported that as a consequence hardly any were then being
applied. The armorers were specifically instructed not to use too much emery
as this was very abrasive and could damage and consume the metal unless
applied with care, and to this end they were taught to apply it mixed with oil,
... Dovendo pulir larmi averta di non impiegar troppo smeriglio intorno a quelle

156

perche col smeriglio in breve tempo si consumano, ma praticarlo a ragione con

loglio per mantenerle ben pulite. It seems that due to the scarcity of emery in
these latter years, recourse was made to a cheaper substitute sand. Although
none is actually documented in use in the Armoury workshop, the soldiers of
the Reggimento the Malta, after 1776, were to be issued with terra di Tripoli
secca (dry Tripolitan sand) for cleaning and polishing their weapons. The sand
was to be dissolved in vinegar in modo che sia alquanto densa and then applied
with a brush and rubbed over with un pezzo di panno, the final luster being
achieved with the application of lo spirito di vino col corno di cervo.
The regulations for the distribution of equipment for use aboard the Orders
men-of-war reveal that the armourers in charge of the quay-side magazine
housing these vessels weapons were expected to set aside at least one day a
week for the cleaning of equipment, ... un giorno alla settimana non ad altro
che alla politura di essi accioche siano sempre mantenute in buon stato. The
weapons were usually taken from the Armoury and stored temporarily inside a
quay-side magazine before being shipped aboard their respective vessel prior
to the departure of the caravane. Presumably, the weapons in the Armoury
itself were subjected to the same frequency of treatment.
Various stocks of spare parts for the repair and maintenance of weapons were
kept in the Armoury workshop. Amongst these one finds guarnimenti dottone
per fucili, detti per pistole and many other pezze per cambiare per fucili,
moschetti e pistoli. The following list, drawn up in 1714, gives an idea of the
items to be found in an 18th-century armoury of the Order:40
viti di platine (screws for the lockplates)
viti che servono per il legname
viti per il legname delli guardamani
viti per cani di fucili
batterie dazzarini limate
anelli per tenere il focile in banda
anelli chiamati porta bacchetta che si attaccano alla cassa del fucile
noci dazzarino sbozzate
grilli
viti grosse per il fondo delle canne
cani e altrettante batterie per pistoli
cani e altrettante batterie per moschetti
chiavi di moschetti
barre o siano false chiave
viti piatti nella testa
parafouche Plaque de Couche
porta viti
misure dacciaio per fabbricare molli

Added to these were the armourers outils du metier. In 1785, one of the
magazines at the Falconeria was used to store an abundant reserve of the
tools destined for use in the Armoury workshop and from St Felixs inventory of

157

its contents one can form a good picture of how the ufficina was then
furnished:41
morse di ferro
morsette a mano
martelli
tenaglie diverse
Rascadori per pulire
banchi per lavorare sopra
serre
mantice con suo cavalletto
Ascie di mano
Mastravite
Frise
Coltelli per ceppi
Ciane diverse
Mannaje diverse
Brocche
Pistoni per lo smeriglio
Archi per li trapani
Torno per fare noci
di grilli
Spini per fare fascie
Cocchiare per lignejar
piombo
forbici diversi
scorbia
saldatori
Tagliatori di ferro
Trapani
montaballestre
squerra di ferro

26
14
50
30
54
18
4
1
2
18
5
17
11
4
2
2
5
1
11
2
2
1
2
2
33
2
1

An important detail which is encountered in the 1782 commissioners report on

the Armoury is that the majority of the Orders weapons did not have any
special markings indicating that they were its property, ...in quanto al bollo non
abbiamo ritrovato verun per ragione che non vi luso, che simprima nelle
armi di questa Sacra Religione. 42 That it was not the practice to stamp the
equipment with special markings is indeed attested by the weapons which can
still be seen at the Armoury today, although a very small number of items do
carry marks. On the other hand, it appears that in later years, many of the
military firearms were eventually numbered and some still reveal large crudelymade numerals carved out on the barrels.
As a rule the armourers worked for a salary but this was not always the
arrangement, particularly in the later half of the 18th century. One document
of 1769 speaks of armourers paid a giornata and at times the work was given
out on contract.43 In 1714, for example, Maestri Giacomo Perun and Carlo
Farrugia were contracted to assemble a hundred muskets with the gun parts

158

issued from the Armoury and magazines:44 ... essendo tenuta congregatione si
diede a partito la fattura di 100 fucili a Mro. Giacomo Perun, Mro. Carlo Farrugia
secondo la mostra che gli si diede dalla V. Cong. con lintervento del Sign.
Comm. dell Artiglieria per la somma di tari otto luno, e la V. Cong le fornisce
il legname segato e le guarnimenti, non havendo a fornire altro che le viti, la
sottosparatura e qualche tenune a chi li manchera, alle canne bisogna tagliare il
gocone e metter la grana al suo luogo essendo canne di moschetto. Again in
1715 it was proposed to gather all the available armourers and have them
concentrate solely on the assembly of muskets; ...esser chiamati tutti larmieri
per impiegarli dentro uno o pi magazzini per montare fucili, moschetti et altre
armi e metterli tutti in buon stato e farli travagliare non solo i giorni di lavoro ma
anche i giorni di festa. 45 In 1729 the armourer at Mdina was paid 12 scudi 10
tari for having laid out in good order all the armi militari della Citt after these
were relocated to a new building.
In general, however, there does not appear to have been an established method
of remuneration related to the specific duties which armourers were expected
to perform. This situation was at times to be the cause of much dispute between
the armourers themselves. One particularly contentious individual was Michele
Cal, an aiutante dellArmeria, who was daily at loggerheads with his superiors
over the issue of payment and wrote various petitions to the Grand Master
beseeching him to intercede on his behalf. Eventually, it was agreed to concede
Michele Cal an increase of one scudo a month on condition that he was not to
ask for further compensation. This arrangement does not appear to have been
much to his liking, for shortly afterwards, after more than 15 years of service in
the Armoury, Cal applied to be given the vacant post of guardiano nelli forni
della Religione. 46 In 1777, the salary of an armiere was established at scudi 5
al mese.
Another interesting petition is that of Carlo Farrugia submitted to Grand Master
Perellos in 1715. This armourer had been first engaged in a casual capacity in
1711 and retained in servitio dellarmeria senza verun assegnamento di soldo
ma con il sussidio di tari sei il giorno. Due to the heavy increase in the workload,
particularly after the arrival of a large number of weapons, di pi dell ordinario
di tredici mila e pi fucili, he was retained in service and eventually lost il
travaglio di sua bottega. Given that his capabilities were favourably commented
upon by the commander of artillery, the knight Rosellon Chattes, when asked
for his views (ritovasi in tutto prattichissimo), Farrugia was assigned an increase
of scudi dieci al mese on condition that he was also to assemble muskets and
accomadare tutti glarmi delle galere.
The new regulations of 1763 did away with the daily payments except in the
case of two or three lavoranti and qualche giovane principiante, establishing
instead a scale of payments related to specific jobs.47 These regulations were
drawn up at the time when the Order set about reorganizing its armouries and
decided to assemble many of the canne smontate hoarded at the Falconeria.

159

The master armourer was required to keep a record of all works carried out at
the Armoury and no payment could be effected unless approved by him.
Interestingly, the lavoranti were also permitted to accept commissions from
knights and other individuals provided they first obtained the approval of the
commander of artillery, the money being deposited in a safe box and duly
distributed every 6 months; Permettiamo, che possino accomodare e far di
nuovo Fucili, Pistole etc, che dalli nostri Religiosi e daltri particolari verranno
commissionati con la intelligenza per, e permesso dell Comm. dellArtiglieria,
ed il prezzo che si ricever da dette manifatture dovr depositarsi in una cassa
chiusa a chiave e dello che supone in detta cassa dovra tenerne un conto il
Comm. dellArtiglieria,ed in forma di giornale il corrispondente conto il Mastro
Armiere, ed ogni sei mesi si aprir per dare quelche compete a chi ha avuto
parte alli lavori. The rates at which the assemblage of weapons was to be
charged were fixed in the following manner;48
per un ceppo di azzarino per cavaliere
per un ceppo di un spingardo
per un ceppo di azzarino per soldato
per un ceppo di scopacoverta
per un ceppo di pistola per cavaliere
per un ceppo di pistola per soldato
giunte di azzarino
giunte di pistole
per un cane
per una batteria
per la sparatura
per la balestra
per la molletta della batteria
per la molletta della sparatura
per il focone
per la macella
per il vitone del cane
per i viti piccoli
per la culata
per il tenone
per il coccio
per la fascia
per la fascia dabasso
per il guardamano
per un portaviti
per la piancia della sparatura
per la sparatura
per un fodero di sciabola
per un fodero di spada
per un fodero di baionetta

1 scudo 3 tari
1 scudo 3 tari
10 tari
10 tari
7 tari 10 grani
6 tari
1 tari 10 grani
15 grani
2 tari 10 grani
2 tari
1 tari 10 grani
2 tari
1 tari 15 grani
1 tari
2 tari
10 grani
15 grani
5 grani
3 tari
10 grani
10 grani
12 grani
1 tari 10 grani
2 tari
8 grani
8 grani
6 grani
1 tari
10 grani
10 grani
8 grani

The same type of payment system, lavorare per il prezzo, was also proposed
to be adopted when the knights were considering employing an armourer in the
barracks of the Reggimento di Malta in 1777. The congregation of war and

160

Drawing by Zimelli showing a Commander

of Artillery in the 1700s (National Library
of Malta).

161

fortification then asked the commanders of the Regimento and the artillery to
agree on and fix the prezzi delle manufatture. 49
The armourers at the Palace Armoury were also responsible for arranging and
looking after the trophies-of-arms on display in the Sala Grande. That the
antique weapons were well cared for is evidenced by the good condition many
of the items themselves. This is also attested by the records; a Turkish tufenk
(musket), guarnito in argento e avorio is known to have been restored in the
armourers workshop as late as 1796.50 The armourers workshop, however,
does not appear to have been the only place were weapons were repaired and
restored. At times, it seems that this type of work was also carried out at the
Ferraria, for in 1720, five wagon-loads of azzarini from the Mdina armoury
were sent there for repairs.51 The resident armourer of Fort Manoel, too, was
able to repair weapons in his own workshop. In August 1872, for example, he
was paid 4 scudi to manufacture due ceppi di fucili. In September he was paid
another 2 scudi per aver fatto un ceppo nuovo di fucile and in April 1783,
another 4.2 scudi per accommodare diversi fucili di quella armeria. 52
For all the inherent problems in the workings of the armoury setup, considerable
sums of money were expanded on the repair of weapons. The records show
that around 1,300 scudi were spent on the riparationi delle armi between the
years 1782 and 1786, a sum equivalent to the cost of construction of a coastal
battery with its blockhouse. The largest amount, 528.8.8 scudi, was expanded
in 1784 and was employed, amongst other things, to cover the spese per tagliare
500 fucili ricevuti dallArtiglieria, ed accommodare le padrone ed i
centuri. 53 Nonetheless, expenditure on the repair of weapons dropped
dramatically in the final years of the Orders rule in Malta. The accounts show
that 76.8.10 scudi were spent on repairs in the financial year 1795-1796 and
only 47 scudi in 1796-1797. Annual expenditure on armouries in general, in
1795, amounted to 1,175.5.5. scudi, roughly 3.3% of the Orders total military
budget for that year. In 1773, the spese per le diverse Armerie della Citt
Vittoriosa, Senglea, Bormola e Casali amounted to only 153.2.10 scudi, showing
clearly that the bulk of the expenses mostly went to cover the main armouries
in Valletta. These spese delle sale darmi del Regimenti were paid directly
from the treasury.
A considerable sum of 150 scudi was spent in 1767 in connection with works
carried out at the Palace Armoury. This was paid to the knight Rene Jacques
de Tign, the commissioner of fortifications, for having undertaken and supervised
various works in the Armoury. Bal de Tign was a competent military engineer
and indeed for many years served in this capacity as the Orders resident military
engineer. It is not clear what works he actually carried out in the Armoury, but
the sum of 150 scudi suggests that these were significant and may have also
included some structural alterations, possibly even the construction of the baroque
portal at the main entrance to the main gallery.

162

Artillery Stores &

Gunpowder Magazines
Manufacture & Storage of Gunpowder
Gunpowder played an important role in the history of the Order from the
moment it began to power projectile weapons strong enough to influence
the outcome of warfare and military affairs. Learning quickly from the
lessons of the Turkish siege of Constantinople of 1453, the knights of St
John were early in exploiting the potential of gunpowder-operated artillery
in both attack and defence. By the early 15th century the words bombarda
and bombardieri1 became common entries in the Orders records, revealing
an ever-increasing reliance on the new technology. This development is also
physically attested in the surviving remains of the military architecture of
the period, in the towers with gun-loops, in the embrasures and in countermines
built from the reign of Grand Master Fluviano onwards. Inevitably, the
procurement, manufacture, and storage of gunpowder became an important
function in the affairs of the Order and special officials had to be appointed
to administer both the munitions that worked the new artillery and the guns
themselves. Heading the new department, by the early 16th century, was
the commander of artillery who, in time, came also to assume responsibility
for the armouries, as already described earlier in this book.
Specific references to the title of Commander of Artillery only begin to
appear early in the 16th century. At the end of the 15th century it was more
common to find commissarii encharged with visitandas pulverers et
munitions artillierum.2 In 1491, for instance, we find the knight Fr Iohanne
Danalon elected deputato ad custodiam artilleriae while in 1502, Fr
Franciscus Blacars was made Praceceptor artillariae, Probi hominess
artilleriae.3
Mention of the election of probihomines tends to imply that the system of
having a commander of artillery assisted by two prudhommes had already
been formulated by the early 16th century. Employed within this setup were
also a number of bombardiers necessary to work the artillery and a few
capomastri in charge of the production and storage of gunpowder. Most of
these, judging by the records, were Latin rather than Greek. An Italian, Petrus

163

de la Mota, for example, is listed as peritus (expert) in arte ballistica and

the use of artillariae grossae whilst a list of bombardiers employed on guard
duty at Fort St Nicholas in 1516 gives only European names;5
Mastro Janorum (?) de la court
Mro. piere gachet
Mastro guilielmo molo
Mastro noro de villa francha
Mastro guiliemo danops (?)
Mastro gangum (?) lo borgognon
As with its armouries, the Order also adopted a centralized system of artillery
and powder magazines within the fortress of Rhodes and this in turn fed a
large number of outlying strongholds and outposts. Among the supplies being
shipped to the island of Kos and St Peter Castle at Bodrum in 1470, for
example, were salis nitri rafinati et cantaria ferri and a quintale plumbi.5
Enties such as Rotoli di bona polvere di bombarda, Rotoli di fino
salnitro, and unum carratellum salisnitri et unum sulfitris show that
gunpowder was imported both as a ready-made product and in the form of
raw materials to be manufactured on the island.6
During the early years of the Orders stay in Malta, the knights hastily
transformed the Castrum Maris into a self-contained martial complex.
Armouries, magazines, and even powder factories were set up within its
walls. As early as 1530 one already encounters a commissario pro emenda
salpetra to be followed by a string of knights elected to oversee the
administration of artillery and munitions, the prudhommes under the
commander of artillery; Fr George de S. Iohanne et Hieronymus Avogardo
probi hominess machinarium bellicorum; Fr Johannes Centeno electus
probus homo artillariae (1552); Fr Alfonsus Correa (probus homo
tormentorium bellicorum sive artillariae (1554); Gerardus de La Tour,
who was removed from his post of capitanei tormentum bellicorum in 1555
and condemned ad quarantenam propter rixam; Iacobus Francisco Guasco
prob. ballistrum incendiarum (1557).7 The task of mounting i pezzi
dartiglieria nei loro posti nella nuova citt (Vittoriosa) e nella Senglea
per rispetto dellArmamento Turchesco, in 1568, was entrusted to Fr
Franciscus Gozon detto Melac, Bal di Manisca. 8
There were two methods by which the Order obtained its gunpowder, importing
it ready-made or else producing it locally from imported ingredients. Both
practices were resorted to in Rhodes and Malta. As with the acquisition of
arms and armour, the Order obtained its stocks of gunpowder from a wide
variety of sources. In times of serious emergencies caused by threat of invasion,
frantic efforts were made to acquire vast stocks of powder from any readilyavailable source. Perhaps the most celebrated instance of the importation of
powder is the recorded arrival of 200 barrels sent to Malta by the Duke of
Florence just prior to the arrival of the Turkish armada in 1565. Another is

164

The Moline de la Polvere in

Valletta (inset), as
represented in DAleccios
plan in the second half of the
16th century.

the arrival in Malta during the reign of Grand Master Pinto in 1761 of quattro
bastimenti carichi di polvere, bombe alcuni cannoni, mortari di bronzo e due
detti volgarmente obusier, caricate parte in Marsiglia parte in Tolone during
the crisis caused by the capture of the Corona Ottomana.9 Earlier in 1669,
following fall of Candia to the Turks, commission was given to the ricevitore
Tarascone to buy mille cantara di polvere.10 By 1793, however, the Orders
war machine had grown so much that requests for powder were then of the
magnitude of 4,000 quintali polvere di mina and 6,000 quintali polvere di
cannone.11
That the Order imported gunpowder from a large variety of sources is well
documented by the archival records. The names of individual producers are
often mentioned. In 1679, for example, a contract was given out to Michele
Puglielmi, Francese, per la fabrica di polvere. Mention is also frequently
made of Polvere di Francia, Polvere di Genova fina and Polvere
dOlanda, the latter conveyed to Malta con vassello da Amsterdam fra
altre munitioni ordinate. When the urgency and threat of war were far less
pressing, however, it often proved cheaper to produce gunpowder locally
than to import it from abroad, particularly given the large and continual demand
for it by the Orders armed forces.
The first gunpowder factory was established inside Fort St Angelo but no
descriptions of this edifice are known. Early gunpowder-making facilities
did not have sophisticated plant. Relatively small quantities were then made
by hand with pestles and mortars. At the most these edifices contained a few
small mills driven by beasts of burden. From the investigations made following
the explosion of the powder factory at Fort St Angelo during the early stages

165

of the Great Siege, it appears that the production depended mostly on manual
labour. This can be deduced from the fact that commissioners were made to
investigate why so many people, particularly civilians had such a free access
to the factory.12
Gunpowder is made from a mixture of three basic ingredients, saltpeter
(salnitro - potassium nitrate), charcoal, and sulphur. None of the ingredients
could be found locally, not even charcoal, for even trees were scarce on the
island - everything had to be imported. In 1775, Antonio Pace fu mandato
in Torino per appredare the necessary carbone ed il salnitro.13 The Lascaris
Foundation, set up in 1645, was established to provide, among many other
things, for the compra di miglio salnitro. 14 The production process involved
the mixing together of the three components, the powder being processed and
refined to produce various grades of gunpowder. The local factories were
capable of producing various grades of quality of gunpowder. The Polvere
di Malta fina, for example, came in two varieties con lustro and senza
lustro. The Order was also aware of the importance of not keeping too
much powder in store but of hoarding instead the materials required for
producing it, quello che pi comple alla Religione e il tener i materiali da
farne il polvere, perche queste non si guastano. 15
When the knights transferred their headquarters from Birgu to the new fortress
of Valletta in 1571, they took with them all the important military
establishments. A luogo dove si fa la polvere was eventually established in
the lower part of the city, in the vicinity of the slaves prison on the site of the
present Cottonera block. That this was not an ideal location is attested by
the fact that when the Valletta powder factory accidentally blew up on 12
September 1634, it killed 22 people and seriously damaged the nearby Jesuits
College and church. The Orders records show that by 1665 the knights were
still looking for un luogo fuori della citt per raffinar la polvere.16 In that
same year, however, the congregation of war, determined to resolve the
situation, instructed the resident military engineer, Mederico Blondel, to draw
up plans for a casa accomodata per fare e raffinare la polvere which was to
be built nella floriana dalla parte che riguarda il porto di Marsamscetto.
The new polverista was duly erected and was already producing powder by
1667. The building appears to have consisted of a cruciform structure enclosed
within a high-walled rectangular enclosure. It was equipped with tre molini
used for the production of zolfo e salnitro, probably of the type driven by
beasts of burden. By the early 18th century it was also served by a number
of magazines or mine situated in the vicinity, one of which was known as
dellEremita and another del Tessitore. Soon after the construction of
then nearby casemated curtain in the 1720s, the master-in-charge of the
polverista, Giovan Francesco Bieziro proposed the utilization of the trogli
nuovamente fabbricati for the production of gunpowder. By the beginning
of the 18th century, the polverista had became a prominent landmark, and is

166

Plan of the gunpowder factory

(frequently called the
Polverista) erected at the rear of
the Bastion of Provence in
Floriana in the area that later
came to be known as the
Ospizio by the middle of the
17th century. This edifice was
designed by the Orders
resident engineer Mederico
Blondel.

seen on many of the plans and views of Floriana. This is hardly surprising,
for it was then practically one of the largest buildings within a still largely
barren enclosure formed by Florianis ramparts.
It appears that this edifice continued to function in such a capacity until the
early 1720s, for the building was then incorporated into a larger complex
known as the Casa di Carita, later the Ospizio, established on the same
site by Grand Master Vilhena as a place to welcome sick old men and women.
Apparently, by then, a number of local entrepreneurs had taken over the
production of gunpowder for the Order. Indeed, in 1775, it was suggested
that il Casino che altrevolte era de P.P. Gesuiti nella Marsa could serve,
with some alterations by the Bal de Tign, as a luogo proprio for the
production of powder by a certain Antonio Pace.
Polveriste
The storage of the powder, too, was a risky undertaking that required adequate
and safe spaces free from the risks of fire and bombardment, and adequately
protected against spoilage from dampness or rain water. The powder
magazines had also to be located away from built up areas for safety reasons.
In the 16th and 17th centuries there were no established forms of structures
specifically designed to serve solely as magazines. Any ordinary available
building, preferably dry, could be put to use as a powder magazine if the

167

Detail from a marble trophy-ofarms showing the muzzle of a

cannon and its loading equipment
- a cucchiara (powder bucket
shovel) and refolatore (rammer).

need arose. This is perhaps best illustrated by the Orders practice of storing
gunpowder inside the echaugettes (guardioli) scattered around the bastions.
However, the Commotione che fece in tutta questa citt lincendio di certa
polvere conservata in una guardiola di uno de rivellini congiunti alla
contrascarpa di essa citt colpita dal fulmine in 1662 did not deter the
commissioners of war from once again proposing the same use for the other
quattro garrote (guerites) to be found around the walls of Valletta.17 Even
so, it also dawned on them that it was important not to store all polvere di
rispetto in one area and so a commission of knights was encharged to inspect
la polvere, e dove stia, e conservarla divisa, et in luoghi, dove non debba
tenersi da un solo accidente una ruina irreparabile.
As a result of these investigations, it was recommended that apart from the
four echaugettes situated on the Valletta counterguards (fortificatione del
Marchese St Angelo) another six new magazines were to be constructed to
enable an overall capacity of 600 cantara of gunpowder, judged necessaria
per riserva. The commissioners were then also of the opinion that the quantity
of gunpowder inside the magazine of Fort St Elmo (apparently situated within
the cavalier) was to be reduced to only 8 cantara and those inside Fort St
Angelo, in ciascheduno delli due magazeni superiori, only 10, although
nel fosso there was to continue to be retained tutta quella quantit che
serve per le galere et altro maneggio quotidiano. The estimated cost of the
repairs to the guardiola damaged by lightning (la garrita voltata dalla
polvere) was 700 scudi whilst another 300 scudi were required to construct
the other stores.

168

Plan and 19th-century view of the

gunpowder magazine la Vauban
erected on Capuchin bastion,
Floriana by Grand Master Pinto.
The polverista is enclosed by a
high wall, or garde-de-feu, a kind
of security fence designed to
prevent unauthorized persons from
approaching too close to the
magazine.

The arrival of French military engineers to Malta in the early 1700s brought
with it the introduction of purposely built powder magazines. Designed la
Vauban, these new edifices were fitted with blind ventilation shafts known
as sfiatatori, lateral reinforcements in the form of counterforts and gabled
roofs. The new magazines were built on raised floors and were designed to
be damp-proof . They were also fitted with controlled access points to make
entry into magazines more difficult for unauthorized personnel.
The first to be built on such a pattern were the two polveriste at Fort Manoel,
followed by others at Floriana, Vendme bastion (Valletta), St John Cavalier
and a small oval example, without counterforts, at Fort Chambrai. One set
of plans drawn up by the French engineers shows a large magazino a polvere
coperto alla leggera and capable of housing 2,340 barrels proposed to be
set up on St Clement bastion along the Cottonera Lines. This was to be,
however, a considerably larger structure intended as a central depository of

169

Right, plan of a magazeno a

prova di bomba built into
Vendme bastion, Valletta, near
Fort St Elmo (now the War
Museum). Below, plan of the
polverista built inside St John
Cavalier, Valletta (National
Library of Malta).

gunpowder, intentionally situated far away from the built-up urban areas.
Eventually, two such magazines were constructed along the Cottonera Lines,
one on St Nicholas bastion and the other on St Louis bastion.18
By 1758 all the supply of the Orders gunpowder, aside from that for naval
use, is recorded as being stored at Cottonera. A commission set up to review
the situation, however, recommended that the powder at Cottonera was situated
too far away to be of any use in an emergency, in luogo da non poter servire
in caso improviso and advised instead that more use be made of il Magazeno
del Forte Manoel, che alla prova di bomba sotto un custodia sicura e pi a
portata della Citt Valletta che quei della Cottonera. It was also agreed to
stock up i magazeni a polvere dei rivellini de Porta Reale nei quali si trovano
tutti li vantaggi [e] communicazione della citta while those within the
city, on the other hand, particularly inside the cavaliers were to be left empty
a causa del pericolo.

170

Proposed plan and sectional

elevation of a large gunpowder
magazine coperto alla leggiera
designed to be built on
St Clement bastion along the
Cottonera enceinte, with a
storage capacity of 2,340
barrels of gunpowder (National
Library of Malta).

Occasionally, unlikely places such as vaulted communications passages,

casemates, or countermine tunnels were also put to use as improvised
gunpowder stores (expense magazines in later 19th century terminology).
In 1758, for example, the tunnel or mina no. 582 alla dritta della mezzaluna
inanti Porta Reale (St Magdaleine Ravelin) was conceded to the Aiutante
della milizia Alberto Gatt per ponere la polvere.19
Powder magazines were inspected regularly by the commander of artillery or
his subordinates to ensure they remained capable of adequately housing
gunpowder in good conditions. That this was not always so is best illustrated

171

Proposed plan and sectional

elevation of a large magazine
coperto alla leggiera designed
to be built on St Clement
bastion, Cottonera lines, with a
storage capacity of 2,340
barrels of gunpowder.

by the recorded visit of the resident military engineer Blondel to the powder
magazine of the citadel in Gozo, shortly after the earthquake of 1693.20
Blondel found that the roof (terrazzo) of the powder magazine had caved in,
essendo stata tre anni sono, sfrondata da alcune pietre, cascati sopra, durante
un grosso temporale di pioggia. Evidently with each rainfall the interior of
the magazine flooded up (sallago dentro) and because the room was sempre
chiuso con pi porte luna avanti laltra, e senza fenestre, ne respiro veruno
the internal conditions had remained damp to the detriment of the powder.
As a result of this il suo tavolato, linfodera de muri, et i barili became
covered in mould (si muffano) and the powder mostly rotted away.

172

This page, the polverista of

Fort Chambrai, Gozo, built
in the 1750s by the Orders
resident military engineer,
Marandon. The magazine is
isolated by a garde-de-feu
and set aside on the bastion
farthermost from the land
front approaches. Note the
raised floor (a dampproofing device) and the
sfiatatori or blind
ventilation openings.
(National Library of Malta).

173

Opposite page, table describing

the various pieces of equipment
used in the operation of naval
guns, taken from a manuscript
manual of the Orders navy
(National Library of Malta).

Blondel immediately ordered the repair of the broken flagstones but also
recommended that the roof be covered with an added layer of packed earth
to ensure better water proofing, battere in terrazzo con al quanto di turba
il suo costiglietto dandogli pendio grande allinfuori, per deviarne lacqua
piovane. He also ordered the uprooting and removal of all the malve et alter
herbe grandi which had taken root on the roof of the magazine. As an added
measure to ensure the drying of the gunpowder, Blondel advised that the
barrels were be taken out daily from inside the magazine, for at least a whole
week, and left to dry in the sun, uscirne fuori i barili in tempo del sol
lione, e tenerli esposti al sole, con guardia competente de bombardieri stessi,
nellhore del giorno pi calde; lasciando in tanto le porte del magazzino
spalancate, e cio per una settimana, o pi, secondo sara giudicato.
It seems that the same lassitude which had crept into the administration of
the armouries by the mid-18th century had also found its way into the running
of the gunpowder magazines. The situation appears to have grown so
intolerable by 1756 that an official inquiry was held to investigate the many
abuses that had crept in, particularly the clandestine ma libero traffico delle
Polveri della Religione con pericolo grandissimo delle Citt, e del Porto,
con interesse gravissimo del Com Tesoro and to examine how both locals
and foreigners (non ostante le ordinanze de bandi) had acquired la
facolta di acquistare tal genere di munizione in pregiudizio del Governo per
farne un uso pernicioso.
On investigation, it transpired that large quantities of powder were being
pilfered from the magazines of the galleys or exchanged for one of inferior.
These magazines were situated inside DHomedes bastion at Fort St Angelo,
and their keys left in the hands of the Capi Mastri Artiglieri who together
with their dependents had managed to acquire unrestricted access to the
place; che secondo le occorrenze cavano da se stessi o per mezzi delle
loro mogli, figli e dipendenti in tutte le ore del giorno .. ritengono in poter
loro le chiavi di detto magazeno. Worse still, this magazine was situated
beneath another in which was conserved a much larger quantity of powder
serving the squadron of the ship-of-the-lines.
If these irregularities were not serious enough, other worrying abuses were
uncovered. Particularly disconcerting was the libert che anno i bastimenti
dintrodurre in questo dominio la polvere, parte della quale si rispone in Castel
St Angelo per diposito volontario de Capitani, altra si riserva in luoghi incogniti
al Governo ma certamente nelle case di questa citt, o Magazzeni delle
Marine. That powder was illegally kept inside private houses is best
illustrated by the tragic explosion, on the night of 24 June 1756, in Valletta
when a large tenement house near the Auberge de Castille and Leon blew
up killing many residents. The cause of the tragedy was a certain Rev.
Giovanni Mifsud, nicknamed ta suffarelli, an amateur fireworks
manufacturer who operated from his room with utter disregard for the safety
of others.21

174

175

After 1756, however the keeping of gunpowder was strictly prohibited in

casa propria, ne altrove except for una piccolo quantit corrispondente
alluso di un cacciatore. To this end fixed places were established in Valletta,
Gozo, and in tre luoghi di questa Isola, cioe nella Citt Notabile, in Casal Lia
e nella Gudia where tre persone stabilite con autorita could legally sell
gunpowder in small quantities and solely for hunting purposes. These
distributors, in turn, were only authorized to purchase their own stocks from
officially approved sources.
The report drawn up on this occasion was to lead towards a series of new
Regolamenti per la Custodia della Polvere that were designed, above all to
ensure great central control over gunpowder resources and reduce la facilit
di vendere la polvere, di cambiarla ed alterarla. Immediately lo stile non
autorizato di ritenere i capi Mastri la chiave della Sta Barbara was to end
and a stricter regime implemented. In all the fortifications, there were to be
only two keys to the powder stores one of which was to be held by the
Governatore o suo luogotente and the other by the Capomastro del castello
after a record was made of the esatto conto delli scartucci presi
Curiously, the 800 scudi worth of powder found missing from the magazines
in St Angelo were to be detracted from the salary of the Capo Mastro di St
Angelo (fu sequestrate la meta del suo salario ma potra non estingere, per
quanto sara lunga la di lui vita intieramente il debito sudetto). In other times
he would surely have found himself rowing the oars of the Orders galleys!
The primary outcome of the new regulations was the construction of a new
magazzeno Generale per le Polveri delle Marine. This was erected on the
Punta di Ras Kanzir sotto il Corradino assai comodoso per imbarcare
e sbarcare le polveri delle due squadre immune di pi per la vantaggiosa

Plan of a typical 18thcentury warehouse erected

outside Vallettas ramparts,
along the harbour quay.
Although intended for the
storage of ordinary
merchandise, these stores
were sometimes illegally
used to house gunpowder
by many a merchant much
to the disdain of the Order
and a disregard for public
safety regulations (National
Library of Malta).

176

A plan showing a
shell-store situated on
one of the bastions of
Valletta during the 1700s
(National Library of
Malta). Note the entry E,
Marmitte. These were
marble shot, examples of
which can still be seen in
the Palace Armoury
Museum.

sua situazione di poter cagionare con un disgraziato incendio alcun danno

alla citt e al porto. The interior of the magazine was divided into separate
compartments (riparimenti) set aside for the storage of different vessels.
The keys to the external doors of the establishment were to be deposited in
the treasury lasciando alli Capi Maestri delle Galere la Chiave del riparimento
corrispondente alla rispettiva galera. Special commissioners were appointed
to register the quantity and quality of powder whenever deposited or removed.
Frequently, gunpowder magazines were guarded round the clock. Some were
fitted with guardhouses, or corpi di guardia, such as the Polverista di
Rocca Tagliata (Cottonera) whose guardhouse stood a canto della gran

177

The powder magazine built by

Grand Master Pinto in the
inner reaches of the Grand
Harbour at Ras Hanzir
in 1756.

polverista. A corporal and three soldiers from this post were also detailed
al piccolo corpo di guardia dabasso, avanti la porta della Cortina di detta
Roccatagliata.22

Artillery Stores
Inside the magazines the powder was generally kept in wooden barrels stacked
horizontally in rows on wooden skids, known as tavolate. The walls were
sometimes screened off (infoderate) to help reduce the rising damp.
Frequently, powder charges were packed into cartucci di pargamena ready
for use while those destined for musketry were loaded in paper cartridges
and kept in boxes.23 During the reign of Grand Master Ximenes, Maestro
Onorato Zarb was commissioned to manufacture 11,000 scartucci senza
palla for the use of the regiment of Grand Masters Guards.
The other munitions held in artillery stores and minutely accounted for were
generally cannon shot, of iron and stone, bombs, grenades and sacchetti di
mitraglia. Frequently, cannon shot was stacked in pyramids next to guns of
corresponding caliber. A lack of palle di pietra in the galley arsenals in
1570, for example, was followed by a request to the Mdina jurats from the
commander of artillery asking for stone shot to be taken from the monicione
dela cita where there was a great quantity in store.24 The list below, drawn
up in the 1790s, gives the recommended quantities of munitions that were
to be kept in store in preparation of a siege.
palle di libri 24,
palle di libri 4,
palle di libri 2,
legna di ceppi per 900 ceppi
bombi di pollici 12,
bombi di pollici 8,

12,000
20,000
20,000
11,000
12,000

178

Plan for a proposed powder

magazine at Mgarr harbour in
Gozo (National Library
of Malta).

179

per gli obus di pollici 8,

granate di lib 6,
granate di lib 3,
granate a mano

8,000
26,000
3,000
8,000

One entry also mentions a provista di granate di cartone per servizio delle
galere. Added to these were vast quantities of paper cartridges. These were
kept in wooden boxes and distributed to the various outlying fortresses and
depositories prior to military exercises or defence preparations so that they
could be then handed out to the troops. In November 1770, for example,
written instructions were issued for the distribution of 1,200 cartridges to the
Vittoriosa militia, 1,000 to Senglea and 5,000 to Cospicua while the
commander of Fort Ricasoli was asked to determine if he had an adequate
provision in his magazines to supply his guarnigione ordinaria together
with a further 300 men to be sent there in case of emergency.
View of the magazine built by the
British authorities on the salient
of St Peter Bastion, Mdina
around 1893 for the storage of
gunpowder. Until then, the citys
gunpowder had been stored in a
room above the main gate.

All sorts of materials connected with the working of artillery were stored and
accounted for. Artillery magazines are generally shown as housing bars of
iron (un fascio di ferro quadrato per le petriere fatte di nuovo), lead, meccio,
wood (for carriages) and stone shot.25 Fuse chord was rolled up in balls
(ballone di meccio). Among the interesting items encountered in the artillery
stores were various stromenti geometrici to measure le portate delli tiri
and wooden ruote to seal off the powder chambers of fougasses.26
Strict regulations were also issued for the breaking up of old and consumed
gun carriages and the disposal of their wooden components as attested by the
following decree of 1554: Dispozioni redatte in lingua Italiana, intorno alla
a rimonzione di ceppi rotti o di legname inutili dellartiglieria , ... che per
levar et remuover alcuni abusi hanno ordinato et espresso probito che da
qua avanti il com.re de lartilleria non possa rompere o disfar ceppo o rota
de lartillaria ne altro legname se non in presentia delli prodhomi et trovandosi
detti ceppi rotti e legnami fargili et inutili per servire che nessuno de detti
com.ri o prodhomi le possa appropriare ma siano riservati in beneficio della
religione et questo medesimo sintenda del com.ro del arsenale et altri officiali.
Evidently, then more than now, wood was a scarce and costly resource that
was in much demand.

Plan of the musketry gallery on

the outerworks of Floriana
showing a small triangle-shaped
powder store within the musketry
spur.

180

Plan of the artillery quarters

situated on Sta Barbara
bastion, Valletta.

181

In 1779 one finds the capi maestri dellArtiglieria e del Legname touring
the fortifications of Gozo to inspect the state of the gun carriages (ceppi dei
cannoni). There then followed, a year later, a general inspection of the
carriages by the commander of artillery himself and from these reports it
transpires that most of the guns on the coastal batteries were mounted on
ceppi di marina or sea-pattern truck carriages, some of which were fitted
with ruote a raja. Among the measures which were taken perennially to
protect the carriages from the destructive effects of the elements was that
of coating them with olio di lino. At times the carriages seem to have also
been coated with pece and chitrame (tar) but this practice was eventually
discouraged in the later decades of the 18th century.
The guns themselves were not seen solely as weapons but also as a valuable
source of material, particularly if made of bronze. The commander of artillery
was frequently required to inspect the state of the cannon and set aside those
declared unserviceable. These were then either sold off to the public, possibly
even for the making of bells (in the case of bronze weapons), or else sent to
the Orders foundry for melting and recasting into new guns.27 This was
frequently the faith of captured Turkish ordnance. In 1657, for example, a
special commission was set up to cast new guns from the cannoni di bronzo
presi nella battaglia delli Dardanelli.28 Of the 73 captured guns, only 17
were of a calibre that could used by the knights, the rest being terziate, cioe
cannoni, mezzi cannoni, bastardi, sagri e falconetti which were not considered
buoni al servitio della Religione. The combined mass of metal from these
Detail from a photograph showing a
depot for gun-carriages situated on the captured weapons was considered to weigh around 820 cantara and was
outerworks of the Floriana lines during to be used to produce 12 masfelti (field guns) di 8 libre di palle di peso
the early British period.
cantare 8 per chiascheduno che sono proportionate e comodi al servitio
della Religione. Similar instances are recorded in 1667 (cannoni delli
depredate nellanno 1636) and in 1663 for which exercise special kilns
(forni) were ordered to be constructed.29 Mattoni (bricks) for use in such
furnaces are known to have been stored nearby inside St John Cavalier in
1785. Orders for the refounding of cannoni inutili can be traced back to
1574, when for example Mro Pasino was dispatched to Mdina to inspect the
artillery of the old town and rompere quelle di meno importanza ... per
fondere certi pezzi per la galera capitana.

182

The Development & Layout

of the Palace Armoury

The Armoury Layout in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Count Erbachs description of his tour of the Grand Masters Palace in 1617
reveals that the Armoury was then already located inside the large gallery
which continued to house it well into the 20th century. Owing to the absence
of documentary evidence it is still not yet clear whether this hall formed part
of the original building designed by Gerolamo Cassar nor whether it was
purposely built to house an armoury. Depictions of the Grand Masters Palace
in late 16th-century plans of Valletta, such as that by Matthaus Merian,
distinctly show the Palace with no upper storey along Strada San Giacomo
(Merchants Street). What is evident, however, is that the large sala darmi
bears no direct relationship to the rest of the building. Its floor level, for
instance, rests on a considerably higher plane than that of the adjoining palatial
rooms while the most spacious and important halls in the Palace, including
the council chamber, are of much humbler proportions. Given the fact that
it was Grand Master Wignacourt who introduced the Armoury into the
Palace, then it is most unlikely that the great hall antedates his election by
any significant number of years. Unfortunately no plans or descriptions of
the internal layout of this section of the Palace prior to 1600 have so far
turned up to shed some light on the matter. Nor is there yet any record of
such works having been undertaken in the Palace during this period.
A plan of the Palace Armoury found in the National Library of Malta shows
that right until the early 18th century the spatial relationship between the
Armoury and the Palace was much different from that with which we are
familiar with today. Initially, the entrance into the Armoury was directly
from the upper courtyard through a corpo di guardia and up a flight of
steps. The layout of the Palace itself at that time appears still to have centred
around one courtyard, with no central block. A plan of the Palace in an
early 17th century map of Valleta drawn by the knight Giovanni Battista
Vertoa actually shows the internal open enclosure divided into a colonaded
courtyard and a smaller garden, the two only separated by a thin wall.
Internally, the Armoury was not linked to the Palace. According to the historian
Agius de Soldanis, it was Grand Master Pinto who established this link, lo

183

Detail from the map of Valletta

made by Francesco
dellAntella, published in 1602
in Giacomo Bosios History of
the Order of St John, showing
the Palace of the Grand
Masters (No.29). Below,
engraving showing Piazza San
Giorgio with the corpo di
guardia opposite the Palace
(Courtesy of Dr A. Ganado).

uni con la Armeria.1 This work seems to have been left in the hands of Bal
Rene Jacques de Tign, the commissioner of fortifications, for in 1767, he
was paid 150 scudi for having supervised the works per rimettere detta
Armeria (la Sala darmi della Citt Valletta). It is not yet fully clear, however,
what the works mentioned in this entry of the Libro delle Spese actually
comprised but the sum of 150 scudi (practically a years wages) suggests
that these were not insignificant. Nor is it certain, either, if this entry is
actually referring to the Palace Armoury and not to one of the other secondary
armouries in Valletta, such as the Falconeria or St James Cavalier. The
title of Sala dArmi della Citt Valletta is an ambiguous one, and has not
been encountered in other documents. If this title really does refer to the
Palace Armoury then it could explain when the new baroque portal at the
main entrance to the gallery was actually constructed. Some historians,

184

however, ascribe the design of this portal to the Italian architect Romano
Carapecchia, albeit on stylistic grounds alone.2 One undated description of
the interior of the Palace, judged to have been written between 1722 and
1735, does seem to already indicate the presence of an entrance to the
Armoury from the adjoining corridor and may thus discount Bal de Tigns
involvement.3 Still, the portal retains the original wooden doors with cresentshaped brass knockers, leaving little doubt as to the fact that the Armeria
owed its new look to Grand Master Pinto de Fonseca, who reigned between
1743 and 1773. So does the large painted escutcheon bearing his arms on
the ceiling immediately above the portal, which can only have been executed
at a time when Carapecchia had long since gone.
Of an elaborate baroque design with fluted pilasters and ionic capitals
surmounted by an entablature and scrolled pediment, the portal bears a niche
with the bust of Flaminio Balbiani, Grand Prior of Italy. The niche is inscribed
with the year 1663, thus clearly belonging to some earlier arrangement. It
may have actually surmounted the old original entrance into the Armoury
when this was still approached through the corpo di guardia from the
courtyard. The connection between Balbiani and the Armoury has yet to be
discovered. Possibly he may have personally financed some major works in
the storehouse or paid for a purchase of arms, deeds which would have
surely earned him a just recognition for his munificence.
When completed, the improved Armoury layout did not involve many drastic
changes other than the erection of the new triumphal entrance and its direct
link to the interior of the Palace. There was no other apparent change in the

Piazza San Giorgio,

showing the fountain,
Verdalas column, the corpo
di guardia and the
cancellaria.

185

186

This page, early 18th-century plan showing the overall layout of the Palace
Armoury as reorganuzed by the French military mission in 1715. Note that the
main entrance into the Armoury was approached through a flight of steps directly
from the courtyard. Access into the Armoury, however, was controlled by a
corpo di guardia located in a small room within the courtyard. The plan also
shows a small spiral staircase leading up onto the roof of the armoury, the adjoining
saletta minore (Sala Lascaris) which housed the arms of the Lascaris Foundation,
and a flight of steps leading out onto a terrace overlooking the inner courtyard.
Note also that there were four armament racks running along the length of the
gallery and other racks fixed onto the walls. The cross-section of the gallery
shown left shows the manner in which the wooden racks held various tiers of
weapons stacked above oneanother. This sectional drawing also shows the barrelvaulted roof of the ground-floor stables situated below the Armoury (Illust.
National Library of Malta).

187

The original 17th-century

main entrance into the
Armoury via the Sala
Lascaris. This door was
blocked up and the flight of
steps leading to it removed
when the British opened the
new entrance into the
Armoury from the upper
courtyard. One can still
make out a boxed frame
above the door. This once
held an escutcheon or
commemorative plaque.

design of the great hall itself. The corpo di guardia at the base of the steps
leading from the courtyard seems to have been removed but not so the flight
of steps itself, which continued to feature in many later 18th century plans
of the Palace, even after the construction of the clock-tower. The Armoury
did not even lose the small spiral stairs (garigor) situated in the north corner
of the hall, which gave access to the roof. Some of the windows, however,
were apparently walled up to enable a balcony to be positioned directly
above the ground floor portal opening onto Merchants street and in line
with the main entrance into the Armoury.
As a military storehouse, there were very few technical structural features
which distinguished the Palace Armoury, or any type of armoury for that
matter, from other ordinary buildings. There are many examples quoted
earlier in this book where normal houses occupied by the populace were
employed to serve as village armouries without undergoing any alterations
whatsoever, except, in one case, where there was the addition of an adjoining
room to act as a corpo di guardia. The only common requisite, given the
local climatic conditions, was for the equipment to be stored on the upper
floors of buildings where rising damp was less of a threat to the preservation
of weapons. This practice of placing armouries on the upper floors, however,
was also dictated by the conventions employed by architects in the design of
Baroque palaces. Romano Carapecchia, for example, points this out quite
clearly in his Compendio Architettonico.4

188

Manuscript plan of the

ground floor level of the
Palace of the Grand
Masters. The Cavallerizza
(stables) on the left side
of the plan, now houses
the Palace Armoury
Museum. The stone
decorations of the portals
leading to the former
stables were carved by
Maestro Giovanni
Puglisi, a talented
buonavoglia who was
eventually condemned to
death in 1760.
Bottom picture, the main
18th-century portal into
the Palace Armoury.

189

Row of arms and armour

displayed above cornice moulding
Trophies-of-arms; their composition varied
considerably
Four rows of wooden musketry racks (gabioni) for the
storage of armaments; these had several shelves with
firearms; polearms were stacked horizontally on the
uppermost shelves
Halberds, pikes, and partizans stacked in
rows against the wall; these extended all
around the gallery and are said to have been
several rows deep before being replaced by
musketry racks in the 1700s

General Layout of the

Palace Armoury
as it would during the
18th Century

Main entrance into the Armoury

Armourers Workshop

The Saletta Minore mentioned in the documents and originally

set up to house the firearms of the Lascaris Foundation (Sala
Lascaris); this hall was converted into a grand staircase during
the 19th century

ury
rmo
A
ace
Pal

Entrance to
Cavallerizza

190

The gateway on Merchants Street

with balcony opening from inside
the Palace Armoury gallery.
Far right, close-up of the balcony
surround showing a blocked-up
window from an earlier faade
configuration.

The larger the interior space, the more weapons that could be hoarded. This
rendered the Palace Armoury, with its vast uninterrupted gallery spanning
the whole width of the palatial building along Strada San Giacomo (Merchants
Street), foremost amongst those halls that were chosen to serve as military
storehouses.
In 1714, French military advisors visiting the island remarked that the knights
had the habit of referring to the salle darms in the Palace as the Armoury.
The word armoury or armeria, although used to define places where
arms were kept, was also used to refer to an armourers workshop. In
Malta, armouries were, strictly speaking, simply sale darmi set aside for
the storage of arms. For a long while during the 20th century, the Palace
Armoury was described incorrectly as an Armeria di Rispetto, a title
apparently introduced by Czerwinski and Zygulski, two experts who were
sent by UNESCO to take stock of the collection in 1969. Armeria di
Rispetto, however, means a reserve armoury, a designation which was never
applied to the Palace Armoury. Czerwinski and Zygulski made the error of
translating the term literally into armoury of honour, influenced by the
notion, then widely held, that the role of the Palace Armoury had always
been solely one of a central showpiece. Giuseppe Grassi, in his Dizionario
Militare Italiano, published in Naples in 1835, states that the word rispetto
was used talvolta dagli scrittori militari in luogo di riserva, parlando di quelle
cose che si conservano per porre ad un bisogno in luogo daltre simile guaste
o fuori duso e dicesi anche de cavalli e delle bestie da tiro. I Francesi in

191

molti casi adoperano la voce recharge come parlando di ruote e daltri attrezzi
- Es. Armeria di Rispetto.5
As a matter of fact, in all the original documents that have been unearthed
to-date which deal with the Orders military storehouses, the title Armeria
di Rispetto is only encountered once, and then only to refer to the Falconeria
in Melita Street which was established as a reserve armoury in 1763 so as
to house the older weapons removed from the palace armoury, ...che li
nominati fucili accommodati e rimontati si conservino nellarmeria della
falconeria che dovr da ora in avanti servire per armeria di Rispetto.

View of the Palace Armoury

showing the columns introduced
by the British.

For most of the early half of the 17th century, the Palace Armoury continued
to be referred to as the Pubblica Armeria. This title, as already mentioned
earlier in this book, was originally applied to the Armoury situated in the
building that later came to be known as the Cancelleria. This designation
was also applied to the Orders armoury when it was still stationed at Fort
St Angelo, and Birgu, though not in Rhodes. The first references to it are
given by Bosio who states that immediately after the siege Fr Giovanni de
Soubiran Arisat, commander of artillery, rimesse benissimo in ordine
lArmeria pubblica accomodata in certi saloni si che fra larme comperate
da soldati, e laltre, che serano fatte venire dopo lassedio in piu volte: la
sudetta armeria si trova cosi ben fornita, e cosi politamente tenuta, e ben
conservata, che tutti i forestieri poi chin Malta capitavano landavano a
vedere, come cosa notabile. Once in Valletta, the armoury was set up in a
number of places prior to its establishment in Piazza San Giorgio. The earliest
record is for a magazine in Strada Forni, next to the Orders bakery.6 This
store continued to figure on the books of the artillery department well into
the 18th century.

Detail from a ground floor

plan of the Palace showing the
Sala Lascaris and the flight of
steps which gave access
directly from the courtyard.

192

The Sala Lascaris

The great hall, or sala grande as it was known, was not the only part of the
Palace to be used as an armoury. The records reveal an adjoining salette,
or saletta minore which was in use throughout most of the 17th century but
seems to have been no longer in use throughout the following century. It is
best described in a French account of 1679 as un supplment de la grande,
o dans un pareil ordre se voyent encore 6,000 Mousquet, autant de
bandouilliers, deux mille casques & autant de cuirasses. 7 Its precise location
is not revealed by the documents though this may have been the small hall
approached by a flight of steps from the corpo di guardia later converted
into the grand staircase leading up to the Armoury during the British
administration. As a matter of fact, one 18th century plan of the Palace
shows this hall marked as Sala Lascaris. This title is explained by an entry
in a document of 1658, wherein it was decreed that the muskets belonging
to the Lascaris Foundation were to be transferred to a Saletta Piccola, che
sta congiunta con la sala grande delle armi inside the Palace. Until then, the
muskets of the Lascaris Foundation were being housed in a building adjoining
the Casa della Zecca next to St John Cavalier.8
The saletta a parte mentioned in the document was in fact none other
than the small hall adjoining the Armoury, as revealed by another entry in the
Orders archives: che li moschetti della fondatione Lascara accioche restino
meglio conservati, si passino alla Saletta Piccola, che sta congiunta con la
sala grande delle armi, e che li Vendi. esecutori della stessa fondatione,
habbiano le chiave della detta saletta.9 Another possible clue to the
foundation of the saletta minore may well be an earlier entry in the Liber

Detail from plan of the

Grand Masters Palace
showing the Officina, or
Armoury workshop,
marked as the camere dell
armiere.

193

The Venetian Armoury

in Candia, Crete, in the
17th century.

Conciliarum dated 1638 which, while mentioning the necessity for the
Armeria Pubblica to remain ben fornita, also expressed the need for a
new separate place to be found for the storage of larmi dei fratelli che
moriranno.10
Adjoining the main hall was a small armourers workshop, the so-called
Ufficina dellArmeria mentioned earlier. This workshop was situated in a
small room and housed a number of armourers and labourers. It was generally
well-equipped with all the outils du metier to allow the armourers not only
to clean and service weapons but also to assemble muskets, pistols, and
swords.
Directly beneath the Armoury, and occupying roughly the same area, stood
the Palace stables. These two barrel-vaulted halls, separated by the gateway
opening onto Merchants Street, used to house the carriages and their horses,
together with the horses of the Grand Masters Guards. By the mid-18th
century the Palace cavallerizza, as the stables were called, had enough
stalls to accommodate 106 horses. The doorways leading into the stables
were decorated with pilasters and carved motifs, the decoration of which
was the work of an expert Neapolitan stone carver and buonavoglia by
the name of Maestro Giovanni Puglisi who was eventually hanged, drawn
and quartered after having been found guilty of murdering a fellow
buonavoglia. 11
Around the mid-1700s there were 69 horses stabled in the cavallerizza of
which 50 were cavalli di sella, and 2 di carozza, 7 muli di sella and 8 muli

194

di carozza. The remainder of the Grand Masters horses were stabled at a

farmhouse in Marsa. There were at that time some 57 men employed to
look after the stables and coaches, including a Scrivano di Cavalli by the
name of Onorato Tour and 17 slaves working as sellari, ferrari and scupatori.
The Palace also housed a number of carriages for use by the Grand Master
and other senior members of his household. Frequently, these were also
placed at the disposal of visiting foreign dignitaries. One such carriage can
still be seen at the Palace Armoury Museum. Grand Master Pintos carriage
itself is said to have been drawn by 6 horses and fell under the responsibility
of the Grand Ecuyer or Master Equerry. There was then a Maestro di
Carrozze, a Cocchiere Maggiore, and two Cochieri assigned to the Palace
coaches.
The Storage of Arms and Armour
The only basic requirement for any sala darmi were the racks or cupboards
required for the storage of arms. Documents reveal that wooden racks,
referred to as gabioni, occupied a large part of the gallery but no detailed
description of these has been found for the 17th century, or earlier, other
than that each held a large quantity of weapons, whether firearms, swords,
or polearms. Some of these were like cupboards, armoires, or rastelli. In
1773, for example, the resident armourer at Fort Manoel was paid for having
built an armadio per le armi for the garrison of Qala Lembi battery. A
description of such an armario and its contents is found in the house of a
knight of the Order towards the end of the 18th century. This armario
inverniciato giallo color di noce contained quattro schioppi, due pistoni, un
schezzetto, quattro pistole con suoi fondi, con suoi guarda fondi, con galloncino
dargento.12 The Italian knight Fr Constantino Chigi Monrari, on the other
hand perferred to store his weapons on rastelli, and owned two rastelli da
schioppo a quattro luoghi and another two rastelli piccoli da pistole ...
ingessato di legno bianco similarly a quattro luoghi.13 Another armario o
sia rastello da schioppi a cinque ordini is recorded in one of the buildings at
the commandery of Viterbo.14
During the 18th century there were four rows of armament racks running
nearly all along the length of the Palace sala darmi, interrupted by two
passages into three unequal sections, together with other racks fixed onto
the walls. The cross-section of the gallery shown in an 18th century French
plan reveals that the wooden racks called rateliers (gabioni or rastelli in
other documents) were some 4 metres high and held 4 tiers of muskets
placed vertically with the triggers facing inwards. The racks were divided
into a number of equal units some 1.5 metres wide, each holding 220 muskets,
110 on each side, 27 muskets on the uppermost rows and 28 on the lower
ones. The racks had both rounded and square sides as can be seen in the
illustrations on the following pages. Most of the polearms were stacked

195

Plan of the left wing of the

Palace stables, showing the
wooden partitions for horses.
Above, an 18th-century
carriage decorated in the style
usually associated with the
period of the French monarch
Louis XVI. Painted on the
sides and rear of the cabin are
the remains of allegories
representing La Republique.
These were painted over the
arms of the Grand Master
when the French took over the
Palace.

Right, Plan et Disposition

de la Salle dArmes du
Pallais pour larangement
de 25000 fusils et autres
armes showing the new
arrangement introduced
into the Armoury by French
military engineers in 1715.
(Courtesy of the National
Museum of Fine Arts).
Below, detail from the
above plan showing a
sectional elevation of the
Armoury with the four rows
of the wooden racks for the
storage of firearms. These
racks were over 2 cannes
(4m) high.

horizontally on the uppermost shelves while others were placed in rows

along the walls of the gallery. Various suits of armour were stacked up at
the extremities of the racks for effect (extremit termines par un homme
arm). These racks were designed by the French military engineers in
1715 and were built to accommodate 25,000 muskets (Plan et Disposition
de la Salle dArmes du Palais pour larangement de 25,000 fusils et autres
armes). An early 19th-century plan of the Armoury made during the British
administration still shows these four rows of racks, but by that time they had
been cut up into four amply-spaced smaller sections. Descriptions of the

196

Details from the Plan et Disposition de la Salle dArmes du Pallais pour

larangement de 25,000 fusils et autres armes showing the manner of storage of
munition firearms in wooden racks called rasteliers or gabioni. Each rack was
4 metres high and held four tiers of vertically arranged muskets topped by
horizontally stacked staff-weapons. In all, there were 82 units arranged in four
rows, each holding some 220 muskets together with another 30 one-sided racks
of two tiers fixed to the walls (Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts).

197

General layout of a typical rack introduced into the

Palace Armoury by the French military engineers
during the reorganization of 1715.

Upper wooden shelf designed to

take staff-weapons (pikes,
spontoons, partizans etc.,) stacked
on top of each other in the form of
a pyramid

Wooden brackets (gabioni - 4 tiers)

Each unit rack, around 1.5 metres
long, was designed to hold 220
muskets, 110 on each side with the
uppermost rows having 27 muskets
each and the lowermost 28 muskets
each.

Butt-rests (wooden shelving - 4 tiers)

Wooden trunks or cascie for the

storage of muskets, pistols, swords,
and other military equipment
Antique corslets and helmets
placed for decorative purposes on
the floor at the foot of the rack

type of racks employed in the Armoury in the course of the 17th century,
prior to 1715, have not come to light. Given that the systematic arrangment
of the Armoury in 1715 was one of the tasks assigned to the French military
mission by Grand Master Perellos, it would seem that the earlier disposition
of equipment in the Armoury may have been largely chaotic and in need of
reorganization.
Many other weapons seem to have been simply kept in wooden boxes,
cascie, possibly the same boxes they were first packed in when delivered
to Malta from the armament factories abroad, although at times cascie are
known to have been assembled in the Armoury itself. For example, one
finds mention of a quantity of legname per incastrature delle armi in store
in the Armoury during the 1760s.

198

An interesting system employed in the storage of weapons is revealed in the

regulations for the distribution of equipment for use aboard the Orders menof-war. These weapons were taken from the Armoury and stored temporarily
in a quay-side magazine before being shipped aboard their respective vessel.
The documents reveal that once inside the magazine all the weapons were
arranged in four separate standing piles, referred to as castelli in forma di
trofei, one for each vessel. An armourer was employed to care for this
temporary armoury and keep the equipment in good order ready for use.

199

One of the trophies-of-arms

displayed along the walls
of the gallery in the Palace
Armoury in the late 19th
century. It contained
halberds, rapiers,
backplates, corslets,
cabassets, powder-flasks,
vambraces, couters,
pauldrons, sword blades,
painted wooden shields
and two sabretaches. In the
foreground are two rampart
guns (spingardi).
At one end of the gallery
was displayed the armour
and portrait of Grand
Master Alof de Wignacourt,
on top of which stood an
effigy of the Sun, the symbol
of Mars, god of war
(Above).

Early 19th-century plan of the

Palace Armoury. The four rows
of racks have been cut up into
four smaller sections. The plan
also shows what appear to be
two rows of columns running
along the centre of the gallery,
with a circular arrangement in
the centre of the hall.

Storage provisions in the secondary armouries, particularly the village

armouries, appear to have constituted a much cruder undertaking, with the
firearms sometimes just laid out on wooden shelves. In 1728-29, for example,
the armourer of the Mdina armoury purchased 6 tavole rosse Veneziane
from the nearby hospital and 3 serratizzi bianchi for such a purpose. This
rudimentary practice can even be traced earlier to the 16th century when in
1595, sedici serraticci were bought by the Universit to be utilized per li
scaffi et armario della armeria of Mdina. Occasionally, however, there are
references to rastelli delli archibugi delli soldati but it seems that more
often than not most of the muskets held in the secondary armouries were
simply stacked upright against the walls, resulting in the widespread rusting
which so alarmed the commissioners during the general inspections of 1769
and 1782.
Inside the Palace Armoury attention was also given to the display of the old
antique arms and armour. These were displayed in three ways. The majority
were hung along the walls in a series of 24 trophies-of-arms, and the rest
placed either above the cornice moulding (sopra li cornicioni) that ran
along the top part of the walls, or else assembled in five piazze (groups) in
the middle of the gallery. A number of helmets and morions were nailed to
the large wooden beams that supported the roof of the gallery. The trophiesof-arms decorating the walls were enclosed within painted panels in the
manner that can still be seen in a number of late 19th-century photographs.
The size and composition of the trophies-of-arms varied considerably as has
already been explained earlier in the book. The practice of displaying the
antique items alongside the munitions armour appears to have been only
introduced in the latter half of the 17th century for by 1658, the armi dei
fratelli che moriranno were still being stored apart inside the adjoining saletta
minore (Sala Lascaris).
Various small cannon, the leather gun, a number of grenade-throwing mortars
and suits of armour were displayed in groups, called piazze, in various
parts of gallery. Erbachs account of the Armoury in 1617 reveals that the
centre of the gallery was then occupied by various portraits of Grand
Masters, with the armour they had worn in battle hanging up between the
pictures. Presumably these were hanging from the walls of the gallery and
not on some form of wooden panelling of the type that was later set up by
Laking when he reorganized the display.
At one end of the Armoury were displayed the armour and portrait of Grand
Master Alof de Wignacourt surrounded by a copious trophy-of-arms. Directly
on top of these, apparently hanging from the wooden ceiling, stood a large
effigy of the sun, the symbol of Mars, god of war (il Sole sul ritratto
Wignacourt). This feature has not survived but it is shown on various sketches
of the Armoury dating from the early 1800s, such as that by Owen Stanley
(see previous page).

200

From Armoury to
Museum
Half a century of Spoliation
With the surrender of the French forces in 1800, the Palace Armoury entered
a new phase of its history. The 19th century was to prove a period of dramatic
change, however, and by the first half of the century the Armoury and the
rest of the Orders military storehouses were despoiled of the larger part of
their contents. What was left would come to represent but a fraction of
what these storehouses originally possessed. Traditionally, the main cause
for this predicament has been repeatedly attributed to the rapacious sacking
that accompanied the French invasion, but as has been clearly shown earlier,
most of the Orders military equipment was still in Malta when the French
garrison left the island in 1800. The blame for this spoliation must, therefore,
lie elsewhere. In 1903 Sir Guy Francis Laking wrote that a worse fate
was in store for the Armoury under the British occupation than the previous
short French stay. Indeed, the early decades of the 19th century witnessed
a slow but unrelenting pilferage, with a significant part of the items going to
enrich many a museum abroad, the rest ending up as souvenirs in private
collections. In his introduction to Arthur Richard Duftys European Armour
in the Tower of London (1968), William Reid boasts how quantities of
Italian munitions armour of the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth
century brought from Malta in 1826 and 1846 made the then Tower
Armouries an important centre for the study of this type of armour.
One of the few recorded cases of the many items removed from the Armoury Sir Thomas Maitland
was a sword which was sent to King George IV by General Pigot in 1821.1
The Board of Ordinance was particularly anxious to have the whole of the
armour transferred from the palace to the armoury in the Tower of London.
That it failed to do so was mainly to the credit of the Governor, Sir Thomas
Maitland (1813-1824) who realized the unpopularity of such a move and its
political consequences, and set about with great diplomacy to dissuade the
Colonial Office from undertaking such a task that could not fail to wound in
the highest degree the feelings and prejudices of the Maltese.2 In his
correspondence with the Colonial Office, Maitland even tried to play down
the importance of the exhibits in the Armoury, stating that he doubted
whether there were any objects in the Armoury of sufficient worth or interest

201

The Palace Armoury

around 1850. The
rows of muskets along
the walls of the gallery
are British weapons.
These were eventually
removed to the drill
hall set up in Vendme
bastion. Originally,
the knights service
muskets were kept in
racks in the centre of
the gallery and along
the walls.

in England to induce His Majestys Government to exercise a Power which

would have had such an undesirable effect on the Maltese.3
In spite of all the protestations several important pieces of arms and armour
were in fact taken to London. Their removal from the Armoury appears to
have raised considerable feelings of regret among the Maltese for in 1835,
some of the armour was sent back to Malta packed in eight wooden cases
on board the British merchant brig Rhoda.4 A number of bronze cannon
were also returned and placed in front of public buildings on the initiative of
Governor Sir John Lintorn Simmons during the 1880s.
Yet there were to be other official attempts to remove items from the
Armoury. One documented instance refers to some articles which were
sent to England by order of the Secretary of State during the governorship

202

of Sir Patrick Stuart in 1846. Fortunately, however, what would have proved
to be a devastating attempt to reduce the Armoury never materialized. In
1857 the British Government decided to remove the most notable items to
England for better safekeeping and dispatched Sir Charles Robinson to make
the necessary arrangements. Sir Charles, however, was called to Rome
before he had the time to arrive in Malta and the matter was forgotten.5
The loss of items was not the only problem. Official vandalism, too, was
another detrimental factor: the siege armour of Grand Master Alof de
Wignacourt, for example, still bears bullet marks from musket shots said to
have been fired at it to test its force of resistance from a distance of sixty
yards.6
The haemorrhage would have continued unabated and would have been
much worse were it not for the propitious endeavours of three Governors;
Sir William Reid, Sir Gaspar Le Marchant and Lord Grenfell. The first two
were instrumental in redefining the Armoury and establishing the importance
of the collection, the third, Lord Grenfell, contributed greatly towards its
reorganization and classification by entrusting the task into the expert hands
of the kings armourer, Sir Guy Francis Laking. The present day Armoury
still owes many of its qualities to the efforts of these men. It is interesting
to note that the movement to rehabilitate the Armoury from the 1850s
onwards coincided with a growing international interest in the formation of Above, from top, Sir William
Reid and Sir Gaspar Le
collections of arms and armour. The Russian State Armoury in Moscow, for
Marchant.
example, was rebuilt in the years 1844-51 and the renowned Stibbert Museum
in Florence was set up by Frederick Stibbert between 1860 and the first
years of the 20th century.

The Birth of a Museum

It was Sir William Reid who began the process of rehabilitation by clearing
the Armoury of the British weapons which had been grafted onto the old
collection. For the greater part of the first half of the 19th century the
British continued to use the Armoury as a functional depository for their
own firearms, the antique weapons being set aside to make way for the
British ones. Until then, the Armoury was under the charge of the Ordnance
Department and it was only in May 1853 that it was transferred to the civil
government and as a result no less than 9,000 muskets, 1,000 pistols, 1,000
swords and 2,500 pikes were handed over, although some antique items
were retained by the army.7 Sir Reid had the British weapons removed
from the Armoury and transferred to the old powder magazine inside
Vendme bastion, near Fort St Elmo, which was then converted for the
purpose into an armoury and drill hall in 1853-5.8 These firearms are clearly
depicted in Von Brockdorffs watercolour drawing of the Armoury dated to
around 1850. George Percy Badger in his book Description of Malta and

203

Gozo, first published in 1838, records that the principal musketry was
manufactured in the Tower of London, and placed here by the English
Government, when that of the Order was removed. The number of regular
arms then present is recorded as being 19,555 muskets and bayonets and
1,000 pistols.9
Descriptions of the Armoury during the first half of the 19th century are
few, and that given by Badger is the most informative. It states that in 1838
there were some 30,000 boarding pikes; 90 complete coats of armour for
mounted knights and 450 cuirasses, casques, and gauntlets for infantry still
to be seen in the gallery. The armour was arranged along the upper part of
the room in regular order, with painted shields portraying the white cross of
the order on a red field. The armour for the mounted cavaliers and men-atarms was varnished, or painted black. Complete suits were placed upright
on stands, and posted up along the rows of muskets at certain distances
from each other, looking like so many sentinels, and giving a very sombre
appearance to the whole room. At one end of the room stood a complete
coat of black armour standing about seven feet high, and three and a half
feet wide, its helmet alone weighing thirty-seven pounds. There was also
an open case in which could be seen many curious specimens of musketry,
pistols, swords, daggers, etc., and at the extremity of the room was a complete
armour of the Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, above which was a painting
of the same, armed cap-a-pie, a copy from another painting which was
then in the dining room. Several parts of the walls were covered with many
curious specimens of ancient warlike implements ... crossbows, maces,
coats of nail, javelins, battle-axes, and various other instruments of bloodshed
and death. 10
Sir William Reid also initiated the construction of a new monumental entrance
to the Armoury, as evidenced by the following extracts reproduced from the
Blue Book:11
Constructing Staircase leading to Armoury
Constructing Staircase leading to Armoury
Repairing Palace
Constructing Staircase leading to Armoury
Repairing Palace
Constructing Staircase leading to Armoury

150 (from 1855 revenue) December, 1854

in progress
400 (from 1856 revenue) December, 1854
in progress
87 (from 1856 revenue) October, 1856
in progress
725 (from 1857 revenue) December, 1854
in progress
87 (from 1857 revenue) October, 1856
finished
725 (from 1857 revenue) December, 1854
finished

The construction of the monumental staircase, later utilized to provide public

access into the Armoury, together with the removal of the British weapons,
reveals that Sir Reid was already thinking on the lines of establishing the
Armoury as sort of public attraction or museum. Although Sir Gaspar Le
Marchant (governor of Malta from 1858 to 1864) is popularly accredited

204

Above, plan of the new

armoury and drill hall set
up in Vendme bastion in
the 1850s to help take
the weapons removed
from the Palace Armoury.
This structure, left, was
originally a Vauban-type
polverista and
currently houses the War
Museum.

205

The staircase leading

to the new public
entrance into the
Palace Armoury as
built in the 1850s.

with the reorganization of the Palace Armoury, since most of the work was
carried out during his tenure of office, it is evident that this process was not
begun by him. Furthermore, it was the Superintendent of Works, in his letter
of the 20 December 1858, who actually brought the matter of the poor state
of the Armoury to the attention of the governor and requested his
intervention:12
I have the honour to request you will bring to the notice of His Excellency
the Governor, the present very unsatisfactory state of that portion of the
ancient armoury which is at present in the Armoury at the Palace, and which
is being entirely ruined by rust. In executing the recent directions of His
Excellency the Governor, of fitting up the Palace Corridors with a portion of
the extra armours, I found the same in such a rusty state, that but a few
years more would have left no traces of the armoury of the distinguished
Order of St John of Jerusalem, which Order, until the close of the last century,
governed these islands, and I consider it therefore my duty to report that the
rough restoration of the remaining armour, and the rearrangement of the
armoury, will be the only means of saving the same from utter ruin and of
preserving a memory of the past glories of these islands - a memory that
much can be dear to the inhabitants and an object of great historical interest
to strangers.
I cannot estimate the exact expense of such a work, but I trust that the
same may be done and completed in a satisfactory manner for the sum of
Three Hundred Pounds.
Clearly, Le Marchant was initially only interested in decorating the Palace
corridors rather than restoring the Armoury. But fortunately the governor,
himself an amateur connoisseur of antiquities, proved to be more than
sympathetic to the idea. Under his own personal direction the arms were
restored and rearranged. The system of trophies and panoplies was retained

206

and developed further. Wooden mannequins were built to take the suits of
armour and many papier-mach round shields were made to decorate the
hall with emblems of the langues and the coats-of-arms of Grand Masters,
while ornamental iron chandeliers were introduced to light up the large gallery.
Le Marchant also went ahead with the restoration of the rest of the Palace,
even repaving the corridors with the best Carraro Marbles, a job which
was executed by Giuseppe Darmanin and Sons for the sum of 1,100.13
The rehabilitation seems to have been over by 1860, from then onwards the
gallery was opened to the public on a regular basis. Extracts from the Weekly
Returns of Civil Works and Repairs give an idea of the way the restoration
works progressed in 1859. 14
24/6/1858
23/12/1858
30/12/1858
5/1/1859
15/1/1859

Old Armoury in Palace

Old Armoury in Palace
Old Armoury in Palace
Old Armoury in Palace
Old Armoury in Palace

Cleaning the Armour

Cleaning the Armour
Cleaning the Armour
Cleaning the Armour
Cleaning the Armour

In Progress
In Progress
In Progress
In Progress
In Progress

20/1/1859
27/1/1859
3/2/1859
10/2/1859
17/2/1859
24/2/1859

Old Armoury in Palace

Old Armoury in Palace
Old Armoury in Palace
Old Armoury in Palace
Old Armoury in Palace
Old Armoury in Palace

In Progress
In Progress
In Progress
In Progress
In Progress

3/3/1859

Old Armoury in Palace

Cleaning the Armour

Cleaning the Armour
Cleaning the Armour
Cleaning the Armour
Cleaning the Armour
Cleaning and Fixing
Suits of Armour
Cleaning and Fixing
Suits of Armour

In Progress

10/3/1859

Old Armoury in Palace

Re-Arranging
the Armoury

In Progress

In Progress

Subsequently a sum of 60 was allotted each year for the cleaning of the
armours. By whom such restoration and cleaning works were undertaken
is not indicated. An interesting account describing the extent of the
rehabilitation works is encountered in a Memorandum attached to the Blue
Book of 1860, which reads as follows:15
Much has been done in effecting improvements in [the] Palace; in 1859
the Council of the Government voted a sum of One thousand Pounds for
the laying down the corridors in marble; this work is in course of execution
the exterior of this Palace presents no features of architectural interest
... but by planting the two courtyards attached to it it has been much
improved and lightened externally.
In the Palace is situated the beautiful Armoury of the Knights of St John; up
to 1858 the armour of the Knights had been permitted gradually to fall into
disorder and decay, and the Saloon extending the whole length of the building
to become an Exhibition Room for Fine Arts, rather than being entirely devoted
to its original purpose of an Armoury of the Order; within the past two
years, however, the armour of the Knights has been completely rescued
from decay. There are now 75 complete suits of armour with their respective
shields and coats-of-arms, arranged in chronological and historical order in

207

Right, front page of the

Malta Government Gazette
showing the regulations
concerning the Palace
Armoury. Below, one of the
mannequins introduced
during the 1860s (Palace
Armoury Museum).

the Armoury, besides fifty in the Corridors, representing the history of the
Order of St John in Malta. Four relics of great historical interest have been
recovered from oblivion, and placed in prominent positions in this Armoury;
they are:
The original Act of Donation of the Islands of Malta and Gozo, and of the
Fortress of Tripoli, to the Order of St John by Charles V. March 23rd, 1530.
The original Bull of Paschal II receiving under his protection the Hospital of
St John of Jerusalem. A.D. 1113.
The Sword and Dress of Dragut (sic), Pasha of Tripoli, Commander in
Chief of the Turkish Army, killed in the place where now is Fort Tign in the
Great Siege of Malta in 1565.
The Trumpet on which was sounded the retreat, on the final departure of
the Order from Rhodes , December, 1522 (sic). This relic was very carefully
preserved by the Grand Masters. The Public had no opportunity of seeing
these, previous to the restoration of the Armoury.

208

The Palace Armoury

in the pre-Laking
period.

209

View of the Palace

Armoury in the
pre-Laking period.
Above, the suit of
armour of Grand
Master Alof de
Wignacourt and one of
the many mannequins
fitted with
a wooden shield.
With its opening to the public, the Palace Armoury became one of the first

museums in Malta. In 1894 a Government Notice was published laying

down rules for licensed guides, who were not to exceed 50 in number. They
were to be furnished with a ribbon band, to be worn on the cap bearing the
words Guide No. ., the licences being issued only to men of good
character, who could speak and read English or Italian. The entrance charge
was fixed at 2/- or 1/- depending on the length of the visit, but this was
fixed at sixpence in 1895, the tickets acquired only through the turnstile at
the gate in the Duke of Edinburghs Courtyard. By 1895, the itinerary came
to include also the Tapestry Room, except when this was closed due to the
sittings of council of government. The hall of the Armoury, however, continued
to serve as a venue for many a banquet and also as an examination hall,
thereby frequently disrupting the visitors timetable.16

210

The Palace Armoury in

the pre-Laking period;
note the painting
Death of Dragut by
Cal behind the figure
in armour.

211

The Palace Armoury in

the pre-Laking period;
note the Turkish battleaxe in the glass case
and the suit of armour
of a Japanese Samurai
warrior in the
background at the foot
of the trophy-of-arms.
The latter was a
contemporary
acquisition. Note also
the stand with maiolica
vases and that the
crossbows still retain
their bowstring.

212

An important addition to the Armoury was the erection of a number of

columns placed down the centre of the gallery. These were installed to help
support the roof which was considered unsafe. The cast-iron columns
remained in place until 1900 when they were in turn pronounced unsafe and
replaced by a new flat roof composed of steel girders for the cost of some
2,600. The installation of 6 Davis single-globe lamps introduced electric
light into the Armoury at the cost of 42. When these works were over in
March 1902, the Superintendent of Works was asked to take steps to cause
a preliminary inventory of the articles to be compiled.17 The question of a
regularly classified and scientifically arranged Inventory was to be considered
later by an expert armourer.17
Subsequently, Lord Grenfell informed the Superintendent of Public Works Lord Grenfell (above) and
that he had made enquiries and was hoping to succeeded in getting the Sir Guy Francis Laking
services of the Kings Armourer, Mr Guy Laking, who was then considered (below).
one of the best authorities in Europe on arms and armour :18
If it can be arranged, the King (who I have approached on the subject
through his Secretary) will give him leave for the month of October - at the
end of that month he has to be back in the Armoury at Windsor Castle. The
expense would be about 100 Pounds. It would be well worth it and we
might get an illustrated Catalogue which I feel sure if circulated would draw
the tourists to our Island. Mr Gatt replied that the arrangements so wisely
made by Lord Grenfell of having this work done by an able man as Mr. Guy
Laking (HMs the Kings Armourer) should be carried out without delay
and that the sum required for this service should be defrayed out of the
balance on the vote for the renewal of the roof of the Armoury since the
rearrangement of the Armoury, he concluded, could be considered as a
consequence of that work.
Laking arrived shortly afterwards at the beginning of October 1902 and was
already at work in the Armoury on the 7th October. The Armoury was kept
closed to the public all the week except on Saturdays in order that Laking
could carry on his task uninterrupted. On 14 October 1902 the Daily
Malta Chronicle reported that Mr Laking, son of Sir Francis Laking,
Surgeon to His Majesty the King, is at present the guest of Lord Grenfell.
Mr Laking himself holds the honourable and important position of Armourer
to King Edward VII. Lord Grenfell has inspired him with an interest in our
Armoury in the Ancient Palace of the Grand Masters; and Mr Laking has
very kindly consented to catalogue and arrange to the very best advantage
all the Knightly treasures which we possess. The Public will be gratified to
hear that so skilful a hand is going to lend itself to the embellishing of the
Palace Armoury. 19
Although still in his thirties, Laking held the ancient office of Keeper of the
Kings Armoury in the Royal household. He was then considered to be one
of the best authorities in Europe on ancient and medieval arms and armour.

213

Above, a 19th-century print

showing the Armoury in the
Ancient Palace of the
Knights around the latter
half of the 1800s.

He had been entrusted with cataloguing various important armouries and

collections in Britain and published numerous learned articles in art reviews.
He was also on the staff of Christies, a position he held until his death at the
early age of 44 and his opinion on antique works of art, as well as furniture,
porcelain and tapestry was widely sought.20
A month after his arrival in Malta, Laking was already on his way back to
England. An article in the Daily Malta Chronicle of 5 November, 1902
announced that Mr Laking had ... left on Tuesday by the Carola. In the
short space of just one month Laking had worked hard to rearrange the
collection. This, we are told, was a labour of love by the Kings Armourer.
After a scrupulous selection, in the process of which he was able to identify
and group together items which belonged to the same harnesses but which
until then had been scattered all over the gallery, he chose nearly 500 items
of arms and armour and placed them in the middle of the gallery, hanging on

214

Typical views of the

Armoury around 1880,
showing the rows of
columns supporting the
big wooden screens. Others he placed in showcases. The rest were returned roof.

to the vast panoplies on the walls as they were before. He then displayed a
number of portraits of Grand Masters on the wooden screens amongst the
armour, giving the collection, in the words of Cerwinski and Zygulski, a
strong historical accent. 21
Lakings exposition was a more pleasing arrangement than that which had
existed before his arrival, which dated back to the late 1850s. The removal
of the columns had left the Armoury quite bare, even though they were not
an original feature. In Hospitaller times the whole hall would have been
occupied by racks and so would have been far from empty. Lakings clever
use of the wooden screen in the centre of the gallery, although criticized by
Czerwinski and Zygulski as being his cardinal sin,22 was, on the contrary, a
well-orchestrated attempt to create a climax of colour, shape, and form in
an otherwise large empty volume of space bordered by a repetitive fabric of

215

Plan of the Palace Armoury drawn up by the Superintendent of Works as part of the
first inventory exercise undertaken just prior to the arrival of Guy Francis Laking
in 1902. This plan was then passed on to Laking (National Archives, Rabat). The
figures represent the free-standing exhibits and cabinets. The plan lacks a key to the
figures. Some of the exhibits can be identified : 1 to 67, 87, & 88 are mannequins in
armour;100 - Suit of armour of Grand Master Wignacourt; 71 - Leather gun; 85 central piazza with small cannon, 80 - musket rack; 69-70, 97-98 cabinets

with pieces of armour

drab items of service arms and armour. Lakings lack of enthusiasm for the
common and repetitive munitions armour devoid of artistic value can be felt
both in his treatment of the exposition and in his writings on the Armoury.
For example, reacting to the fact that the collection, albeit still a substantial
one, was only a pale shadow of what it was once, Laking hoped that what
was lost to the collection in the past were only duplicates of the commoner
sorts of arms hanging in profusion on the walls of the gallery.
Laking left behind him a short report, promising to send a fuller account later
on. His recommendations were basically that all painted armour was to be
cleaned and the varnished ones retained, while extreme care was to be
taken not to mix up the armour again. The method used by Laking for the
removal of the coating of black paint found on many of the pieces was by
boiling the armour.23 This task was still being performed by the resident
armourer in August 1903. Laking believed that the sole armourer then in
employment was too old for the job, so he suggested that a young assistant
be employed while an officer of the type of Captain Galizia (who had assisted
Laking) be placed in charge. The Governor concurred with Lakings views

216

Rows of mannequins
arrayed along the
length of the gallery
around 1880.

217

The Palace Armoury

as rearranged by
Laking, showing the
large wooden screen
erected in the centre of
the gallery (Palace
Armoury Museum). Of
interest is the shield
shown on the tabletop in the uppermost
picture. This is no
longer to be found in
the Armoury.

218

View of the Palace

Armoury as it appeared
during the inter-war
period. Note the
presence of German
torpedoes, machine-guns
and howitzers from the
First World War. From
this stage onwards the
Palace Armoury became
a sort of war museum
housing items that had
no direct relation to the
historical Armoury itself.

and sought to implement the recommendations as soon as possible. He had

a vote of 30 inserted in the General Estimate for 1903 for this service.
The Governor had no objection to Captain Galizia taking charge of the
inventory and the general arrangement of the Armoury but decided that all
works required in the building should be left in the hands of Bonavia, who
was the official in charge of the Palace. The Armoury was reopened by 15
November 1902 and five days later the Daily Malta Chronicle reported
that the Armoury appeared to be much larger than before its rearrangement.
Lakings other contribution, and definitely longer lasting, was his publication
of a catalogue of the Palace Armoury. Nearly a century later, it is still the
only existing publication on the collection. It was written after his return
back to England from the notes and observation he had made during his visit
together with the information he had collected. The 50-page publication
lists and describes in varying degrees of detail, ranging from single line entries
to whole pages, 464 of the most notable pieces of arms and armour in the
collection, supplying where possible, the provenance and date of manufacture
of the armour, and sometimes the name of the makers. His short stay,
however, did not allow him to delve deeply into the historical records and
this comes out clearly in his brief introductory chapter in which he sought to
trace out the history of the Armoury. It is evident that he had to rely for most
of his historical data on the few snippets of information passed onto him by
Monsignor A. Mifsud, the learned Librarian of the Public Library and the
Record Office of Valletta whom he officially thanks in the introduction to
the catalogue, even though he ventures to speak of his own researches
among the annals of the Order. Had he done so, he would have come up
with more facts about the Armoury.

219

Above, frontispiece to
two of Lakings
publications.
Right, more views of the
Armoury and the corridor
outside leading to it
(bottom picture) in the
inter-war period. Note
the two mail vests affixed
to the wall on either side
of the doorway (bottom
picture).

220

The Palace Armoury catalogue was not Lakings first. The catalogue of the
arms and armour of the Wallace Collection, written when he was still 22
years old, was then considered a milestone on the road of research into the
subject. This was followed soon after by the publication of his catalogue of
the armoury of Windsor Castle, and a spate of researched articles. His last
publication, produced after his visit to Malta, was his masterful A Record of
European Arms and Armour through Seven Centuries which, sadly enough,
he did not live to see completed.
Laking was the first, and as things turned out, the only one, to attempt to
introduce a proper sense of artistic, technical, and historical classification
into the Armoury in the course of the 20th century. In both his publication
and rearrangement of the Armoury, he set out to demolish various myths
perpetuated by the haphazard arrangements introduced by Le Marchant
and, to use the words of E. Sammut, other utterly fantastic appellations
that were the stock-in-trade of various illiterate guides.24 The sword and
dress of Dragut, Pasha of Tripoli, Commander in Chief of the Turkish Army,
killed in the place where now is Fort Tign in the Great Siege of Malta; in
1565 and the trumpet on which was sounded the retreat, on the final
departure of the Order from Rhodes, December, 1522, were some of the
highlights in the Armoury before Lakings arrival. The trumpet, as Laking
clearly showed, had been produced in Nuremberg by Daniel Kodisch around
1670. Little wonder that at the turn of the century Lord Grenfell remarked
that the Armoury was more confusing than helpful to students and to the
general public.
Four hundred copies of Lakings catalogue publication, printed in England,
were purchased for sale in Malta at the price of six shillings each. Apparently,
Laking had failed to show the publishers the various photographs which
were to be reproduced in the publication and this led to a last minute change
in the format of the book, a change which the Punch office in London was
quick to inform the governor resulted in a large extra cost to us on the
other hand the book will gain an added dignity and importance not to be
overlooked in a publication of its kind.25 Inevitably, the selling price was
pushed up. All the copies, published by Messrs Bradbury, Agnew & Co., six
of which were specially bound in leather, were printed by February 1903,
and the books were dispatched to Malta in three tin-lined cases aboard the
steamer Malacca, which sailed on 7 March. A month later, on 11 April
1903, the Daily Malta Chronicle informed its readers that copies of the
Illustrated Catalogue of the Armour and Arms in the Palace Armoury, by
Mr G. F. Laking, M.V.O; F.S.A, Keeper of the Kings Armoury, were on
sale at the Governments Printing Office for the price of 6s 6d each.29 The
6 leather-bound copies, together with 17 normal copies, were retained by
the governor.26
There were two interesting sequels to Lakings visit. The first involved the
68 year old armourer who Laking suggested should retire.27 Giovanni Pace

221

Below, original design for the

production of mahogany cases
built in 1910 for the display of the
suits of armour of Grand
Masters Wignacourt and Garzes.
Later, three others were built to
contain the Verdelin, Pompeo
della Cesa and Cuirassier
harnesses now all displayed in a
single showcase in the right
gallery. Bottom right, proposed
design for the production of glass
cases for the display of armour
designed to replace Lakings
wooden screens in the centre of
the gallery. Right, the Palace
Armoury in the early 1950s.

was somewhat irked by Lakings comments and refused to retire on the

grounds that he did not feel incapacitated. He had been employed as armourer
since 1877. This forced the government to seek instructions on the matter.
The second involved Lakings alleged evasion in paying up a bill of 21.28
When Laking arrived in Malta, he was placed in communication by the
Public Works Department with Walter Vella of 96 Strada St Giovanni, Valletta
for making out photographs of certain pieces of armour for insertion in the
catalogue. When Laking left Malta the photographs were still incomplete,

222

and Vella delivered them to Laking through the Department. Vellas bill too
was sent to Laking but several letters requesting him to settle the bill were
however never acknowledged. Finally the Governor was asked to approach
Laking in order to settle this account.29
The Malta Armoury & the Post-War Period
Most of the recommendations made by Laking were adopted and his
arrangement of the Armoury remained practically unaltered until the outbreak
of the Second World War. The only development that occurred was the
introduction of various German weapons such as machine guns, torpedoes,
and howitzers from the First World War. From around that time onwards
the Palace Armoury became a sort of War Museum housing items that had
no direct relation to the historical Armoury itself - including a Gladiator
biplane introduced after the Second World War. This process was eventually
brought to an end in the 1970s when all these items were removed to a
newly set up War Museum in Fort St Elmo.
At the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, all the contents of the Armoury collection
were removed for safe keeping to the basement vaults of the Grand Masters
Palace and to the Inquisitors Palace in Girgenti. One side of the gallery
was actually damaged by an explosion of several bombs and the south wall
of the Armoury had to be demolished and rebuilt after the war. When the
collection was returned to the Palace it took another five years to clean and
restore before the Armoury was opened to the public. The wooden screens
installed by Laking were, however, not reintroduced and most of the items
were placed in showcases, a considerable number of which were later
replaced by others imported purposely from England in 1957. At that time
there were no more than two armourers working in the Armoury, labouring
without the provision of a proper workshop. Two small rooms used for the
preparation of refreshments whenever balls and other entertainments were
held at the Palace were sometimes temporarily used for the cleaning of the
arms and armour.

223

Below, plan of the Palace

Armoury showing the supper
tables which were frequently put
up in entertainments, a
practice which was only
discontinued when the
Museums Department took
over the running of the gallery.

Two views of the Palace

Armoury being set up
again in the post-war
period. Note the
armourers at work
polishing breastplates
and pauldrons, and the
Gladiator aircraft in the
background of the upper
photograph.
Bottom, the Palace
Armoury in the post-war
period, as it remained
until it was removed to
the Palace stables in
1975.

224

Two views of the Palace

Armoury as set up in the
Palace stables after 1975.

After the War, the Malta Armoury, as it was generally called, and its contents
were placed under the custody of the Museums Department. Despite the
severely limited resources every effort was made to keep the collection as
presentable as possible. Still, the situation was far from satisfactory and in
1969 the Maltese government sought UNESCO assistance. Two experts
by the name of Cerwinski and Zygulski were sent over to help take stock of
the situation and study the conservation problems. They prepared a detailed
report and set out a general strategy for the reorganization of the collection
and rearrangement of the display. Unfortunately none of their
recommendations were ever implemented. Worse still, less than five years
later, the whole Armoury was hastily dismantled and transferred to the ground

225

The photographs on these

two pages show aspects of
the collection that were
re-arranged in the years
1995-1998.
Above, Turkish armour as
displayed before 1995
and, right, after 1995.

floor palace stables in order to make way for a new House of

Representatives.
With this relocation, the collection forfeited its claim to being one of the few
armouries in the world to have survived in situ. Not only, but the haphazard
manner in which the collection was set up again in what has proved to be a
totally inadequate and ill-equipped place for any museum has actually led
towards a marked deterioration in many of the exhibits, particularly the

226

The Palace Armoury Museum

The Palace Armoury was transferred from its
original setting on the first floor in 1975 and was
set up again inside two large vaulted halls that
were once the Palace stables (Cavallerizza). The
exhibition was rearranged in the manner displayed
in this diagram in the years 1995-1998.

Crossbows
Trophies-of-arms are
displayed high up on
the walls

LL
HA
FT
LE

Leather Gun

Muskets
Flintlock Pistols

NS
PO
EA
-W

Display of
miniature brass
cannon, small
mortars, iron and
stone shot and a
swivel gun

Muskets & carbines

Showcase with suits of armour,
and collection of various types of
rapiers and polearms

Fountain with
coat-of-arms of
Grand Master
Perellos

Suits of armour (GM Wignacourt, Garzes,

& others)
Morions and cabassets

T
GH
RI

Breastplates and
backplates

LL
HA

Burgonets

R
OU
RM
-A

ER
Y
FO

Close helmets

Breastplates and backplates

Mail vest and remains of
brigandine
Morions and cabassets

Showcase containing Turkish

arms and armour
Curatorial office

227

trophies-of-arms displayed on the walls, given that the two halls are plagued
by a dampness problem. Furthermore, the limited space could not allow for
the introduction of basic museum facilities.

The historic visit of H.E. The

Prince and Grand Master of
the Sovereign Military
Order of Malta, Fr Andrew
Bertie to the Palace
Armoury in 1996. The Grand
Master was accompanied
around the Armoury by His
Excellency Dr Ugo Mifsud
Bonnici, President of Malta,
and the author, then Acting
Curator of the Palace
Armoury.

Although various efforts were made to redress this situation in these last
few years, such as the introduction of new showcases and the grouping of
exhibits according to typological and historical criteria in an attempt to recreate
the atmosphere of an arsenal, together with the inclusion of a foyer to help
unify the layout, the Armoury today still remains beset by a critical lack of
adequate curatorial, administrative, conservational and storage facilities, and
educational and interpretational amenities. Any visitor to the Armoury can
quickly sense that the Palace Armoury has now reached a crucial stage in
its long existence. It either receives the much needed resources that go to
make a real museum or else it is left in the damp limbo that it has occupied
for the past thirty years, continuing to slowly spoil away.
Lakings Catalogue has shown that the Armoury has a singular combination
of exhibits, some of which are unique in their own right. This book has set
out to show that the Palace Armoury certainly has a long and interesting
history. What it now deserves is a guaranteed future.

228

The Collection
of Arms & Armour

In spite of the ravages and depredations of the French and British rules,
together with the misguided decisions of our own times, the Palace
Armoury still ranks as one of the most important collections of arms and
armour to be found anywhere in the world. Above all else, its uniqueness
arises from the fact that it is not simply a modern collection of armour as
can be found in most military museums around the world but rather
because it is the residue of a veritable armoury surviving, if not strictly
speaking in situ, definitely inside the same building which has housed it
for the past 400 years. Even then, it is not any armoury, but the armoury
of the Hospitaller knights of the Order of St John, one of the most
renowned and heroic military institutions of all time with a warring tradition
dating back to the Crusades.
Still, as such collections go, the Palace Armoury is not especially
remarkable for the antiquity of its specimens nor for the presence of rich
objets darts, for fine as much of the armour undoubtedly is, and superb
as a few of the suits and separate pieces are, a vast quantity is of a type
too often duplicated to be of any particular artistic merit. Its particular
appeal is seen to lie in the quantity and rich variety of weapons and
armour it contains, and the way these document the development of
warfare and the armourers art throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th
centuries. In many ways it is perhaps most comparable, albeit on a much
smaller scale, to the Provincial Armoury (the Landeszeughaus) situated
in the centre of the city of Graz; this armoury was built by the Dukes of
Styria in 1642-45 to house all the armaments of the Styrian troops,
accumulated there primarily during the period when Austria, as part of
the Habsburg empire, fought to defend itself against the attacks of the
Ottoman Turks. The Landeszeughaus Graz, as it is known today, is similarly
one of the very few early modern armouries inside a Renaissance palace
still in existence and contains some 32,000 pieces of weapons and armour.
At the beginning of the 20th century Laking valued the Palace Armoury
collection at between 18,000 and 24,000, ranking it lower than the
smaller yet much finer Spitzer collection which had then just been sold
off in Paris in 1895 for the sum of 40,000, but comparable to the

229

Londesborough collection sold at Christies in 1888 for 18,513. Today

its value is said to work out to around one million Maltese liri. A large
portion of this sum is accounted for in the magnificent suit of armour
made for Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, without doubt the centrepiece
of the display ever since the Armoury began to assume the character of
an antiquarian collection back in the 17th century (fig. C2/ Laking 380).
With its rich and lavish decoration, gold damascening and engraving,
excellent workmanship and elegance of form, the Wignacourt harness is
considered to be one of the finest early 17th-century suits of armour in
existence. It is a full harness complete with close helmet, greaves, poleyns,
sabatons, target, reinforcing plate for left shoulder and even a shaffron
for horse. The breastplate originally had a lance-rest, now missing. The
armour is richly decorated with longitudinal bands deeply engraved and
gilded, crossed at regular distances by straps passing at right angles
between the longitudinals, fashioned in outline to the segment of a circle,
and giving, according to Laking, an overall scale-like appearance. These
narrow straps form, to cite Laking, a field of the finest gold azzimina
damascening inlaid with the arabesque scrollwork, and introducing at
intervals fleur-de-lys, engraved and gilt. The ground-work upon which
the gold is applied was originally deeply blued, and the surface punched
to field, matted with small circles. The spaces between this trellis-like
ornamentation are occupied with trophies of various arms, musical
panoplies, fruit, flowers and in places galleys manned by oars. In the
centre of the breastplate is engraved the gilded figure of a Hospitaller
knight below which is a fleur-de-lys while the coat-of-arms of Grand
Master Wignacourt is engraved on an accompanying circular shield.
Laking dated the harness to between 1610 and 1620 and attributed it to
the workshop of the Milanese armourer Geronimo Spacini. Modern
research, although confirming that it was manufactured in Milan, has
revealed that this armour was ordered soon after Wignacourts election
to his magistracy in 1601 and had arrived in Malta sometime late in 1602.
Consequently it is of a much earlier make than that assumed by Laking.
Grand Master Wignacourt first expressed his desire to acquire a splendid
harness in a letter to the knight Quartieri dated 16 February 1601, less
than a week after his election to the magistracy. Wignacourt was
particularly eager to procure his armour from Milan where, in his opinion,
they made bellissime e buonissime armature.1
To this end, the knight Zunica was despatched from Malta with a pattern
containing the Grand Masters measurements (misure darme per la
mia persona) for the production of una armatura per nostra persona,
che ci armi dal capo fino a piedi, la quale desideriamo non solo sia de
fine e perfetta tempra, ma di vistosa e bella mastria, con tutti quelli
adornamenti doro leggiera, nobile e forte. Above all, the armour had
to be degnia desser vista, in other words, a showpiece. The word

230

leggiera is very important here, for it leaves no doubt as to which of the

two existing Wignacourt armours is being referred to. One can therefore
safely dismiss the heavy siege armour from consideration. One can
similarly dismiss the so-called Verdelin armour, likewise found in the
Palace Armoury collection and featured in the Louvre portrait, for this
harness is of a style that dates to the 1580s and, moreover, was tailored
for a significantly larger man.
Wignacourts new armour was not to be solely a parade armour, as often
erroneously stated, for the Grand Masters clear instructions stressed
that it had to be equally useful in battle, since the Maltese islands were
then once again experiencing renewed Turkish hostilities. Even so,
Wignacourt was particularly anxious to receive the armour before the
feast of St John, presumably, so that he could don it whilst parading
around the streets of Valletta during that important festive occasion.2
His optimism, however, was soon to be frustrated by a series of long
delays. To begin with, the Orders ricevitore in Genova, Torriglia, had
still not received la mostra from Malta by June of that year and when
the armour was finally ready, it proved more difficult than anticipated to
find a galley to transport it to Malta.
From the available correspondence it appears that the harness was
produced and completed in a relatively short span of time, perhaps even
bought off the peg and then specially decorated with Wignacourts arms,
for on 17 August 1601 Fr Francesco Lomellino was already in a position
to inform the Grand Master that the armour had reached Genoa from
Milan in two cases, una piccola, et una grande. The letters speak of
due casse dentro alle quale e un armatura e due armetti che si sono fatti
fabricare a Milano, thereby demonstrating that the harness was
accompanied by a second helmet, possibly a burgonet, which unfortunately
has not survived.
In November the two cases just missed the passaggio delle galere di
ritorno in Sicilia. From Genoa they were to be shipped either to Messina
or Palermo and from there to Malta aboard one of the Orders galleys.
In a letter dated 22 May 1602, Torriglia informed the Grand Master that
the armour had been shipped aboard the Nave Sta Maria
padroneggiata da Vincenzo di Marino Raguseo. Concern was expressed
in Malta for the proper handling of the precious cargo in order that non
possino patire particolarmente di humidit but when the two boxes finally
arrived on the island on one of the Orders galleys, the armour was
found not only to be untouched by rust but molto ben conditionata.3
Unfortunately the documents fail to reveal one important detail, namely
the identity of the master armourer, or the bottega which produced the
harness. Hopefully further research in Italian archives may unearth this
information.

231

Similarly unique is the siege armour for foot combat of Grand Master
Wignacourt (fig. D4/ Laking 414-420). This heavy siege armour, when
still complete, must have weighed some 50 kg, making it one of the heaviest
suits of its kind to be found in Europe. Today it comprises a pettoforte
and backplate, gorget, a single tasset, a single spaudler, a helmet, and
shield.4 Laking assembled it together from pieces scattered all over the
gallery, some of which, we are told, were painted black. The decoration
is relatively simple and plain, consisting of a border of a continuous
escalloped band with each segment of the circle finishing in a trefoil.
The design was originally gilded, the remaining exposed surface being
originally blued but subsequently polished to a brightened surface at some
later stage. Engraved on the left side of the breastplate, as though hanging
from the neck by a chain, is a large oval medallion chiselled with the
arms of Alof de Wignacourt (fig. D6). On the breastplate and backplate
are three musket ball dents, possibly bulletproof marks. This was a test
often resorted to in the 17th century, especially on heavy-duty siege armour
that was intended for battle. On the other hand, these bullet marks could
also be an unfortunate example of 19th-century official vandalism. The
heavy helmet is in the form of a medieval chapel-de-fer of the 15th
century (fig. D1/ Laking 419). Upon the side of the skull piece is engraved
a fleur-de-lys, an emblazonment found in the coat of arms of the
Wignacourt family. The provenance of this armour is unknown and may
be of Flemish manufacture. 5
Another beautiful, highly ornate armour is the Pompeo della Cesa half
armour (fig. A5/ Laking 91). Of all the armours in the Palace this is,
perhaps, visually the most striking. It is a Milanese corsaletto da piede,
or half-armour for foot combat, traditionally thought, albeit erroneously,
to have been worn by the hero of the Great Siege of 1565, Grand Master
Jean de Valette. In 1903 Guy Francis Laking, then involved in the
rearrangement of the Palace Armoury, noted that this highly decorated
corazza was inscribed on the breastplate with a small oval cartouche in
which was the word POMPE. He failed to recognize, however, that
this was the signature or trade mark of the famous armourer, Pompeo
della Cesa, a leading armourer working in Milan in the second half of the
16th century and, as a result, dated it mistakenly to the period 1557-1568.
The renowned Italian scholar of arms and armour, Lionello Boccia, states
that Pompeo della Cesa was lartefice piu importante che oper a Milano
during the latter half of the 16th century and claims that this talented
artisan was actually from Brescia.6 Milan was then under imperial
Spanish control and Pompeo rose to become the citys most important
armourer. He was active from 1565 until the very end of the 16th century,
attaining responsibility as armarolo di corte in Milan and producing a
number of richly etched and gilded armours for the leading men of his
day, the Savoia, the Farnese and the Gonzaga. Pompeo also oversaw the
production of munitions arms and armour to equip Imperial troops in

232

Lombardy. Today there are said to be some 37 armours and corslets

which bear his signature, and many other pieces are attributed to him, or
to his workshop, on stylistic grounds. Laking also noted a few pieces
from a second harness similar to the Pompeo armour. Karren Watts
claims that most of this Chevron Pompeo armour has now been found
scattered around other collections, namely in Sandringham (Royal
Collection) and the Chicago Art Institute.7
The traditional attribution of the Pompeo armour to de Valettes ownership
has long been dropped by modern scholars of arms and armour. Although
Pompeo della Cesas period of activity overlaps with the Grand Masters
reign (1557-1568), the style of the armour itself is datable to the 1580s.
Consequently, the armour could not have had any possible connection
with the renowned founder of Citt Humilissima. Consisting of a
breastplate of peascod form, backplate, bracciali (vambraces) with
pauldrons, short tassets, gauntlets, gorget, and cabasset helmet, the armour
is heavily decorated with bands enriched with aqua fortis engraving
upon a gilded ground separated from one another by narrower bands
reserved in brightened surfaces. The decoration of the bands alternates
between oval medallions of classic deities joined by knotted ornaments
and trophies of weapons and armour. In the centre of the breastplate is
an oval panel inscribed POMPE and on the backplate a medallion with
the subject of Mutius Scaevola before Lars Porsenna. The etched
decoration is of a style executed a trofei, i.e., with trophies-of-arms and
known in antiquarian jargon as Pisan but which was actually Lombard.
The armourers of Milan and Brescia had adopted it by the mid-1570s.
For many the Cesa harness, although exquisite in decoration, actually
reflects the decadence of the armourers art at the end of the 16th century.
Its scarselle, or tassets, for example, although purporting to be of eleven
lames, are in reality fiancali embossed from a single plate, after the
fashion of the 1580s.8 Accompanying the corsaletto is a cabasset and a
brocchiere or rotella munita al centro du un brocco, o punta, a shield
for corsaletti da piede typical of Milanese production in the last quarter
of the 1500s (fig. A2/ Laking 140). The shield itself is not signed and is
very similar to another such brocchiere on display at the Museo Civico
Medievale in Bologna.
Undoubtedly the most interesting feature of the Pompeo della Cesa
corsaletto are the pauldrons, embossed in low relief and chased with
lions heads (fig. A4). These leonine features may have been the real
reason why the ownership of this armour was for long attributed to de
Valette, for the coat of arms of the de Valette family features both a
griffon and a rampant lion. In practice the presence of leonine pauldrons
on the Pompeo della Cesa armour bears little relation to heraldry. The
portrayal of lion heads on armour, perhaps because of the Herculean
association of the lion, was a decorative device used by renaissance

233

Funerary marble bust of Grand

Master Luis Mendes de
Vasconcellos (1622-1623)
showing the leonine pauldrons
(Crypt of St John Co-cathedral,
Valletta).

armourers when producing harnesses all antica or alla Romana. This

type of armour design, based on classical ornamentation, was intended
to evoke heroic virtues through the use of antique iconography and forms.
Produced mainly for monarchs and princes, parade armours allantica
were intended to endow their wearers with an aura of power and virtue
in imitation of the heroes of ancient Roman history and mythology.9
Among the best examples of armour allantica are those produced by
the most celebrated and innovative armourer of Milan, Filippo Negroli.10
Among the best surviving examples of harnesses all antica with leonine
pauldrons are those of the Roman armours of Archduke Ferdinand II of
Tyrol, (Hofjagd und Rstkammer des Kunsthistorischen Museums,
Vienna), those of the Duke of Urbino (Real Armeria, Patrimonio Nacional,
Madrid) and the so-called lion armours at Muse de lArme, Paris and
the Royal Armouries, Leeds. A pair of pauldrons similar to these, where
the lions faces bear menacing expressions with furrowed brows, open
mouths revealing fangs, and thick manes with long curly locks, is to be
found, surprisingly, on the marble funerary bust of Grand Master Luis
Mendez de Vasconcellos in the crypt of St Johns Co-Cathedral. This
Portuguese Grand Master whose brief reign lasted only a few months
was immortalized in white Carrera marble wearing heroic armour
allantica. Were not the marble leonine pauldrons carved out in such
high relief, it would be very tempting to think that Grand Master
Vasconcellos was actually being portrayed wearing the Pompeo della
Cesa armour. That the fashion for portrayal in heroic armour was still in
vogue in the first two decades of the 17th century, at the time of
Vasconcellos brief reign, is attested by a portrait of a knight in lion armour
at the National Museum of Art in Bucharest, dated to around 1620.11
Vasconcellos ownership of this suit of armour is not a hypothesis to be
dismissed outright. The della Cesa armour could well have been acquired
by his predecessor, Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, the man who
established the Armoury inside the Palace and apparently a collector of
armour himself. In all probability the della Cesa armour was already in
the Palace Armoury at the time of Vasconcellos election and may have
served as a model, or inspiration, for the sculptor of the Grand Masters
funerary bust. As it is, however, any real understanding of the provenance,
ownership, and history of this interesting armour can only be gained through
further research.
Another important harness which was already to be found in the Armoury
during the reign of Grand Master Wignacourt is the so-called Verdelin
suit of armour, a full harness, similarly termed alla Pisana, of Italian
workmanship and fashion dating to around 1580 (fig. B3/ Laking 139).
Indeed, Wignacourt himself is portrayed, in a celebrated painting by
Caravaggio, posing in this harness and accompanied by his page.12 When
compared to the other Wignacourt armour, however, the Verdelin harness

234

is found to be of considerably larger proportions. Evidently, the latter

was tailored for a much bigger man than Wignacourt himself and may
have simply served as a model for the artist. Actually, its popularity with
portrait painters is evidenced by the fact that it features again in at least
two other paintings, those of the knight commander of artillery, Fr Jacques
de Verdelin and, much later, that of Grand Master Pinto de Fonseca.
Laking based his observations on stylistic grounds alone when he
suggested that the Verdelin harness may have been produced in the
workshop of the Milanese armourer Lucio Picinino. Modern scholars,
however, see little resemblence between this armour and the identifiable
works of this armaiolo.13 Today the harness comprises a close helmet,
breastplate, backplate, tassets, cuisses, poleyns, greaves and gauntlets.
The breastplate is of peascod form and decorated with broad bands and
circular panels etched with Romanesque heads, trophies-of-arms, strap
and scrollwork, all fire-gilt upon a white or brightened plate. A folding
lance-rest, and a pair of asymmetrical pauldrons show it to have been
designed for use on horseback. There is also a falling-buff which in turn
suggests that the armour was accompanied by a matching burgonet that
unfortunately has not survived.
The last of the handful of complete suits of armour dating to the 16th
century is one said to have belonged to Grand Master Martin Garzes.
Although there is no documentation or other evidence to support this
claim, it is not unlikely that this armour could have been his property, for
this three-quarter harness dates to the third quarter of the 16th century.
It is thought to be of possibly German manufacture and Laking suspected
that it could have been produced in the workshop of the German armourer
Sigmund Wolf of Landshut around 1560 (fig. C1/ Laking 369). The
attribution of the armour to Wolf, who died in 1555, is unsound. Ian
Eaves believes it bears greater resemblance to the work of a Landshut
master who stamped his work with the letter W, a mark now known to
have been used by Wolfgang Groschedel (recorded 1517-62) and his
son Franz (died 1580). This would make it the only example of a complete
harness at the Armoury that can be dated to the time of the Great Siege.
That it was not used during that conflict, however, is evident from its
good condition. Very few armours actually survived that conflict
undamaged for in a letter to Fr Don Pietro di Luna, written in July 1566,
Grand Master Jean de Valette complains of the gran consummation di
esse [armour] nel passato longo assedio dellarmata Turchesca and, as
a result, a commission was given for the purchase of new armours from
Milan with which to stock up the depleted armoury. Such was the scarcity
of good equipment after the Siege that the commander of artillery, the
knight Arisat, was instructed to purchase any available armour and
weapons directly off the many thousands of mercenaries, adventurers,
and forestieri employed in garrisoning the fortress of Valletta who were
willing to part with their equipment on leaving the island.

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Complete with close helmet, breastplate and backplate, tassets, gauntlets,

and full arms, the Garzes harness is decorated with wide radiating and
deeply etched and gilded bands and borders. The bands are, in Lakings
words, filled with duplicated annular panels, each finishing in the outline
of a dolphin, joined tail to mouth, in the centre of each is a rosette. These
are bordered on either side by narrow bands of conventional scrollwork;
the intervening space between being minutely granulated and found in
1903, to be filled with black pigment that was later removed. The
tassets, too, appear to have been tampered with, probably during the
19th century, when a number of plates were added to them, while the
knee-pieces had their lower edges cut away and permanently riveted to
the underlying plates. Even so, according to Laking, this harness remained
the finest suit from the armourers art to be encountered in the collection.
That the Armoury once contained many other ornate 16th century
harnesses is attested by the survival of many disparate breastplates,
backplates, pauldrons, couters. Still, Baron von Neipperg, visiting the
Armoury in 1617, was not much impressed by the quality of armour on
display and remarked that the Grand Masters must have surely worn
more costly armour than this. The knight Cambrini immediately replied
that never in war, and rarely even for show in times of peace was it
ever the practice for Hospitallers to indulge in such finery, and the Order,
particularly its rulers, was only interested in procuring equipment that
was effective and thoroughly good, while the pieces of handsome
armours then on display were always the present of some foreign
sovereign or potentate. He then went on to show off a beautifullywrought helmet, with gold embossing on the visor, reciting the legend
that this was actually given by Suleyman II to LIsle Adam out of his
respect for the latters bravery at the Siege of Rhodes.14 That pragmatism
and humility were certainly not always the case, however, has already
been revealed by Wignacourts letters cited earlier on.
Most of the armour, with the exception of that displayed in the Palace
corridors and staterooms, is today found in the right hall of the Armoury
Museum. The larger number of breastplates have been housed in two
showcases. Figs. K7, K8 and K9 show three proto-peascod, or deepbellied, style of breastplate of Italian make c.1565-70, largely devoid of
decoration except for large medallions etched on the medial ridge. Many
others bear no decoration whatsoever (fig. K10) as they constituted that
part of the equipment known as munitions armour. The most interesting
of the mid 16th-century armours, primarily for its historical connotations,
is the cuirass for foot combat of Grand Master Jean de Valette (fig.
K21). The breastplate and backplate are decorated with three bands of
etched decoration composed of vertically aligned grotesque animals,
humanoid figures, and symmetrical foliage, the central band of which
contains a panel with St John the Baptist holding a lamb and the inscription
ECCE AGNUS DEI and the heraldic arms of Jean de Valette. The

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breastplate has a medial ridge and is articulated at the waist with a single
upward overlapping lame. The backplate is similarly articulated at the
collar and waist. This armour dates to 1558-1568.
A corsaletto da piede with breastplate of the flattened bomb form
without a medial ridge, and with accompanying backplate can be seen in
figs. K1 and K2. This is constructed in one with the gorget and articulated
waist. In addition to the main plate there are two lames forming the
gorget and three upward overlapping lames with scalloped edges
articulating the waist, with one other serving as the skirt. It also has a
gusset lame at each armpit. The cuirass has no applied ornamentation
and can be dated to c.1540. Another bomb form of breastplate is fig.
K4. This is also dated to 1540 and is constructed in one with articulated
waist made from two upward-overlapping lames and one other serving
as the skirt. The neck and armpits have roped edges and the cuirass has
no applied ornamentation. Similarly fitted with articulated waist are two
breastplates of a corsaletto da piede type dating to around 1555 (figs.
K3 & K5). The first has two upward-overlapping lames with scalloped
edges articulating the waist and one other serving as the skirt. The
breastplate has a medial ridge and a gusset lame at each scalloped armpit.
The neck and armpit lames have a roped border. The breastplate has no
etched decoration but bears two rounded medallions below the neckline.
A similar, but ornamented, specimen is a corsaletto da cavallo of around
1560 (fig. K6). This has a single upward-overlapping lame articulating
the waist, two holes for a missing lance-rest below the right armpit, and
roped neckline and armpits. Its etched decoration is deployed in three
equally spaced bands separated by bright blank areas. The central band
bears an effigy of the Virgin and Child just below two embossed medallions
beneath the neckline. The same style of decoration is continued on the
accompanying backplate which also bears, however, a grotesque nude
winged female on the central band instead of the religious motif depicted
on the front of the armour. Two other backplates decorated in the same
mannerist/grotesque style are shown in figs. K14 and K15. The former
has an effigy of a crucified Christ set in a mandorla surrounded by the
words CERTABO ET NON TIMEBO IN NOMINE TUO SEMPER
(fig. K18). The latter (fig. K20) has an interesting decoration, set out in
bands separated by plain undecorated areas, wherein the motifs are set
out one above the other in clear divisions and repeated all over the armour.
Laking described it as etched with bands composed of groups of cupids
upholding canopies and supporting the cognizance of the Manfredi family
of Faenza.15 In her discussion of the cognizance (clasped hands) motifs,
Karen Watts believes this feature to be a figurative expression emblematic
Three mid 16th-century breastplates,
of human qualities rather than of heraldic allusions.16
after Laking.

Among the most noteworthy of the corslets are two combined breastplates
and backplates of North Italian make dating to around 1580, fashioned in
the form of a civilian doublet of the latter half of the16th century complete

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with buttons and all (figs. K11 & K13). The breastplates are of semiglobose shape with laminated splints at the base, laminated gussets at the
sides, and laminated gorget at the neck. Down the front of one of these
is etched a narrow band, winding at the top, with figures of amorini and
dolphins, whilst in the centre above is a circular medallion containing a
representation of the Virgin Mary and Child in the style of Giovanni Bellini.
The whole of the etching was formerly gilded. The other (fig. K13) is
decorated with bands containing trophies-of-arms between which are
bands of clear areas separated by narrower bands of floral decorations.
The laminated gussets at the sides are also bordered with a band of
trophies while the armpits of the main plate are bordered with a band of
chained decoration. A similar type of Italian cuirass, closing in the middle
and dated to 1580, can be found in the armoury of the Dukes of Burgundy
in the Koninklijk Museum, Brussels.
Morions, Burgonets & Falling-Buffs
In use with 16th-century body armours were various types of helmets.
The most popular of these was a form of head protection known as the
morion. This was an open-faced helmet well suited for the warm
Mediterranean climate and, although offering little protection to the face,
was preferred to the uncomfortable close-helmet, even by high-ranking
officers. The plainer form of this type of helmet was the cabasset, or
Spanish morion, with its pear-shaped skull terminating in a small pointed
stalk, and a virtually flat and narrow pointed brim reinforced by a roped
edge (fig. N28). Simple in form, the cabasset was an effective head
protection and large numbers were produced in the armour centres of
Europe, especially Northern Italy, in order to equip whole armies of foot
soldiers. Hundreds of such plain munition morions, used by the Orders
troops and militia, can be seen lining the walls, corridors, and window
surrounds of the Palace corridors and its armoury. All, however, have
lost the cheek-pieces which gave some protection to the otherwise
exposed face, though most still retain the brass rosettes along the base of
the skull which held the leather lining inside the helmet in place. Officers
and knights wore more richly ornate examples, frequently decorated in
the same style of their accompanying garniture. The small number of
officers helmets on display are mostly decorated with large etched
medallions or vertical bands of strap work. Fig. N26 has an etched
medallion enveloping a rampant lion, the heraldic emblem of the north
Italian city of Brescia. Above the lion is the double-armed holy cross of
Brescias Cathedral and to the sides are the protectors of that city,
SS Faustino and Giovita, evidence that this helmet was produced in Brescia
around 1570. Brescia was then the largest armour-producing centre in
Italy after Milan but by the 15th century it had already been subjugated
by Venice and, as a result, became the main supplier of armour employed
in Venetian service.17

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On display next to these are Spanish morions with swept brims, a variation
of the Spanish morion with the brim curving gracefully in highly
pronounced up-swept peaks at the front and back. The peaked or pointed
morions are the more abundant form to be encountered in the collection.
The majority are decorated with multiple, narrow vertical bands of etched
trophies (fig. N27), others with all-over strapwork interlace enclosing
trophies-of-arms in French fashion. The most ostentatious of the morions
are the Italian or comb morions, the morioni tondi, with their highly
pronounced central comb normally roped along the crest. Figs. N21 and
N22 are comb morions produced in Brescia around 1580. These can be
so dated by their shape and the copious style of decoration that completely
covers their surfaces with floral motifs and trophies. Fig. N22 has a
leaf-shaped plume-holder fixed to the base of the skull by rivets. Its
whole surface is etched with bands of acanthus foliage, introducing figures
of griffens and other mythological figures. Around the base of the skullpiece is a series of brass-headed rivets that formerly retained the padded
lining in position.
The second major form of helmet was the burgonet, also a light openface helmet, developed in Burgundy and worn mainly by the infantry. It
also became quite popular with light cavalry units and was in use
throughout most of the 16th century, particularly from 1520 to the early
1600s. It is the style of helmet which features most prominently in Matteo
Perez dAleccios depictions of the Great Siege in the Sala del Gran
Consiglio of the Palace. Even Grand Master Jean de Valette is depicted
wearing one in the battle for the Post of Castile. The burgonet was
basically a rounded helmet with peaked-brow, upright combed-skull
furnished with hinged cheek-pieces and neckguard. Later versions were
often fashioned from two interlocking halves, hammered together along
the comb. The larger part of the burgonets in the collection are of the
plain type used to equip the common soldiers and only a few are actually
decorated. One typical example of the plain type, dating to 1570-1590
and produced in central Italy, has a pronounced comb and cheek-pieces
perforated with eleven round ventilation holes set in a circle (fig. N30).
Another example is a variation known as the burgonet-morion (burgonetta
aguzza - fig. N33) which had a skull similar to that of a cabasset ending
in a stalk with pointed peak.
Two unique examples of burgonets are of the reinforced kind. One,
weighing around 11.5 kg, minus its cheek-pieces, was practically
bulletproof and designed primarily for sappers (fig. N31). It has a plain
surface devoid of any ornamentation except for a roped edge along the
peak, the neckguard, and the brim of the comb. The other is complete
with cheek-pieces and pivoting peak, has a tubular plume-holder on the
upper rear end of the comb and is almost completely covered with crudely
etched, nave designs of trees, foliage, and figurines on the cheek-pieces
(fig. N32).

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A fine example of an officers burgonet is shown in fig. N34. This is now

nearly devoid of ornamentation except for a large grotesque escutcheon
etched on the centre of the comb. The skull, however, bears traces of
etched decoration that seems to have been completely rubbed off through
vigorous cleaning. Another distinctive variation, of a more rounded classical
form, is in fig. N35, dating to around the mid-16th century (fig. N35).
This too seems to have once had etched ornamentation and lacks its
guanciali. Embossed on the upper part of the skull are two rounded
medallions, now plain. A finely ornamented specimen, currently displayed
with falling buff that does not belong to it, is decorated with three broad
bands of etched floral motifs on the skull and a continuous band on the
comb (fig. N36). Its cheek-pieces are missing.
The buff, a chin-shaped defence for the lower face incorporating a gorget
plate, was frequently worn with the burgonet to convert this headpiece
into a close helmet. Several examples of falling-buffs can be found in
the collection. They are so-called because they were made from several
lames held in place by springs that could be released to fall and thus
expose the face. Most are of Italian make and date to the second half of
the 16th century. Figs. N56 and N58 show falling-buffs with upper lames
fitted with ocularia. The buff belonging to the Verdelin garniture, on the
other hand, has no such feature, the vision slit being formed by the space
between the buff itself and the peak of the burgonet (fig. N59). The
collection also contains a number of plain casques,18 open-faced helmets
similar to the burgonet but lacking the combs and cheek-pieces.
Cuirassier Armour
The larger part of the surviving armour to be found in the Palace Armoury
dates to the 17th century. This was the only period in the history of the
Armoury when functional armour was stored within its walls. Thereafter,
armour gave way to firearms and its presence in the Armoury became
solely a decorative one. The larger part of the 17th century armour is of
the type generally known as cuirassier armour. The cuirassiers were a
type of heavily-armoured cavalrymen, frequently armed with long pistols
and carbines, who were developed as a distinct fighting arm during the
first half of the 1600s, relying for their effect on both the shock of their
charge as well as on their fire-power. They appear to have originated in
Germany where they replaced the lancers but eventually the difficulty of
fighting in heavy armour, especially when forced to dismount, together
with their lack of success as a military arm, soon outweighed the few
advantages offered by such units. As a result, cuirassier units were shortlived. Indeed their use as fighting arm in the Orders military forces is
highly debatable, especially given the restricted nature of the local terrain,
where a cavalry unit could not be deployed in mass formations but had to
serve mainly as a mounted infantry.

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A typical cuirassier armour, best illustrated in Binghams Tactics of Aelian,

(1616), consisted of a close helmet with attached gorget-plates,
breastplate, and backplate, mostly hidden by large pauldrons, arm
defences, gauntlets, large lobster-like tassets reaching down to the knees,
and a garde-de-rein or culet which protected the lower back when on
horseback.
The finest surviving example of a cuirassier armour in the Palace collection
is one of probably French make dating to around 1625 (fig. G3/ Laking
186). This comprises a close helmet, gorget, breastplate, and backplate,
large laminated tassets and a full garde-de-rein. This is the only laminar
culet to be found in the collection. The remainder of the garde-de-reins,
all displayed on their own accord on wooden panels, are made from
overlapping scales. The harness was originally of brilliantly blued steel
and decorated with simple gilded radiating bands with incised lines and
punched ornamentation alternating with plain reserved surfaces. Various
plates of the suit are gilded with forms resembling fleur-de-lys. The tassets
and gard-de-rein rest on the wide flanges of the breast and backplates
respectively and are secured in place by bolts and wing-nuts (figs. G1 &
G2). As in most cuirassier armour of the period, the harness ends at the
knees since protection for the lower legs and feet was usually provided
by leather riding-boots. The helmet, with attached gorget-plates, is a closehelmet with vertical ventilation slits on the visor.
The Palace collection contains a rich variety of helmets which were
worn by cuirassiers during this period. The most common are the closehelmets or field pieces with acutely pointed visors and upper-bevors.
These two component parts of the helmet, designed to protect the face,
could be raised together or separately, the upper-bevor being generally
secured in place by a swivel hook. Another type of cuirassiers headpiece
had a pivoted peak and visor consisting of vertical bars instead of the
visor and upper bevor (figs. N53 & N54). Others have a falling-buff or
bevor protecting the face and a pivoting peak. Various examples were
designed to accept reinforcing plates attached to bolts in order to render
them bulletproof (figs. N40 & N45).
The most intriguing type of helmet is the Savoyard, so called because it
was worn by troops from Savoy, although it possibly originated in the
Low Countries. 10d. Such helemets are also called Todenkopf because
of their visors pierced with eye, nose, and mouth holes in a manner
reminiscent of skulls, with peaks arched over each eye. The Palace
collection contains many variations of such helmets, some of which are
truly odd in shape and form. The last type of 17th century helmets to be
found in the collection are a number of heavy bulletproof burgonets with
hinged cheek-pieces and pivoting peaks. Each cheek-piece has a section
of gorget-plates attached which, when closed, were secured together
frontally by means of a swivel hook. Some of these helmets were also

241

designed to accept reinforcing plates making them even heavier. The

tremendous weight of such helmets suggests that they were designed
primarily for use by sappers and military engineers in siege warfare. A
few may have actually seen service during some of the many Hospitaller
raids on Turkish fortresses in the Morea such as at Coron, for example,
when the Turkish fortress was captured after sappers in the Hospitaller
raiding party blew off its main gate with petards.19
One such helmet, with reinforced skull, has studded cheek-pieces which
evidently formed part of another helmet and may have been put together
in local workshops (fig. N39). A very good specimen, weighing some
17.5 kg and dating to around 1640, is mounted on a bulky laminar harness
which does not belong to it. This large harness was evidently made to fit
a tall man of ungainly proportions (fig. M4). It consists of a large
splinted breastplate with corresponding backplate, complete with arms,
pauldrons, tassets, and poleyns reaching down to the knee. It is free
from any ornamentation save for a narrow roped border. There are also
two other laminar breastplates, and a backplate, of a type known as
anime and dating from the late 16th century (figs. K16 & K17).
Heavy brass studding was a decorative feature of armour produced during
this period. By the early 17th century, brass-capped iron rivets, originally
used to secure the leather lining along the edges of armour and the joins
of articulated lames, were frequently displayed in the form of small circles
on the faces of pauldrons, couters, and helmets, simply for aesthetic
purposes (fig. L11). Another ornamental feature, found on the remains
of a few surviving pieces of cuirassier armour, are articulated lames with
finely scalloped edges (fig. L9).
The Palace collection contains a second fine cuirassier harness of French
make, dating to around 1630 (fig. F2). This is complete to the knee,
except for the helmet which does not belong. It has full pauldrons and
long, laminated tassets finishing in poleyns. The breastplate is heavily
decorated with etched radiating bands containing designs of trophies of
various Romanesque arms alternating with a continuous band of acanthus
leaves. The pauldrons, coudres, and poleyns are engraved with large
detached trophies-of-arms. In Lakings view the decoration was executed
in a manner usually associated with the French school of engraving during
the reign of Louis XIII.
Laking also noted a reinforced breastplate belonging to this harness which
was displayed with the other breastplates. The head-piece now
accompanying the armour is of the close-helmet type with pivoting gorget,
upper-bevor, and visor, and is of French make, c.1630 (fig. N52). This
helmet has a faceted bowl surmounted by a large pointed comb. A similar
head-piece is depicted in the portrait of the French knight Joseph dOlivari,
Grand Prior of Toulouse (see page 95).

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The larger part of the surviving cuirassier harnesses in the collection are
of the very plain, undecorated type, many having been put together from
pieces which do not exactly fit (figs. M1, M2 & M3). These can be
found on display throughout the Armoury and the Palace corridors upstairs.
Those on display in the museum have their long tassets attached to the
breastplates by leather straps. Some still retain the folding lance-rest on
the right side of the breast plate, but a large part have lost this feature. A
considerable number of long tassets are also displayed among the trophiesof-arms decorating the walls. This was already the case during the 18th
and 19th centuries. Obviously, these plain suits once formed part of the
munition armour held in stock inside the Armoury throughout most of the
17th century.
An important component of 17th century armies were the pikemen and
musketeers. By then, musketeers had shed all their armour but the
pikemen, still involved in close-quarter fighting, retained various elements
of armour. The pikemens armour consisted primarily of a helmet, gorget,
cuirass, and tassets. Pikemens breastplates of the period usually had
strong medial ridges and low neck-lines to accommodate gorgets, together
with deep flanges at the bottom to support the attachment of tassets.
The waistline of such armour was generally high as a result of being in
line with the high waist of civilian fashion of the period. The backplates
and breastplates were held together by straps at the shoulders and waist.
The shoulder straps, covered in small metal plates and permanently riveted
to the backplate, were generally secured to the breastplates by means of
two mushroom-headed rivets, one on each side of the petto. A few such
breastplates, minus the straps, can be seen at the Armoury (fig. K31).
The tassets were usually large and consisted of single plates decorated
with simulated lames and brass rivets. No such examples however have
survived at the Armoury. The gorgets consisted of two plates which
pivoted together on the left hand side and were fastened by means of a
combination of keyhole slots and mushroom-headed studs placed on the
right. These were often very plain and devoid of decoration. Some were
decorated with brass-capped iron rivets along the edges and neck and
were designed to be worn alone over a buff-coat as can be seen in the
portrait of Fr Gabriele Cassar (fig. J4 ).
The increasing effectiveness of firearms meant that most armour worn
on the field of battle had to be significantly strengthened if it was to serve
any purpose whatsoever. The heavier the armour, the more unwieldy
and impractical it became for the wearer. One way of dealing with this
disadvantage was by having normal armour which could then be
reinforced with added plates as and when required. A number of such
reinforced breastplates, with heavy detachable bulletproof plackarts, can
still be seen on display. These heavy plackarts were secured to the
breastplate by a combination of keyhole slots and mushroom-headed studs,
and swivel hooks. One such breastplate with attachments for a reinforcing

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plate has a deeply engraved, or chiselled, crucifix shown as though

suspended from the neck by a chain (figs. K24 & K25). Laking ascribed
it to possibly Maltese workmanship, dating it to around 1660 (Laking
143) but there is no documented evidence, however, to hint any
manufacture of plate armour in Malta. Indeed, all evidence points to its
importation in bulk from abroad. Lakings assumption therefore remains
unsubstantiated. This breastplate, damaged along the lower end of the
medial ridge, however, may have been repaired locally.
The collection also contains a number of rather plain and crude pettiforti,
heavy bulletproof breast plates indented with musket ball punch-marks,
some with as many as four hits (figs. K30, K32, & K33). The most
interesting of these is the one bearing an embossed heart crudely inscribed
with a cross and the letters IN MF SS, placed as though hanging from
the neck by a strap (figs. K29 & K30).

Antique arms and armour

The North Italian Sallet

during the late 19th century,
painted black and mounted on
a mannequin with a suit of
armour that does not match.

Although most of the collection dates to the late-16th, 17th and 18th
centuries, there are various pieces of arms and armour which belong to
the earlier half of the 1500s and some even to the late middle ages. The
most archaic of these are two small portions from a brigandine (fig. I1).
This was a jacket-type, laminar body armour composed of small iron
plates, covered with linen and crimson velvet, and attached to one another
by brass rivets. The remains at the Armoury appear to be of Italian
manufacture, which Laking dated to around 1530, though these may prove
to be of a much earlier date. This specimen was said to be part of the
dress of Dragut Rais, Pasha of Tripoli, Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish
army, killed at the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. Given that Dragut was
not buried in Malta, it is difficult to understand how his personal armour
ended up in Hospitaller hands.
The collection also contains three mail vests (figs. I3 & I4) probably
dating from the early 16th century. Mail armour is made of hundreds of
small interlinked steel rings. A mail shirt with long sleeves, reaching
down to the knees is currently displayed with the Turkish armour. One of
the vests has three brass rosettes on the front arranged in a broad V,
suggesting Turkish origin.
Belonging to the Rhodian period of Hospitaller history is a North Italian
sallet, or celata, of around 1520.20 This helmet is considered to be the
most important possession in the Palace Armoury collection (figs. N1
N3). Back in 1903, Laking discovered it on one of the mannequins,
covered in several coats of black paint. This sallet has a finely moulded
crown finishing in a cable, the front portion of which is stiffened by a

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reinforcing plate. The vision slit, or ocularium, is actually formed by the

gap between the top of the visor, itself of bellows-form, and the lower
edge of the reinforcing plate. Its visor is in one piece, embossed with
four deeply-concave transverse flutes, the uppermost of which is drawn
outwards to form a ridge below the ocularium. The flutes are pierced
by ten breathing holes (four small horizontal slits and a circular hole on
each side). The back of the skull is curved out to form a neck-guard, the
whole of the edging being turned under a blunted edge. The crown still
retains traces of delicate etching.
A very similar helmet, but with articulated neckguard can be seen in the
Wallace Collection (no.A72) while comparable visors are to be found in
the Royal Armouries collection (iv.439, 440). The harness that would
have been worn with such a headpiece would have also come from
Milan, then the leading production centre for Italian armour. This would
have been of a plain, rounded and predominantly functional and robust
design, consisting mainly of a globular breastplate and fitted with tassets,
large pauldrons, couters, and gauntlets, and leg defences bearing winged
poleyns.
Whilst Italian armour of the 15th century had a graceful, rounded
appearance, contemporary German armour adopted a sharper, spikey
look echoing the pleating of civilian garb. From around the middle of the
15th century, German armour adopted a style of ridged and cusped plates
that later came to be termed Gothic. Many pieces from such armours,
said to have been recovered from Rhodes in the 19th century, can be
viewed at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, and St John Gate, Clerkenwell,
but only a sole remnant from a possibly Hospitaller armour of the period
is to be seen in the Palace collection. This is a singular couter, or elbow
guard (fig. L5) from a post-Gothic harness of possibly Italian or Flemish
make. It is symmetrically shaped along a pronounced medial ridge (roped
in the centre) and has a heart-shaped wing and an elbow point decorated
with a star. Two rivets at centre of the couter, on either side of the
medial ridge were probably secured to narrow articulated lames.
Possibly from the time of Grand Master DAubusson and his successors
in Rhodes, is a gorget, crudely converted from a fine Italian breastplate
of the early 16th century (fig. J3 - Laking 146). Across its top, but now
almost ground and polished away, is a broad band of linear etching with
a composition of saints in the manner, according to Laking, of Tommaso
Fineguerra and some of the earlier Florentine engravers.
Of undeniably German make and inspiration is a close helmet fashioned
in Maximilian style (figs. N4 & N5). Developed out of the older Gothic
style, and so-named after Emperor Maximilian, ruler of the Holy Roman
Empire, this style of armour (largely introduced during his reign) adopted
a characteristic pattern of fluting of close-set ribs (initially quite sparse)

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that not only gave strength and a glancing surface to armour but also
rendered it beautiful. Dating to around 1520, the Maximilian close helmet
found in the Palace collection has a fluted crown and sharp pointed visor
of bellows form. The visor has a continuous vision slit and 12 horizontal
slits (6 on each side) for breathing. The bellows-form visor and bevor
pivoted on the same point. The original pivot hole on one side of the visor
was damaged and a new hole fitted, giving the visor a slightly upward
displacement to the left.
Dated to around 1540, is a close helmet with roped comb. It is described
by Laking as being of English make, but is most probably Flemish or
French (figs. N6 & N7). The visor is pierced with a continuous ocularium
with the lower edge forged out into a roped ridge. The helmet has a
pivoting upper bevor (mezail) but lacks the chin-piece, rendering it
incomplete. Fixed on the right side of the visor is a lifting peg. This helmet
has a distinctive prow-shaped profile. A similar form of helmet, although
considerably more ornamented, is to be found in the Museo Civico delle
Armi Marzoli in Brescia (MMB 319, E 34). This is dated to 1520-30 and
is described as being a French-style field helmet produced in Milan.
Early 16th century leg and feet defences are scantily represented. The
few on display comprise a heavy pair of steel sabatons formed from
large articulated lames (fig. H6) with open heel and securing-straps of
the type to be seen on the feet of Grand Master Jean de Valettes funeral
effigy in the crypt of St Johns Co-Cathedral, Valletta. Another pair is
attached to finely moulded greaves, and has a flat, spreading bear-paw
form with radiating fluting at the end. The borders are decorated with
narrow bands of etched acanthus leaves, all gilded, the remaining surface
being russeted. Laking dated these to around 1525 and attributed them
to the Italian school of Missaglia (fig. N17a). Although definitely of North
Italian manufacture, and dating to around 1510-1520, there is no reason,
however, to attribute them specifically to the Missaglia workshop.

Swords
Edged weapons make up a significant part of the collection. The Armoury
boasts a very rich collection of swept-hilt rapiers, or as they are referred
to in documents, spade alla spagnola. The rapier is a long and slender,
double-edged single-handed sword, designed mainly for the thrust.
Rapiers first appeared in the mid-16th century and evolved from the
practice of hooking the forefinger over the quillon and around the ricasso
for better blade control, with the various branches of the guard designed
to protect different parts of the hand. Rapiers, however, reflect the
diminishing influence of the sword on the field of battle and its increasing
popularity as an article of fashion. Reference to the espada ropera
(dress sword) are first mentioned in Spanish documents of around 1575.

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The earliest example in Malta, found not in the Armoury but at the Birgu
Parish Museum, is an estoc-type rapier said to have belonged to Grand
Master Jean de Vallette, the hero of the Great Siege. This sword is of
the cruciform type with double side rings and straight flat quillons (see
p. 60). It is devoid of any decoration and as such may have not belonged
to the Grand Master at all. Given the dignity of his station, the Grand
Master would probably have carried a much finer weapon such as that
to be seen hanging from the belt of the renowned Italian warrior, Stefano
Sciarra Colonna in his portrait by Angelo Bronzino (1540). A similar though
slightly lighter, and later, sword is to be found in the Palace collection
(fig. Q1). This has a narrower blade, shorter quillions and circular pommel,
while the lower ring guard is fitted with a plate.
The larger part of the rapier collection consists of the common tworinged (fig. Q6) and three-ringed (fig. Q5) Italian rapiers. These have
hilts with double- and triple-ring foreguard defences complemented by
three- and four-bar inner guards, arms, straight quillions swelling at the
outer ends, knuckle guards joined by a branch to the upper-most rings,
tapered cylindrical pommels with button tops, and grips of twisted steel
wire to allow for a firm grip. The rapier blades vary in length between 3
to 4 feet, are of diamond section, with double-edged blade, having single
fuller on each side. Stamped on the ricasso are usually the makers
marks, and frequently the eight-pointed cross of the Order (fig. Q8).
One example (Laking No. 210), has the blade inscribed ME FECIT
SOLINGEN. Many have Toledo blades although Toledo inscriptions
are known to have been spuriously applied by contemporary Soligen
makers. A Spanish knight recorded to have owned one such rapier with
a Toledo blade (una espada de Cinta con guarnicion ordinaria) was
Fr Don Diego de Mier who died in 1697. Other, though less abundant,
forms of swept-hilt rapiers to be found in the Armoury are the so-called
skeleton rapiers, also of Italian make, so-called because of the manner
of construction of the hilt with all the front and rear guard bars (some are
made with as many as seven rings), arranged in the form of a rib cage
and fitted with round-shaped front and rear guards, straight quillons, wirebound grips and walnut-shaped pommels (fig. Q4). The most exquisitely
decorated of the swept-hilt rapiers in the collection is an Italian sword of
around 1590, having a long stiff blade of diamond-shaped section, with
an armourers mark on the recasso, an oviform and hollow pommel, and
a russeted surface, in places gilded, and incrusted with silver spiral scrolls.
The centres of the principal ornaments had oval cartouches originally
enriched with gold plaquette medallions, now missing (fig. Q11).Fr
Emmanuele de Silva, who died in 1725, is recorded as having owned
una spada alla portughese.
The collection also retains a few examples of cup-hilt rapiers. These
gave the greatest protection to the hand and were the type most favoured
by the Spaniards. One such sword has a cup-hilt with overturned edge

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for catching the point of the adversarys rapier, the interior of the cup
having an additional pierced plate, known as the guardapolvo. The blade
is of flattened hexagonal section and is of Italian make, dating to around
1660 (figs. Q3 & Q7). Another fine example has a deep cup-hilt guard
with spirally fluted upper-ridge, and two bands of pierced and chiselled
floral decorations, one along the upper edge and the other near the ricasso.
Its knuckle guard and quillions, one of which is broken off, have spiral
fluting with button termination (fig. Q9).

Sword which Emperor Philip II of

Spain presented to Grand Master
Jean de Valette in recognition for
his service to Christendom
following the successful defence of
Malta against the Turks in 1565
(after Laking).

Frequently used with the rapier was the main gauche, or left hand dagger.
Many schools of fence which proliferated in Europe during this period
taught a type of sword play that made use of the two weapons in
combination. The sword-and-dagger form of combat, however, gradually
fell into disfavour in most of Europe by the end of the 17th century and
was practically abandoned by 1700, except in Spain where it persisted in
use up to the late 1700s. The left-hand dagger would often match the
rapier in styling, such as the spada e pugnale dargento belonging to the
rich knight Fr Giovanni Luigi di Crillon who died in 1711. Only one
example of a main gauche dagger survives in the Palace collection (fig.
Q10). This is of Spanish make, dating to around 1660, with a simple
cruciform-hilt, knuckle-bow, and a well-tempered, high carbon, stiff
straight steel blade with notches near the ricasso to catch or disrupt the
opponents blade. Entries in the Orders records for spada e pugnale
can be found in the spropriamento of Fr Ferando Bracco and the Prior
of Navarre ( d. 1692 un pugnale, un stiletto).
Undeniably the most famous sword and dagger combination in the annals
of the Order is the bejewelled sword which Emperor Philip II of Spain
presented to Grand Master Jean de Valette in recognition for his service
to Christendom following the successful defence of Malta against the
Turks in 1565. This sword, and accompanying dagger, however, were
never kept inside the Armoury but inside the more heavily guarded rooms
of the treasury, in another part of the Grand Masters Palace known as
the tower, where the treasures of the Order, diamonds, relics, and
ornaments, were securely housed. We are told that the two keys to this
repository were held by the Grand Master and the Grand Conservator.
Removed from the Palace by Napoleon and sent to France in 1798, (he
is said to have remarked Let them keep the hand (of St John) whilst
helping himself to the sword and dagger), this sword is now to be found
in the Louvre. In Lakings time it was displayed in the Bibliotheque National
in Paris where it was known as the Epe de la Religion. This sword,
with gold hilt, is enriched with translucent enamels and richly set with
jewels.
An interesting description of this sword is found in a brief entry entitled
Notitia della Spada mandata al Gran Maestro Valletta lAnno 1566.
The document reveals that the spada e pugnale con li fornimenti tutti

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doro were also accompanied by una cintura tutta doro parimente

guarnita di eccellentissimo valore e di grandissimo prezzo. The sword
was inscribed with the phrase Plus Quam Valor Valette Valet.21 The
weapon was conveyed to Malta by the knight Fr Roderico Maldonato
who had been dispatched by the Grand Master soon after the departure
of the Turkish fleet in order to convey the news of the defeat of the
Turkish army to the Spanish court. It became the custom, on the Feast of
the Nativity of the blessed Virgin (8 September), and in commemoration
of the Great Siege (il-Vittorja), to parade this sword through the streets
of Valletta and for the Grand Masters to unsheathe and brandish it aloft
during the reading of the gospel.
Evolving from the rapier during the late 17th century, and eventually
replacing it altogether during the 18th century in Europe as the principal
dress-sword, was the espadin or smallsword. Only in Spain did the
rapier persist in use for a while longer, although the Orders records
show that even Spanish knights were not impartial to adopting the
smallsword by the late 17th century, as can be attested from the spogli
of Fr Francisco de Torres (died 1644 - dos espadines zuarnicodos de
plata), Fr Don Joseph de Villanel (died 1729 un espadin con guarnicion
de plata), Don Cristoval de Blanes (un espadin con guarnicion de plata),
and Fr Don Joacchin de Bustamante (un espadin de plata), to mention
but a few examples. The espadin, as its name implies, was a much
smaller and lighter sword than the rapier. A transitional rapier from this
period (c.1640) with shallow basket hilt and downward curved quillons
(fig. Q18) best illustrates how the rapier was evolving into a smaller
sword. By the end of the 17th century a typical smallsword was usually
characterized by a guard, metal shell, quillions and knuckle-bow. Nearly
all the spogli of late 17th and 18th century knights contain references to
espadines, mostly in silver or gilded brass, and some knights possessed
more than one example.
Yet surprisingly, and possibly because these swords were frequently sold
by auction, only two smallswords survive in the collection. One of these,
missing its quillions and knuckle-bow, has brass double-shell guard and
pommel (fig. Q15). The usefulness of these weapons as personal sidearms
is perhaps best illustrated by an incident on the night of 17 January 1759
when an Italian knight Corio and a fellow-knight managed to defend
themselves with their smallswords against a gang of armed thieves who
assailed them in the streets of Valletta as they were returning to their
lodgings. Corio was grieviously wounded in the face but managed to
hold off his assailants until the timely arrival of the city patrol.
The Orders records reveal that many of the knights smallswords were
highly ornate weapons with blades decorated either in silver (espadin
de plata) or gilded silver (espadin de plata dorada). A description of
Grand Master Pintos visit to Mdina for the ceremony of the installation

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of Bishop Rull describes him as carrying a smallsword with a solid gold

handle. Frederick Ryan, in his book The House of the Temple, mentions
an interesting episode during the defence preparations of 1798 wherein
Grand Master Hompesch, whilst on a tour of inspection of the island
defences, was so pleased with the arrangements that he spoke of
presenting his silver sword, which as commander-in-chief he had worn
during his tour, to Capo Maestro Montagna. 22 One of the last
Hospitallers to have parted with his smallsword in Malta was Fr Nicholas
Vittorio de Vachon Belmont, who died in 1807, and whose spadino con
guardia dargento was sold off for the price of 15 scudi.
The most impressive of all the swords in the collection are the two wellpreserved specimens of hand-and-half broadswords known as bastard
swords (fig. Q13). These were a slightly smaller version of the doublehanded broadsword, which the Spanish called the montante, a serious
piece of hardware used mainly in siege warfare that could cut clean
through the plate armour of the period, cleaving a man in two with a
single blow. Its use was considered a special skill often meriting extra
pay. DAleccios frescoes and prints frequently show to these cutting
weapons. In a panel depicting the battle for the Post of Castile, such
swords are shown stacked behind the defenders ready for use the moment
the Turks broke through the Christian lines. The blades of the two swords
in the collection are inscribed IN TE DOMINE SPERAVIT and
ESPOIR EN DIEU - ANTOI MEFEI respectively.

Plate illustration from Lakings

Catalogue... showing the sword-gun,
rapiers, and Venetian schiavona.

Another business-like weapon on display is a Venetian schiavona (fig.

Q12). This type of sword, originally used by Dalmatian troops in Venetian
service (Schiavoni), carries a cage-like basket hilt of narrow metal bars
and has a broad, straight double-edged blade. The pommel is of cast
bronze and resembles a lions head, possibly alluding to the lion of
St Mark, the symbol of Venice. Introduced in the second half of the 16th
century, schiavonas continued in use until the end of the 1700s, by which
time they had adopted more complex hilts than their earlier counterparts.
The schiavona combined the full hand protection of a deep basket hiltguard with a very efficient blade that allowed both cutting and thrusting.
Enterprising Venetian traders exported the weapon all over Europe where
it became a favourite heavy cavalry sword in many European armies.
St Felixs inventory of the Armoury drawn up in 1785 does not include
such swords, but twelve schiavonas are found listed in the inventory of
St James Cavalier, similarly drawn up in 1785. The sole example present
in the Armoury must have formed part of the St James Cavalier hoard
and would have ended up in the Palace after 1800, when the secondary
storehouses were dismantled.
The walls of the Armoury and the corridors of the state rooms contain a
number of hangers. The larger part of these are brass-hilted sabres of
the type shown in fig. Q16. One strange exhibit is a sword made up from

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the parts of two different swords, possibly the product of repair works
by the Orders armourers although it may also date to a much later period
(fig. Q17). The brass hilt of this sword, minus the knuckle-bow, was
taken from a British hanger of around 1700, similar to those fitted out by
Thomas Hollier when he worked for the Board of Ordnance after 1715,
an example of which can be found at the Royal Armouries. The blade
came from a larger double-edged cutting sword. Another type of sword
frequently found listed in various spropriamenti is a longue espe de
caravane avec garde de fer et la poignee dargent.
Surely one of the most intriguing exhibits on display is the combination
sword-gun of German-make dating to around the late 16th century (fig.
Q14). Laking described it as a hunting sword with blade of falchion shape,
the back of which was forged in a way so as to form a pistol barrel. At
the hilt is attached a wheel-lock mechanism for discharging the weapon,
the trigger being released by a pin on the opposite side of the blade. The
pommel is of falcon-head shape with a single knuckle guard, a solid sheet,
single quillon and single pas-dane; the whole surface is now of brightened
steel but originally was, again according to Laking, etched with rich
strapwork in the Saxon school fashion. A similar sword can be seen in
the armoury of the palace of the Doge in Venice.23 A sabre portant
pistolet is actually recorded as being in the Armoury in 1799 and this
same weapon, now on display, may have belonged to the Italian knight
Fr Francesco Cavallo who is recorded as having owned un paro di
pistole con spada when he died in Malta in the early years of the 18th
century.
Staff-Weapons
The Palace Armoury contains a rich collection of staff-weapons. Basically
these were blades mounted on long poles, and mostly useful for their
defensive value, particularly in the defence of ramparts and walls
undoubtedly simple tools with which the Order could quickly arm its militia
in the event of a siege. Originally there were thousands of these edged
weapons lining the walls of the gallery but now only a few hundred survive.
The majority of the staff-weapons are spontoons, halberds, and partisans
together with, though to lesser degree, a variety of other types and forms.
The halberd (sometimes spelled halbard) is a flat axe with a long spike at
the front. There are two other variations on this standard form, the Austrian
halberd, with its finer, longer spike and axe-blade in the shape of a crescent,
the blade concave-edged and curving inwards, and the German halberd,
with its knife-like spike and a small axe with concave blade, the arc of
which is a half-circle. All three forms have a small hook on the back side
of the axe-blade. Most of the halberds in the Palace collection are of the
type shown in fig. P13, made in central Italy around the end of the 1500s.

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The partisan, or partigiana, is a double-edged knife blade with two hooked

bits sticking out at the base of the blade and pointing forward (fig. P11).
The larger types are sometimes called langue-de-boeuf or langdebeve
as it was called in England (fig. 11). Laking listed many early 18th century
English partisans among the collection. A variation of the partisan is the
sergentina which, as its names implies, was a weapon indicating rank
and looks like a combination of a partisan and halberd. An example of
this type to be found in the Armoury is decorated with three golden pears,
attesting to the fact that it was made for officers in the employ of Grand
Master Perellos (fig. P1). The spontoon, another type of staff-weapon,
has a short blade with two bits on each side. In the time of Grand
Master Pinto, a Compagnia dei Spontonieri was established al servizio
delle Batterie of the Valletta fortifications during the military exercise
and defence preparations of 1758.
The bill has a wide cutting blade, similar to a scythe blade. There is then
the gisarme, also called ronca, which is similar to the bill but has a small
spike at front of the blade (figs. P4 & P6). The fauchard, too, is also
similar to the bill except that it has a long spike or fork added to the back
of the blade, designed to catch an opponents blade (fig. P5). The ranseur
or corsesca, on the other hand, has a fork-type blade, the centre prong
twice the length of the outer two prongs. The outer two prongs curve
slightly outwards and are in fact pointed blades (fig. P10). The spectum,
or brandistocco, has a trident-shaped head. Grand Master La Cassiere
is recorded to have been equipped with one of these when he undertook
a tour of inspection of the fortifications of Valletta at the head of a troop
of knights in 1574.
Numerous pike heads can be found in many of the mural trophies in the
Armoury and Palace corridors. These short, sharp spearheads were
originally fixed to very long (12-18feet) poles. Late 16th- and 17thcentury pikemen worked in tandem with musketeer formation, mainly to
protect the latter whilst they were reloading.
The staff-weapons that were kept in the Armoury were part of the
general military hardware. There are a few recorded instances, however,
where one finds such weapons forming part of the personal property of
individual knights. Amongst those recorded to have owned their own
personal alabarda are Fr Francesco Bonaventura24 and Fr Charles
dOrmesson, who actually had two.25 In most cases, however, those
discovered in the possession of knights were usually found to have been
borrowed from the central armoury.
Muslim Arms and Armour
Muslim armour is rather sparingly represented in the Armoury collection,
a curious state of affairs given the presence in Malta of so many Turkish

252

warriors during the Great Siege of 1565 and the other many skirmishes
between Hospitaller and Turkish vessels throughout the Mediterranean.
Even in the time of the Order, the inventories of the Armoury reveal that
the storehouse was markedly lacking in Turkish items.
An important element of the Palace Armoury sword collection are the
Muslim swords, presumably prizes of war captured during the Great
Siege of 1565 or during the many sea-battles fought between the Orders
galleys and Turkish and North African corsairs. Various Turkish swords
are encountered in the spogli of individual knights, frequently referred to
as chimitarre. Amongst these one finds Fr Giacomo Maria Cupellis
(Due cimitarre), Fr Angeli Marones (Una cimittara turchisca colo
fodero) and Fr Lorenzo de Vecchijs (1677 - un moschetto, et una
scimittara turchesca).
The larger part of these swords comprise curved Arab sabres, or scimitars,
known as sajf or nimcha, with back-edged blades and distinctive pommels.
The distinction between these two types of related swords is very loosely
applied. The majority are of the North African and Middle East type of
sajf, devoid of decoration although one particular example, dating to the
early 17th century, has a highly decorated hilt of engraved silver and
brass with the grip overlaid with tortoise-shell and coral (fig. S1). The
nimchas are a Moroccon variety of the sajf, having a less curved blade.
Their hilts, as in the sajf, adopt the classical three down-curving quillons
and knuckle guard, but usually also have a protecting ring (fig. S12).
Many of the sajf and nimcha blades are of good quality steel and most
bear distinctive makers marks which indicate a European origin, possibly
of Hungarian or Styrian make (figs. S16 & S19). The serrated demilune marks were adopted as an indication of quality from the mid-16th
century onwards in the Styrian production centre of Weiz from where
huge quantities were exported to Hungary.26
Among this category of Ottoman swords are two plain, and one ornate,
kilic, or kilij, the latter complete with its scabbard. The kilic is the
traditional Ottoman sabre in use from the early 17th century onwards
and had a blade with double-edged point. The two plain kilij have a
wooden hilt of the karabela type dating to the 16th century, bearing a
distinctive eagle-head shape at the end and a simple steel cross-guard.
The more ornate example, on the other hand, has a broader blade, an
ivory hilt with a short, downward-curved silver cross guard, with largely
missing quillions (fig. S10). Its scabbard, which is the only sword sheath
to be found in the Armoury, is made of wood, covered with light brown
felt and mounted with big silver locket and chape. This dates from the
late 16th century (figs. S11& S12). There is then a small yataghan dagger
(fig. S3). This example, with its typically down-curving blade with
reinforced spine is probably from the West Balkans. It lacks ornamentation
and has a hilt formed from two plain ivory grips bolted on either side of a

253

Detail from DAleccios

painting of a Turkish
soldier showing a dagger
tucked in his belt.

central tang. The Italian knight Fr Constantino Chigi Monrari is recorded

to have owned tre coltelli turchi con stucco di pelle nera manicati di osso
bianco.27
Other fascinating Muslim edged-weapons in the collection are two highly
ornate Turkish maces, or topuz, weapons which also served, in their
highly decorated form, as officers battons, indicating the rank of their
holders. The head and pommel of one of these maces is made of gilded
silver engraved with a cone-shaped panel of floral ornaments and bears
the Turkish silver mark (fig. S4). The haft is of dark wood. The collection
also boasts a Nachakh, a form of battle-axe, of the type depicted by
Perez dAleccio hanging from the belt of a Turkish janissary in one of
the Great Siege frescos. The head of this example is roughly triangular in
form and is of bright steel while the wooden haft is plated with silver,
stamped to represent shagreen (fig. S21).
There is a small number of circular breastplates, backplates, and shoulder
plates from armours belonging to the Sipahi type of Anatolian warrior
employed mainly as light cavalry in Turkish armies. The Sipahi (or
Spahi) was roughly the counterpart of a medieval European knight, his
status similarly dependent on the size of his military fief, called timar in
Turkish which, however, was not inheritable. Some 6,000 Sipahis are
recorded to have formed part of the Turkish force in 1565 where they
fought mainly as infantry arm in the siege warfare. The main components
of Sipahi armour are the shishak, char-aina and zirh.
The shishak, a Slavic term of Turkic origin, is a pointed conical helmet
with cheek pieces, a neck guard, and a fixed peak with an adjustable
nasal guard secured by a staple and spring catch or wing (fig. O1). Its
characteristic shape evolved in the Islamic world, the early examples
coming from the l3th century Seljuk Turkish dynasty in Anatolia. Its
popularity then spread throughout the Ottoman Empire from where it
was subsequently adopted in neighbouring Hungary, Poland, Russia, and
western Europe, where it was called Zischagge. An example of a Polish
Zischagge or lobster-tailed helmet, dating to around 1660, with a fluted
skull-piece, an umbril in front through which once passed a nasal guard
but with missing cheek-pieces, is displayed in the same showcase (fig.
N38).
The char-aina, a type of body armour widely used between the l5th and
l8th centuries in Turkey, Persia, India, and Russia, consists of four plates
hung from the shoulders on straps and connected to one another by straps
and buckles (figs. O2 & O3). These plates were not very big and often
left exposed as much of the wearers protective underclothing as they
covered. They were slightly convex to fit the body and were cut away
near the armpits to allow for freedom of movement. A large round plate
worn in the centre of the breast was flanked by several rectangular or

254

triangular ones. The back was constructed in the same way. The Turkish
char-aina (a Persian word, meaning four mirrors) was sometimes covered
in velvet and was worn over a mail tunic, the zirh. The latter is a mail
body armour extending down to the knees and worn over a quilted caftan.
The sole example to be found in the Armoury collection is very heavy,
formed from thousands of interlocking metal rings, each ring being riveted
and usually having four others linked to it.
Shields
The Armoury holds a variety of 16th century shields. The earliest of
these is what has been termed the gonne shield dating to around 1520
(fig. V1). This is said to have been part of the gift of arms sent by King
Henry VIII to the Order in 1530. Earlier in 1528, LIsle Adam had visited
England, after his sojourn in Spain and France, to muster support for his
project for the recapture of the island of Rhodes. King Henry VIII had
then promised to provide the sum of 20,000 crowns towards the expedition
against the Turks but after five years he redeemed his promise with a
gift of artillery to the same value, including 19 bronze cannon, and
supposedly, a number of gonne shields.
We now know, however, that Henry VIII was only introduced to this
invention in 1544, when a series of 68 such shields are recorded as having
been produced and placed in the Tower of London for use by the kings
personnal bodyguard, possibly based on a model provided by the Italian
Giovanni Battista da Ravenna. Consequently this shield could have not
formed part of the gift of artillery received in 1530. Nor does it seem that
the Maltese example, though similar to some of Henrys gun-shields,
ever possessed a central gonne. The surviving examples in the Royal
Armouries show that these were originally Italian targets that had been
converted into gun shields, after a crude vision hole had been cut into one
of the plates to enable a degree of aiming. This feature is missing on the
Maltese gonne shield, rendering it little more than a steel-faced Italian
target, convex in form, composed of the central steel nimbus and a
border of twelve plates, each fashioned to the segment of a circle, and
having in their centre an embossed ridge - all laid down upon oak
foundations, their joints concealed by applied framing of brass. The hole
in the centre may not have served to pass a short barrel of a breechloading match-lock gun, as long thought to be.
The larger part of the shields are of the brocchiere type for foot combat,
mostly of Milanese make and dating from around 1580 to 1600.
In contemporary documents they are referred to as rondacchie or
rotelle while Laking calls them targets. These types of shields were
designed specifically for use with corsaletti da piede and the simpler
versions were used on the battlefield, particularly by the spadacini

255

(swordsmen) who skirmished with enemy troops in the initial stages of a

battle. One of these shields (fig. R1) of Milanese School c.1580-1600,
has a slightly convex centre with a flat border finishing in roping. It is
etched with five bands radiating star-like from the centre between which
are cartouches containing the emblematic female figure of Justice.
Another, of convex form finishing in an acute salient centre, has oblong
and circular panels running along the border, etched with various trophiesof-arms. In the centre are twelve petal-shaped panels containing a similar
ornament.
Of possibly French makeand dating to 1570, is a circular shield (Laking,
295) that is slightly convex in the centre, etched with six radiating bands
of various trophies-of-arms and with vases and scrollwork between the
fan-shaped compartments. A second French circular shield is etched
with fan-shaped panels alternately containing festoons of laurel ornaments,
bucrania, and drapery (Laking 230). Surely one of the most beautifully
decorated is the brocchiere accompanying the Pompeo della Cesa
harness (fig. A1). This shield is not signed but its manner of decoration is
typical of Milanese production that is frequently attributed to Pompeo. A
very similar shield, with alternating narrow and wide bands radiating from
the centre, and with oval cartouches set inside the narrower bands, is
found in the Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna (No.148) but Lionello
Boccia states that this decoration non trova corrispondenza in alcune
delle opera note di Pompeo. A shield with comparable decoration, likewise
of Milanese design was recently removed from the Fine Arts Museum in
Valletta and transferred to the Armoury (fig. R5 - Laking 370).
The brocchiere of the Wignacourt garniture, too, is a highly embellished
example of Milanese production of 1601. It is engraved and gilded and
encrusted with the arms of the Wignacourt family, surmounted by a
coronet. Of plainer design and decoration are two circular shields (figs.
R4 and R2). The latter is slightly concave, and decorated with raised
petal-shaped panels, and a cabled extreme border. Laking dated it to
1625 but was uncertain as to its Italian manufacture. Another (Laking
29), also without decoration but with a roped border and dated to 1630,
has four screw rivets forming the inside attachment of the arm-straps.
More business-like in their appearance are the reinforced bulletproof
brocchiere weighing 12 kg, belonging to Wignacourts siege armour (fig.
D2), an oval reinforced buckler (fig. R5), and a kite-shaped, possibly
locally-produced, sappers shield made of two parts with a horizontal vision
slit (fig. R7).
The Armoury also boasts four circular convex shields of copper gilt,
possibly dating to the period of the invasion of Malta by the Turks in 1565
(fig. O4). DAleccios illustrations of the Great Siege, however, show
the Turkish infantry equipped with the pointed Hungarian-type shield, a
rare example of which can be found in the armoury of the castle of

256

Cherburg (CH S270).28 In DAleccios frescoes such shields are shown

decorated with the double-sword of the Prophet. The kalkan or circular
Turkish shields in the Palace collection have a gilded surface engraved
with carnation-like flowers, cone-shaped panels, and emblems usually
associated with Oriental art.

Projectile Weapons
The oldest form of projectile weaponry to be found inside the Armoury is
the crossbow.The examples in the collection are all of the same type,
that is of Spanish origin with steel bows and wooden inlaid stocks with
long metal triggers, dating to the first half of the 16th century (figs. T1 &
T3). Many have the words Jesus Maria inscribed on the bow. These
crossbows have a grooved stag-horn nut and lack a leaf-spring feature,
since the bolt was held secure in the recess cut in the nut. They were all
designed to be spanned by means of a pied-de-chevre, or goats-foot,
type of lever which pivoted on two stock-pins set on each side of the
lever just behind the nut (fig. T2). Judging by the large number surviving
in the collection, these must have been part of a munitions stock in the
Orders armouries and date to around the time of the Great Siege. Their
importance and usefulness in Hospitaller warfare has already been
discussed in Chapter two. After 1565, such weapons could also have
been employed for target practice and hunting at the Grand Masters
hunting grounds in the Buschetto.
Still, many of the knights would have owned their personal bow; indeed,
as late as 1674 we find Fr Angeli Marone owning two stone-throwing
crossbows, Due balestri di sparare co la palla. In France such bows
were known as arc a galle and were of a much lighter construction,
with double cord, in the middle of which was a contrivance for holding
the ball, known as la fronde, or sling. The stone-bow was used to kill
small birds. The collection is also documented to have once held a singular
wooden bow and arrow, arco di legno con sua freccia, possibly a relic
of the Great Siege, when wooden bows were still in use, particularly by
the Turks. The knight Fr Giacomo Maria Cupelli, who died in 1683, is
known to have left behind due archi con cassa per le frezze.
By the late16th century, however, firearms had become the most important
military hardware to be stored in the Orders armouries. Unfortunately
no examples of early 16th century firearms have survived, mainly because
of the Orders practice of disposing of obsolete weapons and replenishing
its stores with newer weapons. As already shown earlier in this book,
this process was repeated at frequent intervals. The earliest form of
firearm to be seen in the collection is a sporting matchlock arquebus of
Flemish or French make dating to around 1590 (fig. Z13). Laking

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described it as being of German make of c.1590-1600 with primitive

match or firelock action; the barrel has a peep sight on the breech which
is fashioned in the form of a grotesque warrior, dressed in a costume of
about 1580. The stock is gracefully formed, carved in places with grotesque
bearded masks, and generally inlaid with scrolls in polished bone (fig.
Z14).
The arquebus (harquebus, hackbut or hagbut) was the earliest term applied
to a military firearm. It was a lighter type of firearm than the caliver and
musket which followed. By the mid-17th century both the arquebus and
musket are used by the Orders armed forces, particularly the galley
squadrons, but the documents show us that the lighter weapons were
reserved for the sailors while the soldati dellordinario armamento delle
galere were to be somministrate di moschetti dallarmeria della Sacra
religione, ad oggetto che essendo quelli tutti dun calibro che da ciascun
soldato siano pagati scudi 4 per chiascheduno moschetto/ benche costa
tari due al mese sin al intiero pago dal salario. As on land, the soldiers on
the galleys had to be equipped with their morione.29 An entry dated
1658 states that tutti li Religiosi nostri e loro servitori che passaranno
leta di sedici anni, e parimente li donate e familiari dellistessa Religione
siano armati con moschetti.30
The plain but efficient-looking matchlock device of the example in the
Armoury was activated by a simple lever trigger. The simplicity of the
mechanism was what made it most attractive for guns designed for target
shooting, long after it had become obsolete as a military weapon, for the
absence of any mechanical shock in its operation made it quite accurate,
just as in later years when the wheel-lock was preferred to the flintlock.
This distinction between hunting and military weapons is frequently
stressed in contemporary records. For example, the knight Salvador
Sureda, who died in 1610, is recorded as having owned un arcabus de
Guerra col sos flasca.31 A small cache of old musket barrels, probably
once forming part of the 4,000 muskets belonging to the Lascaris
Foundation seem to date from around this time.
A sizeable hoard of powder flasks and horns, dating from the late 16th
and early 17th centuries, can be found in the collection. Both flasks and
horns have a simple cut-off device fitted to their metal nozzles. The sides
of the powder horns are engraved with martial scenes, three examples
of which are shown in figs. Y4,Y5,Y6, and Y7, one bearing the inscribed
date 1608. The powder flasks, on the other hand, are made of wood and
covered with leather, some even having pierced brass or steel plates
bearing decorative motifs or the Orders eight-pointed cross (figs. Y1 &
Y2). Accompanying these are a few similarly shaped, yet smaller flasks
that were used to carry the priming powder (fig. Y3). Priming powder
was ground smaller and smoother than regular gunpowder and generally
contained more saltpetre (sodium nitrate) as this made it more volatile

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an important quality since the flame in the pan had to be transmitted as

rapidly as possible to the main charge within the barrel. The provenance
of these flasks is probably North Italian or South German. Flasks are
frequently mentioned in the spogli. A typical entry is that of Fr Giovanni
Barascone, una scopetta di Caccia con sua boggiacca et osso di polvere.
Fr Angeli Marone, who died in 1674, owned sei fiaschi di ramo grandi
e piccoli and un paro di fiaschi di soldato.
Cartridges containing gunpowder and shot wrapped in paper were carried
in special cartridge pouches and eventually replaced the archaic system
of powder flasks by the late 17th century. The Orders militia are known
to have carried their complement of cartridges in canvas bags but the
regular troops usually carried theirs in leather pouches. The Armoury
still retains two wooden cartridge holders, originally covered in leather,
and designed to hold nine rounds each.
The only other matchlock to be found in the collection is a rampart gun,
or spingarda, with a Turkish barrel having a bulbous muzzle a tulipano
(fig. Z12). This is also frequently referred to as muschettone da posta
or arquebus a croc. A similar example but with a wheel-lock
mechanism, can be seen at the armoury of the Museo Civico Medievale
di Bologna. In terms of Turkish firearms, the collection contains three
Anatolian tufenk muskets, fitted with miquelet locks, although these were
originally all matchlocks, moschetti a serpe, of the 16th century that
were later converted. These tufenks have octagonal or circular barrels
forged from Damascus steel, all of which are heavily inlaid with gold
arabesque motifs on the muzzle and breech (fig. Z8). Their wooden stocks
are heavily decorated with brass rondels and white and green stained
bone pieces. The miquelet locks used by the Turks, called Tchomak,
were similar to Spanish alla catalana miquelets (figs. Z4,Z5,Z6, & Z7).
There is very little mention of Turkish firearms inside the Armoury in the
18th century. Probably, this is because the larger part were simply listed
under the term fucili di spoglio for Turkish muskets are mentioned in the
French inventory of 1799. Moreover, their presence in the Armoury is
revealed by an entry dated 1796, wherein a fucile turco guarnito in argento
e avorio was submitted to the armourers workshop for restoration.
Frequently, Turkish firearms are found listed amongst the private
possessions of individual knights when their properties were inventoried
upon their demise. Fr Lorenzo de Vecchij, who died in 1677, is recorded
as having owned un moschetto, et una scimittara turchesca; 32 Fr Marc
Antoine de Voyer Paulmy, who died in Malta in 1700, owned un grand
fusil et un mousquet la turque.33 The earliest entry for Turkish firearms
in the Orders records dates back to 1564 when a Hospitaller knight was
despatched to Rome to present the Pope, various cardinals and altre
persone della corte Romana with gifts of valuable items, including
moschetti turcheschi segnati with the cross of the Order.

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As for Turkish pistols there remain only two examples, both heavily
decorated flintlocks from around the early 18th century. The pistols
themselves, particularly the barrels and locks are of western European
manufacture, but the wooden stocks and their ornamentation are of
probably Balkan production. Many Turkish firearms, especially in the
18th century, were imported from Europe as the Turks never managed
to establish their own armament production centres on the large industrial
scale that was necessary to equip their vast armies. These weapons,
known as Levantines, were produced specifically for the North African
and Ottoman markets where they were then decorated in ethnic and
Arabesque fashion. One typical specimen (figs. X19, X20, & X21) is a
fine quality flintlock holster pistol with octagonal breech-to circular-barrel.
Fully stocked in walnut, the rear of the lock and pistol grip around the
barrel tang are superbly inlaid with fine silver filigree wire and a decorative
silver escutcheon studded with two small coral stones. The pistol has a
chiselled and engraved long-eared brass butt cap and a chiselled and
pierced brass band over the muzzle. A pistol of this kind, all beautifully
encased in gold and studded with jewels, formerly belonged to the master
of the Corona Ottomana, which was captured by the Christian slaves on
board. It was presented to Grand Master Pinto by the liberated crew
after they sailed the vessel to Malta in October 1760.
The 16th and 17th century European firearms in the collection can be
subdivided into three categories depending on the type of firing
mechanism. The most intriguing are undoubtedly the wheel-locks, of which
the collection has three examples, an arquebus and two sporting muskets.
The wheel-lock replaced the burning match of the matchlock, which
was useless under wet conditions, with a mechanical spark-generating
device, wherein a steel was made to rotate against a piece of pyrite, the
friction between the two causing incandescent sparks to ignite the powder.
The finest specimen in the collection is undoubtedly a German sporting
wheel-lock arquebus of c.1615 (fig. Z3). The Germans were leaders in
the production of wheel-locks with the centres of Augsburg and
Nuremberg being the foremost producers. This example has a cheekstock
of dark wood carved to represent rough stags horn, in places inlaid with
polished bone, engraved with a lion combating a monster. The barrel is
octagonal and applied to the lock is a tracery a jour representing
strapwork, the Goddess Diana and over the wheel an ornamented case
of brass. The two other wheel-locks are also sporting muskets but date
to around 1650 (fig. Z2). In the late 1700s, a schioppo allantica con
fucile a ruota is recorded in one of the Orders buildings at Viterbo,
Italy.34
There are no wheel-lock pistols to be found in the Armoury, particularly
of the type which would have been used by the cuirassiers, so abundantly
represented in the Armoury with their harnesses. Owing to its complex

260

and expensive mechanism, the wheel-lock never really proved quite

popular in military circles, its use being limited to a few cavalry units and
ceremonial bodyguards. Still, the pistoli a ruota are frequently mentioned
in the Orders records. In one document dated 1603, they are referred to
as instrumenti diabolici, and many were apparently being kept by knights
in spite of the severe prohibitions decreeing that any such pistoletti, e
pistole ... minori, et pi curti di duo palmi e mezza di canna, e simili
archibusi were not to be carried around or at kept home but consigned
immediately to the commander of artillery, except of course for those
who had a licence to do so (in writing) from the Grand Master.35
Simpler and cheaper mechanisms than the wheel-lock were already being
produced in the early decades of the 17th century. These were the
flintlocks which worked by having a piece of flint, held between two
adjustable jaws of an arm (known as cock), strike a metal plate (the
frizzen) and produce sparks to ignite powder in a pan. Flintlocks come in
three major varieties - the miquelet, the snaphance, and the French
flintlock.
The snaphance lock (also spelt snaphaunce) was characterized by the
shape and position of the steel, which was separate from the pan cover
and had, in the earlier models, to be opened manually by the firer. This
was the principal feature which distinguished it from the flintlock though
both types were produced concurrently. The snaphance was the first of
those firing mechanisms which acquired regional attributes and features
so that one can find Italian and English versions. Snaphance firearms are
represented in the Armoury by three examples. Referred to in
contemporary sources as alla fiorentina, the finest of these is a holster
pistol of around 1661, of North Italian make, with an elaborately designed
hammer and steel, of flat, pierced, and engraved steel with scroll which
Laking attributed to North German production of around 1700 (fig. X13).
A similar, but unmounted, snaphance lock now displayed inside the pistols
showcase was also noted by Laking and mentioned in his catalogue
(Laking 238).
The Spanish miquelet was an early form of true flintlock, deferring in
operation from the latter mainly due to the presence of a horizontallyacting sear which bore directly onto the cock through the lockplate. In
appearance, the miquelet was characterized by the shape of the cock, a
large ring-head jaw screw, and a large external main spring. As in the
flintlock, the pan cover and anvil were combined into the frizzen or batteria
(fig. X10). As most of the mechanism was on the outside, little wood
was removed from the stock to accommodate the lock, making the weapon
more rugged.
The Palace collection boasts a number of firearms with Spanish miquelet
locks. A few are sporting muskets and carbines with Catalan stocks

261

Illustration taken from Lakings

Catalogue ... showing the wheel-lock and
matchlock arquebuses, a pair of French
holster flintlock pistolets, two powder
flasks, and a snaphance lock.

stained dark (fig. Z9) distinguished by the straight comb and the
pronounced downward curling toe of the butt. There is one example
mounted on a South Italian type of stock and another mounted on a
French-style stock and bearing the name GIOVAN BERETTA. The
spoglio of the Italian knight Fr Chigi Monrari lists a schioppo con canna
da piedi mezza lavorata a fioretti con gran doro; e mercio di Spagnia con
mire dargento con cassa alla Catalana guarnito dottone con saccoccia
di fustagno verde.36
The Italian type of miquelet was similarly laid out but the lockplate was
usually more in the French style. These were then frequently referred to
as alla Romana and many such entries can be found in the spogli of
Italian knights. Fr Chigi Monrari, for example, owned three such firearms
(Schioppo con canna senza merco incassato dacero guarnito dottone
con focile alla Romana con saccoccia di fustagno verde; Altro Schioppo
con canna mercata con lettere P. Zamborelli con cassa dacero guarnito
dottone con focile alla Romana, e saccoccia di fustagno verde; Altro
schioppo con canna senza merco con cassa dacero guarnito dottone
con fucile alla Romana e saccoccia verde). A surviving example in the
collection is a Neapolitan sporting musket fitted with a Madrid-style
stock (fig. Z18).
The flintlock, particularly the French style, became the most common
and reliable type of firing mechanism throughout the 18th century in the
larger part of Europe. Early 17th century French flintlocks had their
mechanism mounted on the inner side of the lockplate and consisted
externally of a distinctive S-shaped cock (cane), pan (scodellino), frizzen
(batteria) and spring (molla di scatto). An example of the earlier type
of French flintlock can be seen on a pair of fine holster pistols produced
in Paris around 1670 (figs. X1 & X2/Laking 98) by Mathieu Des
Forests. The name of the maker, repeated on the lockplate, and the
word PARIS are inlaid on the barrel (fig. X4). Both barrels are russeted,
flattened at the breech and inlaid with scrollwork and arabesques in gold.
Their most notable feature are the stocks of walnut carved at the pommel
with the heads of an eagle and a lion respectively (fig. X2).
One finds a rich variety of flintlock pistols in the Armoury. There are
both holster pistols for the cavalry and pistolets de la marine or cours
egalements montes en cuivre, for use on board the Orders galleys and
men-of-war. The boarding pistols and cavalry pistols (pistolets darcon)
by Girard and Compagnie are perhaps the best documented firearms in
the collection. Their historical significance has already been dealt with
earlier in this book and need not be repeated here. Of the 700 pairs of
cours and pistolets darcon ordered in 1761, however, there are only a
couple of boarding pistols left today. On can see a few long pistols, of
French make, marked on the lockplate with the name of the maker FAF
Champ (figs. X8 & X11) and a boarding pistol marked PIER FABRI

262

(figs. X9 & X12). A singular specimen has a metal box with folding lid
covering the flintlock mechanism, an unwieldy contraption designed to
render the weapon waterproof.
Unlike the pistols, there are hardly any complete muskets in the collection
which formed part of the military arsenal. All the muskets in the collection
are hunting pieces, largely ornamented to one degree or another, that
seem to have actually belonged to the Grand Masters private collection.
Military muskets, on the other hand, were seldom ornamented, the majority
of these having had little more than an engraved line running along the
edge of a lockplate. The sole exception were officers muskets, which
had some decoration on the lockplates and possibly brass furniture, such
as the two muskets bearing the mark of Girard et Compagnie. Of the
20,000 military muskets which were ordered from Girard et Compagnie
in 1761, however, none remain to be seen. From 1761 onwards the
weapons from St. Etienne en Forest became the primary firearms stored
within the Armoury, replacing most of the older weapons which were
either removed to the secondary armouries and the armeria di rispetto
at the Falconeria, or else were discarded.
A few remnants of the Orders earlier military firearms, however, can
be found in a small number of apparent carbines that originally were fulllength muskets before their barrels and stocks were sawn off.
Presumably these muskets were shortened not to serve for cavalry use
but to enable better service on board the Orders galleys and men-ofwar, where their shortened length would have allowed for better handling
(fig. X18). One such example, now at the Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa,
has the words GALERE DE FRANCE inscribed on its barrel, showing
that it was specifically intended to be carried aboard a naval vessel.
These weapons were apparently the ones described in the Orders records
as fucili buccanieri and mezzi fucili. The crude iron furniture and
flintlock mechanism on one of these shortened fucili (figs. X24 & Z16) A fucile buccaniere with the words
hint at a French musket that predates the Fusil dInfanterie Modele 1717. GALERE DE FRANCE inscribed on
However, given the many documented instances where the Orders its barrel (Courtesy of the Maritime
firearms were assembled locally by the resident armourers with parts Museum, Vittoriosa).
procured from abroad, or taken from other weapons, the combination of
locks, barrels, and stocks on many of these evidently re-engineered
firearms, makes it difficult to date them with certainty.

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True carbines can also be found in the collection. These are all fitted
with miquelet locks, some of which have Catalan butts. One interesting
example has a folding stock (fig. X25). All are richly decorated. Carbines
are frequently encountered in the spoglii of Hospitaller knights. Some,
like Fr Josephi Buaniatij, owned as many as Quattro carabbine diverse.
An important category of weapons in the Armoury were the tromboni,
or soffioni (sometimes also referred to in documents as scupacoperte),
the blunderbusses. These were frequently employed on board the galleys
and men-of-war, generally to repel boarders and were particularly
favoured by the local corsairs. Many were regularly hired out from the
Armoury to enterprising privateers operating under the Orders flag.
Today, only one such example can be found in the collection but this
seems to be a fowling piece. There is also a Spanish carbine with a
widened muzzle that can be described as a soffione. Blunderbusses,
too, are frequently encountered in the inventories drawn up on the demise
of Hospitaller knights. Fr Angeli Marone, for instance, who died in
1674, is said to have had in his possession a soffione coil grillo alla
Francesa while Fr Lorenzo de Vecchij, who died in 1677, is recorded
as owning due soffioni di bocca larga.
Below is a list of the various makers names and marks found on the lock
plates, and barrels of the firearms in the collection:
F. MARSILI
JEAN LEONARD
(figs. Z23-Z24)
A Paris
(figs. Z29-Z30)
Tivets
Laborde A Paris
(figs. Z31-Z32)
GOVET
PIER FABRI
(figs. X12)
FAF CHAMP
CHALLTER A PERIGEUX
LAZARINO COMINAZZO (barrel)
(fig. X17)
Mathieu Des Forests Paris
(fig. X4)
P GIRARD & COMPAGNIE
(figs. Z25-Z26)
GIOVAN BERRETTA (barrel)
(fig. Z43)
M I
(figs. Z15-Z16)
HARDWELL
(figs. Z21-Z22)
R
(figs. Z19-Z20)
P DEVVN
(figs. Z27-Z28)
A Zedant
(figs. Z33-Z34)
PG
(fig. Z36)
PMB
(fig. Z41)
DOMENICO BONOMINO (barrel)
PIACENZA ( FRAN.co RIZZI on barrel)
ORLANDO (miquelet)

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Undoubtedly the most renowned of these names is that of Lazarino

Caminazzo (fig. X17). The Caminazzo were a famous Italian family of
barrel-makers from Val Trompia, north of Brescia. Fortunato Lazzarino
(b.1634), who signed his work as Lazarino, was responsible for the
larger part of the barrels which nowadays can be found bearing the
Cominazzo trademark, although there are also many examples which
were produced elsewhere and falsely inscribed with his name. Fortunato
was killed in 1696 whilst involved in an insurrection against the Venetian
authorities. The Giovan Beretta barrel too is of some importance. The
Beretta name, associated with the production of firearms at least since
the early 16th century when Bartolomeo Beretta is recorded to have
received 296 ducats for the production and delivery of 185 arquebus
barrels to the central armoury of Brescia, has now become one of the
worlds leading arms manufacturers. Mentioned in the French inventory
of 1799 is a double-barrelled musket, with vertically mounted barrels and
side-by-side flintlock firing mechanism (fig. Z40), possibly the same fusil
a deux coups mentioned in the spoglio of the French knight Fr Jean
Estienne de Ricard who died in Malta in 1716, for undoubtedly the weapon
would have found its way into the Armoury.
Displayed among the trophies-of-arms or hugging window surrounds
inside the Armoury and Palace corridors are a number of early 18th
century bayonets. These are mainly of two types. The most common
constitutes an early form of split socket bayonet, crude forerunner of
the true socket bayonet. These bayonets have unreinforced tubes, cut
from end to end, which could be adjusted to fit over musket barrels of
different sizes, thereby attesting, in their own way, to the wide variety of
musket types and calibres found in the Orders armouries during this
period as already discussed earlier in the book. These bayonets have
double-edged knife-like blades shaped from the same steel plate which
was bent round to fashion the socket. The upper edge of the blade was
bent into a langet to secure the weapon inside the scabbard. Most of
these had a two stage mortise, cut to fit over a musket foresight. The
bayonets bear no marks, although one example has a crudely scratched
466 on the langet, and seems to date to the early 1700s.
The other group of bayonets have broad flat blades with a single cutting
edge welded to the outside of complete socket tubes. These are each cut
with an L-shaped mortise for a foresight. Again, these primitive bayonets
are unmarked. Both types are early forms of bayonets dating to around
1700 and are probably of French make, thus predating the Fusil
dInfanterie Modele 1717 which was the first official design in French
service. In 1714 French military experts had recommended that the
knights import over 50,000 bayonnets doville (socket bayonets) but it
seems that truly large consignments only began to arrive after 1761, and
these are known to have been bayonets triangulaire.

265

Graham Priest, who has studied the Armoury bayonnets in detail, believes
the second type mentioned above could be of local Maltese construction.37
He identified thirteen true French socket bayonets which match a drawing
produced in France in 1703. The split socket bayonets, on the other
hand could have originated through the commission made by the Order
for weapons from San Sebastian in the late 1670s. This town lies close to
Bayonne where orginal bayonet designs were rumoured to have been
devised. Priest believes that the style of the design resembles later Spanish
(and Italian) hunting bayonets. Records of bayonets belonging to individual
knights in the late 1680s can be found in the spogli of Fr Don Joacchin
de Bustamante (una baionetta) and Fr Maximilien de Talezat Montgon,
(un fuzil et sa bayonette) who died during the siege of Negroponte.

Cannon
Perhaps of all the military hardware to be found in the Palace collection,
the ones that can be safely attributed to Maltese production are the cannon.
The Orders foundry in Valletta, the Ferreria, was undeniably an
important production centre for cannon of various calibre destined for
the Orders galleys and ramparts. The majority of the cannon on display
in the Armoury are, however, small pieces used either for saluting or
instructional purposes in the Orders school of artillery, then situated in
Melita Street. That it was then the practice to have a cabinet with models
of cannon inside an armoury is best illustrated in an early 18th century
print of the royal armoury at the Bastille in Paris (see page 101).
Among the collection of small cannon one finds three brass pieces on
their original iron-shod carriages, moulded at the breech with the arms of
the Order and those of Grand Master Manuel Pinto de Fonseca. On one
of these, in a small shield above the trunnions, is engraved the inscription
FR. EMMANUEL PINTO, SACR. ORD. HIEROSOL. SUPR.
MAGISTRO PRINCIP. SUI. ANNO XXIV, showing that this gun was
founded in 1765, the twenty fourth year of Pintos reign.
The second, moulded at the first reinforce with the arms of the Order
and those of Grand Master Pinto has two other scrolled shields decorating
the chase and the second reinforce above the trunnions, and the inscription
GIACHINO TRIGANCI F. 1765 on the cascable. The giovane
Giocchino Trigance was not only a capable gun founder but also well
versed nellarchitettura militare, nella costruzione della polvere and nella
raffinazione de nitri, qualities which earned him a secure position in the
service of the Order in 1771 on the recommendation of the commissioner
of fortifications, Bal de Tign. The Trigance family was an important
name in Maltese gun-founding. Their name can be found inscribed on a
number of late 17th-century brass cannon.

266

A pair of larger cannon are founded at the breech with the arms of the
Order and those of the Grand Master Cotoner. On one is engraved the
inscription Comre. Del Artillerie Relhanette and the number 362.
The other bears the inscription IL COM. DELL ARTIG. F. MICH.
DE VERDELIN, 1670. Both are mounted on their original iron-shod
carriages. Of slightly later date are two small brass cannon decorated
with the arms of Grand Master Perellos. One of these has a lizard in low
relief on the muzzle (fig. V6). The second is founded with classic friezes
and figures of dolphins in full relief above the trunnions. Both are mounted
on their wooden iron-shod carriages. An interesting example is a cannon
comprising a small iron barrel cased with wood which Laking dated to
1820.
Until the outbreak of the War in 1939, the Palace Armoury also had a
pair of short brass cannon on wooden carriages of about 1630, of Turkish
provenance, moulded at the breech with floral ornamentation and having
an inscription in Cufic at the muzzle (Laking 220,221). These two cannon,
however, seem to have disappeared after the collection was removed to
the Palace basement for safety during the war, for they were reported
missing in 1949, together with a sword, when the collection was
reassembled.
Scattered around the Armoury are a number of small mortalletti mounted
on stout wooden bases. The larger part of these are common iron mortars
while three examples are more finely executed. One of these is made of
brass and bears the arms of Grand Master Pinto. It is inscribed with the
title IL VIGOROSO in a scroll beneath the muzzle mouldings and the
name FRANCISCVS TRIGANCE above the touch hole on the bulbous
breech (fig. V14). Another brass mortar, without rear trunnions, is founded
with the arms of Grand Master Carafa set in a large escutcheon above
which is a singular dolphin (fig. V18). On the stand is modelled the name
MIRI. MIVILLA F. and the date 1698. The finest example of the
three is fitted on an iron-shod wooden wheelless carriage and is made of
brass bearing a scroll-shaped escutcheon surmounted by an open crown.
The coat of arms, however, have been rubbed off and are now illegible
(figs. V15,V16, & V17). Laking mistakenly described it as moulded
with arms of Grand Master Jean de Valette.
The oldest piece of ordnance on display is undoubtedly the breech-piece
of a 16th century built-up wrought-iron cannon known as a port-piece
(see p.50). This was long thought to have been a medieval bombard and
is still displayed as such, mounted on a reproduction wooden carriage
described as Pezza Cavalca (based on a design taken from an old work
entitled Pratica Manuale dellArtiglieria published in Milan in the year
1606). The port-piece gun was used on ships and was designed to fire
stone shot. Several examples, some complete with their carriage, have
been recovered from the wreck of King Henry VIIIs warship, the Mary

267

Rose. The breech-piece has a calibre of 6.5 inches and is built up from
five longitudinal staves of iron, each approximately 8 cm wide, upon which
was shrunk a breech and muzzle-ring. The latter was pierced with a hole
into which was inserted a loose handling ring, and three other strengthening
rings, the last of the three similarly pierced to receive a ring, now broken.
Beneath this first ring is a strengthening band.38
Dating from the early half of the 17th century are the long steel barrels
of six spingardi or moschettoni da posta, rampart guns, which Laking
called culverins. These guns, of both circular and octagonal section, are
all breech loaders, fitted with square breech-loading action (fig. Z1).
The barrels are around 2.5m long, except for one example which was
damaged and shortened when put back together. The spingardi were, to
all intents and purposes, little more than heavy, long range muskets, but
were generally listed with the artillery. In 1658, two of these were placed
in each of the coastal watchtowers, particularly the Lascaris towers,
which were not designed to take the heavier artillery pieces.
The leather gun in the Armoury is a unique exhibit in its own right, being
one of the earliest documented weapons kept solely for display purposes
inside the Palace at the time of the magistracy of Ramon Despuig in
1737. It was long thought to have been either imported from a northern
country, produced at the end of the 18th century or even brought over
from Rhodes. It was actually constructed by a local gunsmith as revealed
in a petition to the Grand Master by Margerita Ellul (see p.104). Leather
guns are said to have originated in 1622 in Switzerland, and subsequently
introduced into Sweden where they were extensively used by Gustavus
Adolphus. They were designed to be light field pieces capable of being
moved around the battlefield with ease as the tactical situation required.
The gun in the Armoury has a copper core cased in wood and bound
with layers of tarred rope. It is fashioned in the form of a late 17th
century cannon and rests on an original wooden field carriage with
wheels a raja.
Another interesting piece of ordnance is a sizeable brass cannon standing
vertically on its flat cascable. It bears two escutcheons with the arms of
the Order and Grand Master Carafa. This appears to have been a
signalling piece designed to sound the alarm. It bears the date 1683
inscribed above the touch hole. A similar vertical cannon which had no
cavette and whose mouth pointed skyward is reported to have stood
in the middle of the city of Valletta around 1663. This was the so-called
alarm cannon which was fired at night if a Turkish ship was seen
approaching Malta. Its cannon shot was said to be heard in all parts of
the island.39 In her description of the Palace, Lady Simmons mentioned
that this gun was originally kept at Saqqajja (near Rabat) and was used
during the Mnarja festivities to mark the start of the horse and donkey
races.

268

The centre-piece of the artillery exhibits today is an 18th century bronze

gun bearing the royal coat of arms of Charles Bourbon, King of the Two
Sicilies. This gun has no direct connection to the Hospitaller armoury
and was only introduced into the museum after it was lifted from the sea
at Marsaxlokk Bay by divers from the Royal Navy Diving Centre H.M.S.
Phoenicia in 1963. It may have been one of those weapons which were
sent from Sicily to arm the Maltese insurgents in their struggle against
the French but was somehow dropped into the sea whilst it was being
transferred to shore. The cannon is an 18-pdr gun, measuring around
3.3m in length with a bore of 5.25 inches. Inscribed on the chase of the
barrel are two scroll inscriptions, the one nearer the muzzle bearing the
words EL PRONTO (the ready one) and the other SERVATVR
IMPERVM. Another inscription beneath the coat of arms reads
CAROL. DEI GRAT. VTR. SIC. REX HISP. INF. Inscribed on the
base ring is the name of the maker, ME FECIT FRANS
CASTRONOVO R.F. PANORMI 1740. Its carriage is a modern
reproduction based on the British sea-service pattern.
Back in 1798 the centre-piece of the artillery exhibits in the Armoury
was a cannon of greater artistic significance and of a most unusual nature,
a piece popularly known as the Ximenez cannon and considered by many
as one of the finest late Baroque examples of its kind. Traditionally, it is
said to have been presented to the Order of St John by Louis XIV of
France, the Roi Soleil (1638-1715), together with a life-size portrait of
himself which now hangs in the Palace staterooms.40 Modern historians
believe that this popular notion holds little truth, for Louis XIV had already
been dead for some 58 years by the time that this gun was cast in 1773.
Most of the evidence for this statement comes from inscriptions and the
coat of arms on the gun itself. Two personalities are known to have been
associated with this gun, namely Fr Luc de Boyer dArgens dEguilles,
commander of artillery, and Grand Master Ximenes de Texada.
DArgens connection is commemorated on the first chase of the cannon.
From the inscriptions carried on the gun itself it can be safely deduced
that this was cast in 1773 by the famous Alberghetti gun founders of
Venice for dArgens during his fourth term of duty as commander of
artillery. Another inscription on the base ring of the piece, however, tells
us that it was made by Orazio Antonio Alberghetti public founder in
Venice 1684. One possible explanation for this rather confusing statement,
short of any documentation, as suggested by Mario Farrugia, may be
that another gun from 1684 was actually used as a model to cast the
Ximenes cannon, and on which Philip Lattarellus simply added further
ornamentation. Whatever its origin, it was already on display inside the
Armoury by 1785 as attested by the entry canonetto di bronzo scolpito
in St. Felixs inventory, which places it in the prima piazza in faccia ai
gabiani della piccola porta. Unfortunately the cannon was removed
from the Armoury by the French and placed aboard the French frigate
Le Sensible destined for France but was intercepted and captured by

269

Captain E.J. Foote of HMS Seahorse. In the event, the prize, which
also included eight regimental flags of the Order, one of which, a
Standardo of the Reggimento di Malta still survives in the Royal
Armouries collection (XVI.9), was sent to England and now can be seen
at Fort Nelson in Portsmouth.
The Armoury contains a number of stone and iron cannon shot. The
most impressive of these are six huge cannon balls of stone for use with
heavy siege artillery of the type not found in the arsenal of the Hospitaller
knights. Most probably these were part of the siege ammunition left behind
by the Turks in Malta after the siege of 1565, the largest of which would
have been fired from a basilisk.
Musical instruments
By the 18th century, an important component of the Orders armed forces
were the military bands. Very few descriptions of these units and their
equipment have survived. One entry, however, mentions that the band
of the battaglione delle galere consisted of two trombe di caccia, two
clarinetti and two obue. There was then also a tamburo (drummer)
for the detachment of grenadiers and another for the fucilieri. Such
equipment appears to have been stored in the respective armouries.
Indeed, a singular element in the collection is a long brass trumpet of the
type used on the Orders galleys for signalling purposes. Traditionally,
this trumpet was said to have sounded the knights retreat from Rhodes
in 1522 - an interpretation that was laid to rest by Laking in 1903 when
he revealed that the inscription DANIEL KODISCH IN NURNBERG
MACHT featured in scrollwork on the trumpet actually referred to the
name of a well-known 17th century trumpet marker from Nuremburg
and dated to 1670.
The Orders records frequently mention the acquisition of the trumpets,
trombette, for use aboard the galleys. We read how in 1679 the members
of the Council ordered that the two trombette nuovamente accordati
per servisio della squadra, si dia uno al v. Generale per la Capitana,
lasciando uno che oggi tiene, e li che restarano si distribuirono nelle due
galere piu ansiani, elli capitani delle sudetti galaere si darano la solita
posta. Reference to the purchase of other trumpets, this time of yellow
copper, can likewise be found in the Libro delle Commissioni. In
February 1771, for example, the Nobile Pignatelli in Naples was
commissioned to purchase dodice Trompetti di rame giallo per servizio
delle nostre squadre.41 One also finds, in the spoglio of a Spanish knight,
an entry listing tre trombette coperte con tela gialla.42
The other martial musical instruments with a long connection to the
Armoury are the drums. The Armoury contains various examples but it

270

is not clear if these are original items or else simply 19th century props.
The Orders records frequently mention cassi di tamburi, many of which
were to be found in a sad state of repair. The following entry confirms
that Nellarmeria di questa loro Sacra Religione si trovano numero de
casci de tamburi tutti sfatti, che quali non se ne puolservire in nessuna
occasione. Such was their poor condition that in 1680, one enterprising
individual petitioned the Order to be allowed to repair the broken casse
di tamburi che si trovava nell Armeria. Towards the end of the 18th
century, there seems to have been a shortage of drum skins, for the
Colonel in charge of the militia regiments was compelled to suggest to
the Grand Master that the drums were to be used as little as possible
per non fattigare inutili li tamburi given that the sounding of the radunata,
[...] bench sarebbe una cosa decente batterla, non pero necessario.

271

272

Selective Record of the

Collection of Arms & Armour

273

A1
A2

A3
A4

274

A5

A5 - The Pompeo della Cesa corsaletto da piede (Laking 91/ Milanese c.1590).
A1 - Brocchiere accompanying the Pompeo della Cesa harness (Laking 140).
A2 - Detail of left lower cannon of the Pompeo della Cesa harness.
A3 - Spanish morion of the Pompeo della Cesa harness.
A4 - Detail of leonine pauldron (left) of the Pompeo della Cesa harness.

275

B1
B4

B2
B3 - The Verdelain armour (Italian - c.1590/ Laking 139) is a full harness (cap--pie)
complete with leg defences.
B2 - Detail of backplate and pauldrons of the Verdelain armour. Note the cartouche-like
plume-holder below the comb on the rear part of the helmet.
B1 - Detail of decoration on pauldron of the Verdelain armour.
B4 - Falling-buff belonging to the Verdelain armour which would have been worn with a
burgonet, now missing.

276

277

B3

C1 -Full suit of armour believed to have

been worn by Grand Master Martin
Garzes (German c.1560).

278

C2
C2 - Detail of Wignacourt
harness (Milanese 1601).
C3 - Detail of shaffron
accompanying Wignacourt
harness (Milanese 1601).

C3

279

D1
D2

D3

280

D4

D5
D6

D4 - Pettoforte & backplate of Grand Master Wignacourts siege armour ( c.1601-1620).

D5 - Backplate of Wignacourts siege armour. Note the proof-mark.
D6 - Detail of escutcheon bearing coat of arms of Grand Master Wignacourt.
D1 - Chapel-de-fer (Grand Master Wignacourts siege armour).
D2 - Brocchiere (Grand Master Wignacourts siege armour).
D3 - Front of gorget (Grand Master Wignacourts siege armour).

281

F1

F1 - Cuirassier harness
(possibly French c. 1630 Laking 186). Helmet does not
match.

282

G1

G2
G3 - Cuirassier harness (possibly French c. 1625 - Laking 186).
G1 - Detail of backplate and garde-de-rein.
G2 - Detail of laminar garde-de-rein.

G3

283

H1

H1 - Shaffron(Chanfron),
head armour for horse, with an
attached, hinged crinire
(neckplate), etched with bands
of trophies and studded with
brass-headed rivets. (Italian
c.1590 - Laking 375) .
H2 - Sabaton, one of a pair
(Italian c.1520).

H2

284

I1 - Remains of a brigandine
composed of small iron plates
covered with linen and crimson
velvet attached by brass
hemispherically-headed rivets.
(Italian early 1500s - Laking
233).
I2 - Mail vest.
I3 - Detail of steel scale plates
of a garde-de-rein (Italian
c.1600).
I4 - Detail of steel rings of mail
vest.

I1
I3

I4
I2

285

J3
J4

J1
J2

J1 - Portrait of Fr Gabriele Cassar

dated 1633 showing gorget plate
worn alone over buff-coat.
J2 - Hinged gorget plate containing
traces of leather lining. (Italian
c.1570).
J3 - Gorget plate crudely converted
from a fine Italian breastplate of
the late 15th century. Across its
top, but now almost polished
away, is a broad band of engraving
with a composition of saints in the
manner of the earlier Florentine
engravers. (Italian - Laking 146).
J4 - Hinged gorget plate studded
with brass rivets (Italian c.1625).

286

K1
K2

K3
K4

287

K5
K6

K7
K8

288

K9
K10

K1 & K2 - Breastplate and backplate of flattened bomb form, corsaletto da piede (Italian
c.1540).
K3 - Breastplate, petto da piede (Italian c. 1560).
K4 - Breastplate, petto da piede (Italian c. 1550).
K5 - Breastplate, petto da piede (Italian c. 1555).
K6 - Breastplate, petto da cavallo with holes from lance-rest attachment (Milanese
c.1555).
K7 - Peascod breastplate, petto da piede (Italian c. 1565-1570).
K8 - Peascod breastplate, petto da piede, engraved in the centre with a small oval shield,
supported by pages in the costume of about 1580 (Italian, possibly Brescian c. 1580
- Laking 350).
K9 - Peascod breastplate, petto da piede (Italian c. 1590).
K10 - Plain peascod breastplate, petto da piede (Italian c. 1590-1600).

289

K11
K12
K13

K11 - Corsaletto da piede (Italian c. 1590).

K12 - Detail of trophy from etched decoration of corsaletto da piede K13.
K13 - Corsaletto da piede (Italian c. 1590).
K14 - Backplate, schiena (Italian c. 1560-1570/ Laking 294).
K15 - Backplate, schiena. The collection also contains the corresponding breastplate and
pauldron (Italian c. 1560-1570 / Laking 189-191).
K16 - K17 - Laminar breastplate of anime type, petto di animetta (c. 1600).
K15a - Detail of laminar backplate of anime type, schiena di animetta (c. 1600).

290

K14
K15
K15a

K16
K17

291

K19
K20
K18

K18 - Detail of etched decoration on backplate K14 showing an effigy of a crucified Christ
set in a mandorla surrounded by the words CERTABO ET NON TIMEBO IN NOMINE
TUO SEMPER (Italian c. 1560-1570/ Laking 294).
K19 - Detail of etched decoration showing the figure of Mars.
K20 - Detail of etched decoration on backplate K15 showing a group of cupids supporting
the cognizance (clasped hands) which Laking believed to represent the Manfredi family of
Faenza (Laking 191).

292

K21

K21 - Breastplate, petto da piede, part of a cuirass for foot combat of Grand Master Jean
Parisot de Valette (Figure K21). Both breastplate and backplate are decorated with three
bands of etched decoration composed of vertically aligned grotesque animals, humanoid
figures, and symmetrical foliage, the central band of which contains a panel with St John
the Baptist holding a lamb and the inscription ECCE AGNUS DEI and the heraldic arms
of Jean de Valette. The breastplate has a median ridge and is articulated at the waist with a
single upward overlapping lame. The backplate is similarly articulated at the collar and
waist. This armour dates from 1558-1568 (Italian c. 1560/ Laking 116/117).

293

K22
K23
K22 - Heavy reinforcing plate, or
plackart, of peascod form designed to
be attached to the front of a
breastplate (c.1610).
K23 - Reinforcing plate, or
plackart, designed to be attached to
breastplate (c.1630).

294

K25
K24 / K24a

K24/K24a - Heavy breastplate, pettoforte, deeply engraved, or chiselled, with a crucifix

shown as though suspended from the neck by a chain. This breastplate, decorated with
brass rivets, was designed to accept a reinforcing plate or heavy plackart which was
secured to it by a combination of keyhole slots and mushroom-headed studs, and swivel
hooks. The breastplate, damaged along the lower end of the median ridge, may have been
repaired locally (Italian c.1630-40 / Laking 143).
K25 - Detail of crucifix on breastplate K24.

295

K29

K26
K27
K28

K27 - Breastplate, petto da piede, with articulated lames at the base, deeply engraved with an
eight-pointed cross on the left side, shown as though suspended from the neck by a chain.
(c.1660).
K26 - Detail of eight-pointed cross on breastplate K27.
K28 - Breastplate, petto da piede, engraved with an eight-pointed cross on the left side
(c.1600).
K29 - Detail of embossed heart crudely inscribed with a cross and the letters IN MF SS,
placed as though hanging from the neck by a strap on breastplate K30.
K30 - Heavy bulletproof breastplate, pettoforte, indented with musket ball punch-marks,
bearing an embossed heart placed as though hanging from the neck by a strap (c.1650).
K31 - Pettoforte, possibly for a pikeman; has attachments for securing tassets (c.1630).
K32 - Heavy bulletproof breastplate, pettoforte, with proof-mark. (c.1590).
K33 - Heavy bulletproof breastplate, pettoforte, indented with musket ball punch-marks,
(c.1660).

296

K30
K31

K32
K33

297

L4
L5

L1
L2
L3

L1 - Left tasset, scarsella (Italian c.1580).

L2 - Left tasset, scarsella (Italian c.1570).
L3 - Left couter, cubitiera alla tedesca (Italian c.1560).
L4 - Detail of strapwork, medallions, and roped border of tasset (Italian c.1580).
L5 - Couter, elbow guard, from a possibly Flemish (or Italian?) harness (c.1520).
L6 - Detail of leaf-work on face of pauldron (Italian c.1580).
L7 - Left pauldron, spallacio da piede (Italian c.1570).
L8 - Arm defence (Italian c.1580).
L9 - Left pauldron of cuirassier armour, spallacio (c.1600).
L10 - Left pauldron with attached upper cannon and couter (c.1590).
L11 - Left pauldron of cuirassier armour, spallacio da cavallo (c.1630).

298

L7
L6

L8
L10
L9
L11

299

M3
M1

M1 - Cuirassier harness, one of an extensive series preserved in the collection and

consisting of breastplate with folding-lance rest, backplate, full arms with asymmetrical
pauldrons (shoulder pieces) and gauntlets, long tassets of many plates detachable at the
base from the poleyns, to which they are fastened by turning staples, gorget, and closed
helmet with falling buff, the ocularium protected by a ridged visor, known as an ambril. It
is free from decoration, save for rope-pattern borders. The rivets have been soldered upon
brass washers. (Italian c. 1620/ Laking 316).

300

M2
M3
M4

M2 - Cuirassier harness (Italian c. 1620/

Laking 316).
M3 - Cuirassier harness (Italian c. 1620/
Laking 316).
M4 - Large harness with laminar or
splinted corslet of anime type made to
fit a tall man of ungainly proportions,
complete with arms, pauldrons, taces,
and genouillres reaching down to the
knee. It is free from any ornamentation
save for a narrow roped border. The
siege helmet does not belong (European
c.1600-1650 / Laking 11).

301

N3

N1
N2
N1, N2, N3 - Italian sallet, or celata, of around 1520, with finely moulded crown finishing
in a cable, the front portion of which is stiffened by a reinforcing plate. The vision slit, or
ocularium, is formed by the gap between the top of the visor, itself of bellows-form and
embossed with four concave transverse flutes pierced by breathing holes, and the lower
edge of the reinforcing plate. The back of the skull is curved out to form a neck-guard.
The crown still retains traces of delicate etching. The harness that would have been worn
with such a headpiece would have been of a plain, rounded, and predominantly functional
and robust design (North Italian, possibly Venetian c. 1510-1520 / Laking 439).
N4,N5 - Maximilian close-helmet dating to around 1520 with fluted crown and sharp
pointed visor of bellows form. The original pivot hole on one side of the visor was
damaged and a new hole fitted, giving the visor a slightly upward displacement to one side.
(German c.1520 / Laking 44).
N6, N7 - French-style field close-helmet with roped comb. The visor is pierced with a
continuous ocularium which has the lower edge forged out into a roped ridge. The helmet
has a pivoting mezail but lacks the chin-piece, rendering it, as a result, incomplete. On
the right side of the visor is fixed a lifting peg. This helmet has a distinctive and
pronounced prow-shaped profile (French c.1520-30, Laking 427).

302

N5
N4

N6
N7

303

N8
N9

N10
N11

N8,N9 - Close-helmet, elmetto da cavallo, fitted with front collar lames, and decorated with
bands of foliate ornament (Italian c.1560-70).

304

N12
N13
N14

N12, N13, N14 - Closed

cuirassier burgonet for the
field with attachments for
reinforcing shot-proof plates.
These were screwed to both
sides of the bowl (German
c.1620-30).
N10 - Close-helmet, elmetto
da cavallo, with high corded
comb, etched with a
continuous band of
scrollwork, the ground-work
hatched and gilded. Visor and
beaver are of strongly
accentuated forms with etched
and gilded borders. It has
missing front and rear collar
lames (Italian c.1570).
N11 - Heavy close helmet
with perforations for
breathing on the right-hand
side of the visor. The lower
part finishes in a hollow
roping that was designed to fit
over the top rim of the gorget
ensuring free rotary movement
of the head. (Italian c.1600-20
/ Laking 322 ).

305

N15
N16
N17

N15 - Closed cuirassier helmet for the field (Possibly German or Flemish c.1620-1630).
N16 - Closed cuirassier helmet for the field (French c.1620-1630).
N17 - Heavy close-helmet with perforations for breathing purposes on the right-hand side
of the visor. The lower part is designed to fit over the top rim of the gorget ensuring free
rotary movement of the head (Italian c.1600-20 / Laking 322 ).

306

N17a
N17a - Pair of finely moulded jambes, or greaves, with flat, spreading bear-paw form
sollerets with radiating fluting at the end. The various borders are decorated with narrow
bands of etched acanthus leaves, all gilded, the remaining surface being russeted. (North
Italian, c. 1525).

307

N19
N20

N21
N22

N19, N20 - Comb morion, morione tondo, and detail of

medallion on comb (North Italian c.1570-80).
N21 - Comb morion, morione tondo (North Italian c.1580).
N22 - Comb morion, morione tondo (North Italiann c.1580).

308

N23
N24
N25
N26
N27
N28

N23 - Pointed morion, morione

aguzzo di munizione (North
Italian c.1580-90).
N24 - Cabasset, cabassetto di
munizione, (North Italian
c.1580-90).
N25 - Pointed or peaked
morion, morione aguzzo di
munizione (North Italian
c.1580).
N26 - Cabasset, (Brescia
c.1570-1580).
N27 - Pointed or peaked
morion, morione aguzzo
(North Italian c.1580).
N28 - Cabasset (North Italian
c.1570)
N29 - Pointed or peaked
morion, morione aguzzo
(North Italian c.1580).

N29

309

N30
N31

N30 - Burgonet, burgonetta tonda (North

Italian c.1570-1580).
N31 - Sappers reinforced burgonet,
burgonetta tonda da zappatore, missing the
guanciali (Italian c. late 16th century).
N32 - Reinforced burgonet, burgonetta
tonda (Italian c.1560-70).
N33 - Burgonet-morion, burgonetta aguzza
(Italian c.1580).
N34 - Officers burgonet, burgonetta tonda
(North Italian c.1580).
N35 - Burgonet, burgonetta tonda, missing
the guanciali (Italian c.1560-70).
N36 - Burgonet, burgonetta tonda,with
attached falling-buff, mezza buffa, that does
not belong (North Italian c.1570-1580).
N37 - Casque, caschetto di munizione
(European c.1600).
N38 - Zischagge, Taschetto da Ussaro,
missing cheek-pieces and nasale (Polish
c.1660 / Laking 7).

N33

N32

310

N34
N38
N35
N36
N37

311

N39 - Sappers reinforced

burgonet, burgonetta da
zappatore, with guanciali
cannibalized from another helmet,
and having attached reinforcing
shot-proof plates (Possible
Maltese assembly c.1650).
N40 - Reinforced closed burgonet
(Flemish c.1620-1630).
N41 - Closed burgonet for the
field with reinforcing shot-proof
plates. These were screwed to
either side of the bowl. Original
blue-black surface of the bowl is
preserved (German c.1620-30).
N42 - Close-helmet converted
into Savoyard-type helmet
(Possible Maltese conversion
c.1600-1620).
N43 - Reinforced closed burgonet
for use by siege engineers,
sappers and bombardiers
(Possibly Flemish c.1600-1650).
N44 - Reinforced closed burgonet
for the field (French or Flemish
c.1620-1630).
N45 - Closed Burgonet with
falling-buff (German c.16201630).
N46, N47 - Close-helmet with
reinforcing shot-proof plates for
back of skull and bevor (Italian
c.1620).
N48 - Reinforced closed
burgonet for the field (French
c.1620-1630).
N49 - Reinforced closed
burgonet for the field (French
c.1620-1630).
N50 - Savoyard or Totenkopf
type helmet (Italian c.16001620).

N39

N40
N41

312

N42
N43
N44

N45
N46
N47

N48
N49
N50

313

N51 - Cuirassiers closed burgonet

with attached mezza buffa (German or
Flemish c.1620-1630).

314

N52
N53
N54

N52 - Cuirassiers close-helmet with faceted bowl

surmounted by a pointed comb characteristic of
French examples worn during the reign of King
Louis XIII (1610-1643) (French c.1630).
N53, N54 - Cuirassiers closed burgonet with
faceted bowl, barred face defence, pointed comb,
and single collar lame at the front and back (French
c.1630).
N55 - Cuirassiers closed burgonet. (French or
Flemish - height of comb and roping suggest date
close to 1600-10).

315

N55

N56 - Falling-buff, mezza buffa,

of three lames with ocularia
(North Italian c.1580).
N57 - Falling-buff, mezza buffa,
of three lames with ocularia
(North Italian c.1580).
N58 - Falling-buff, mezza buffa,
of three lames with ocularia
(North Italian c.1580).
N59 - Falling-buff, mezza buffa,
of three lames belonging to the
Verdelin harness (North Italian
c.1580).

N56
N57

N58
N59

316

O2
O3
O1
O4

317

O1 - Turkish Shishak, missing

cheek-pieces (Turkish c.1580).
O4 - Kalkan, circular and
convex, Turkish shield of gilded
copper corresponding with the
period of the invasion of Malta
by the Turks in 1565 (Laking
119).
O2 - Reconstructed armour of a
Sipahi (Spahi), the Turkish
counterpart of a medieval
knight. The main components
of Sipahi armour are the
shishak, char-aina and zirh.
O3 - Char-aina, a type of
body armour consisting of four
plates hung from the shouders
by mail and linked to a large
round plate worn in the centre
of the breast. The Turkish
char-aina was worn over a
mail tunic.

P1
P2

P13
P1 - Sergentina, Palace Guards of Grand Master Perellos (c.1710).
P2 - Partisan, mezza picca da ufficiale (Italian c.1700).
P3 - Ronca (Italian, first half of the 16th century).
P4 - Gisarme (Italian, first half of the 16th century).
P5 - Fauchard (Italian, first half of the 16th century).
P6 - Gisarme, (Italian, first half of the 16th century).
P7 - Military fork (Italian, 17th century).

318

P3

P4

P5

P6

P7

P8
P9

P8 - Partisan, also known as Tongue-de-beffe (Central Italy c.1530).

P9 - Spontoon.
P10 - Ranseur or corsesca (North Italian c.1600-1630).
P11 - Langdebeve (North Italian c. 1700)
P12 - Short partisan (c.1700).
P13 - Halberd (Central Italy c.1590).

319

P10

P11

P12

P13

Q1
Q2

Q3
Q4

Q5
Q6

320

Q8
Q7

Q1 - Estoc-type rapier
Q2 - Three-ring swept-hilt rapier, showing the diagonal inner guards
(c.1590).
Q3 - Cup-hilt rapier (Spanish c. 1650).
Q4 - Skeleton rapier with seven rings (North Italian c. 1630).
Q5 - Three-ring swept-hilt rapier.
Q6 - Two-ring swept-hilt rapier (c.1620).
Q7 - Cup-hilt rapier (Spanish c. 1660).
Q8 - Detail of ricasso of swept-hilt rapier showing eight-ponted cross
of the Order and makers mark.

321

Q9
Q10
Q11

Q9 - Cup-hilt rapier, with broken crossguard (Spanish c. 1660).

Q10 - Main gauche, left-hand dagger. It is the more advanced form of the simple
cruciform-hilted dagger in use in the latter part of the 17th century (Spanish, c.1670 /
Laking 102).
Q11- Three-ring swept-hilt rapier with a long stiff blade of diamond section, with an
armourers mark upon the ricasso. The centres of the principal ornaments had oval
cartouches originally enriched with gold plaquette medallions, now missing. (Italian c.1590
/ Laking 46).

322

Q12
Q13
Q14

Q12 - Schiavona (Venetian c. 1630/

Laling 47).
Q13 - Hand-and-half sword, also
known as bastard sword, has
straight quillons, with a single ringguard on either side; the grip is of
dark wood and fluted. The blade is
double-edged with a strong fluted
ricasso and is 45 inches long,
inscribed at the hilt IN TE
DOMINE SPERAVIT. (Spanish
c.1540 / Laking 440).
Q14 - Combination hunting swordgun with blade of falchion shape, the
back of which was forged in a way
so as to form a pistol barrel. At the
hilt is attached a wheel-lock
mechanism for discharging the
weapon, the trigger being released
by a pin on the opposite side of the
blade (German, late 16th century /
Laking 381).

323

Q18

Q15
Q16
Q17

Q15 - Smallsword, or espadin with

broken bow and blade of diamond
section (Early 18th century).
Q16- Brass-hilted hanger (c.1750).
Q17 - Possibly a locally assembled
sword with brass hilt taken from a
British hangar of around 1700 and
double-edged blade from a larger
sword.
Q18- Transitional rapier/espadin (c.
1640).

324

R1
R2
R3
R4

R5
R6
R7

R1 -Brocchiere (Milanese School c. 1580-1600/ Laking 161).

R2 - Brocchiere (French c.1600/ Laking 274).
R3, R4, Brocchiere (Italian c.1600).
R5 - Brocchiere from the Pompeo della Cesa harness
(Milanese c. 1580-1600 / Laking 370).
R6 - Sappers buckler, oval-shaped with proof-mark (French
17th century).
R7 - Large sappers shield with ocularium (Possibly Maltese
16th century).

325

S2

S1
S3
S5

S4

326

S6
S7
S8
S9

S1 - Sajf, hilt of engraved

silver and brass with grip
overlaid with tortoise shell
(Middle East, 18th century /
Laking 237).
S2 Nachakh, Turkish
battle-axe.
S3 Yataghan dagger, ivory
grip and silver mounts
(West Balkans 18th
century/ Laking 239). Also
shown is a silver grip of an
officers baton or mace
(Turkish c. 1660 / Laking
234/235).
S4 - Topuz, officers baton
or mace (Turkish c. 1660/
Laking 234/235).
S5 Dagger with scabbard
(North African, 18th
century).
S6 - Sajf (Middle East,
18th century).
S7 - Sajf (Middle East,
18th century).
S8 Kilij (Anatolian, 17th
century).
S9 Nimcha (North
African, 17th century).

327

S10
S11
S12

S10 Kilij with scabbard (West Balkans, late 16th century).

S11 - Detail of ivory hilt of Kilij S10, with a short, downward curved silver cross guard
with largerly missing quillions.
S12 - Detail of silver locket of scabbard, fodero, of Kilij S10. The scabbard is made of
wood covered with light brown felt and mounted with big silver locket and chape.
S13 to S20 - Details showing makers marks on Sajf and Nimcha blades.

328

S13
S14

S15
S16

S17
S18

S19
S20

329

T1
T2

T1 Crossbow with steel bow and straight wooden stock inlaid with bone, typical of the
many crossbows to be found in the Palace Armoury collection (Spanish or German, first
half of the 16th century).
T2 - Detail of grooved stag-horn nut designed to secure bolt in recess. Note also the two
stock pins set on each side of the lever just behind the nut. These allowed the pied-dechevre (goats-foot type of lever) a pivoting point for spanning the crossbow.
T3 Crossbow (Spanish or German, first half of the 16th century).

330

V1

V1 Gonne-shield, front and

rear view. This is said to be part
of the gift of arms sent by King
Henry VIII to the Order in 1530,
but now suspected by various
historians to be simply an Italian
target for it lacks the vision grill as
found on similar examples in the
Royal Armouries, Leeds. (Italian,
early 16th century / Laking 435).

331

V2
V3
V4

V2 Brass cannon on iron-shod

carriage, delicately founded with
classic friezes and the arms of
Grand Master Perellos (16971720) and the figures of dolphins
in full relief above trunnions
(Probably Maltese c.1700/ Laking
225).
V3 - Brass cannon on iron-shod
carriage (Probably Maltese
c.1700).
V4 - Brass cannon on iron-shod
carriage, founded at the breech with
the arms of the Order and those of
Grand Master Cotoner, and
engraved with the name Comre.
Del Artillerie Relhanette, and the
number 363 (Probably Maltese
c.1670/ Laking 445).

332

V6
V7
V5

V5 - Detail of breech of small brass cannon, cannonetto di bronzo, founded with the arms
of the Order of St John and those of Grand Master Manoel Pinto de Fonseca (Probably
Maltese c. 1743-1773).
V6 - Detail of muzzle of cannon showing lizard in low relief.
V7 - Detail of breech of brass cannon showing the arms of the Order and those of Grand
Master Nicholas Cotoner and the number 363 (Probably Maltese c.1670/ Laking 445).

333

V8
V9
V10

V9 - Leather gun, cannone di cojo or cannone di pelle, mounted on wooden field carriage.
The gun was already recorded on display inside the Palace Armoury in 1737. This leather
gun is known to have been built by a local craftsman (see text). (Maltese, second half of
the 17th century / Laking 449).
V8, V10 - Detail of the breech of the leather gun, showing the wooden cascable and rope
binding around the barrel. The wood baulks of the carriage holding the gun are carved out
near the breech to accommodate the shape of the cascable.

334

V11, V12, V13,V14 - Ximenes Cannon

now at Fort Nelson, Royal Armouries.
(Photographs V13 and V14 courtesy of
Mario Farrugia)

V11
V12
V13
V14

335

V14 Small brass mortar,

mortaletto, founded with the
arms of Grand Master Pinto
and inscribed IL VIGOROSO,
and also FRANCISCVS
TRIGANCE (Maltese c.1750/
Laking 224).
V15, V16, V17 - Small brass
mortar, mortaletto, founded
with a scroll-shaped escutheon
bearing a now defaced coat of
arms surmounted by an open
crown, mounted on a static
iron-shod carriage (Possibly
Maltese c.1700 / Laking 229).

V14
V15
V16
V17

336

V18 Mortalletto, small brass mortar founded with

the arms of Grand Master Gregorio Carafa (16801690) on the barrel and the name MIRI. MIVILLA
F. (fecit) on the stand (Maltese 1686/ Laking 458).
V19 Small brass mortar, mortaletto (Maltese
c.1750).
V20 - Small brass mortar, mortaletto (Maltese
c.1750).
V21 - Small iron mortar, mortaletto di ferro, fixed
on wooden base fitted with iron carrying handle
(Maltese c.1750).
V22 - Chain-shot (Maltese, 18th century,
Maritime Museum, Vittoriosa).
V18
V22

337

V19
V20
V21

V23, V24 - Brass signalling

cannon, with flat breech
designed to be stood vertically
in order to fire warning shots
and petards. It is founded at
the breech with the arms of the
Order and those of Grand
Master Gregorio Carafa, and
engraved with the date 1683
(Possibly Maltese 1683 /
Laking 445).

V23
V24

338

X1,X2, X3, X4 Pair of French flintlock holster pistols. The

name of the maker Mathieu Des Forests and the word
Paris are inlaid on the barrel, the name being also repeated on
the lockplate. The barrels are russeted, flattened at the breech
and inlaid with scrollwork and arabesques in gold. The stocks
are of walnut wood and carved at the pommel with the
combined heads of an eagle and a lion in the manner of fish-tail
type butts (Paris c.1670/ Laking 96/97).

X1
X2
X3
X4

339

X5
X6
X7
X8
X9

340

X10
X11
X12

X5, X10 - Pistolet with miquelet

lock.
X6 - Pistolet with miquelet lock
and widened muzzle.
X7, X13 - Holster pistol with
Snaphance lock, alla fiorentina
(German c.1670).
X8, X14 - Flintlock pistol.
X9 , X12 - Flintlock pistol with
fucile alla francese and lockplate
engraved with makers name
PIER FABRI (French 18th
century).

341

X13
X14

342

X15
X16
X17

X15,X16, X17 - A Levantine flintlock holster pistol with octagonal

breech-to-circular barrel and fully stocked in walnut. The barrel and lock
are of European manufacture, but the wooden stock and its
ornamentation is of probable Balkan production. The pistol has a
chiselled and engraved long-eared brass butt cap and a chiselled and
pierced brass band over the muzzle. The rear of the lock and pistol grip
around the barrel tang are superbly inlaid with fine silver filigree wire and
a decorative silver escutcheon studded with two small coral stones.
(West Balkans/ European 18th century).
X18 - Detail of decoration of octagonal breech of a Levantine flintlock
pistol. The cock is missing (West Balkans/European 18th century).
X18

343

X19
X20

X21
X22

X19 - Detail of muzzle and head of

wooden ram-rod, bacchetta, of a
holster flintlock pistol (French 18th
century).
X20 - Detail of breech of barrel,
showing pan and frizzen.
X21 - Detail of breech of barrel
inscribed with makers name
LAZARINO CAMINAZZO
X22 - Mezzo fucile,or boarding
musket, a flintlock military musket
cut down and converted into a carbine
for naval use onboard the Orders
galleys and men-of-war (French
c.1700).

344

X23

X23 - Naval signalling gun, with

short brass barrel, miquelet lock
and folding musket-type butt
(Spanish/ South Italian c. 1700).
X24 - Mezzo fucile, a flintlock
military musket converted into a
carbine for naval use (French
c.1700).
X25 - Carbine with miquelet lock
and folding stock with Catalan
butt (Spanish or South Italian c.
1690).
X26 - Detail of decorative carving
on wooden stock of carbine.
X24
X25
X26

345

Y1, Y2 Powder flasks of wood, sheated in leather with faces covered with pierced steel
plates bearing decorative motifs and the Orders eight-pointed cross. Both flasks have
simple cut-off devices fitted to their metal nozzles (North Italian or German, c.1600).
Y3 - Powder flask of wood, sheated in leather, with faces covered with pierced steel plates
bearing the Orders eight-pointed cross. This example still retains the remains of the
carrying strap decorated with velvet tassels, badly decayed. Attached to the flask, though
not belonging to it is a smaller, primer powder flask.

Y1 Y2
Y3

Y7 Curved powder flask, sometimes also referred to as a horn, with nozzle fitted with a
simple cut-off device and a metal tange to enable it to be hung on bandolier or portetche
(German, c.1600).
Y4,Y5,Y6 - Detail of various martial scenes incised on the sides of horn powder flasks,
one of which bears the date 1608.

346

Y7

Y4
Y5
Y6

347

Z1
Z2
Z3

Z1 Rampart guns, spingardi, with square breech-loading mechanism and barrrels of

octagonal section (Possibly French c.1660).
Z2 - Wheel-lock mechanism of hunting musket.
Z3 Wheel-lock arquebus, archibuso a ruota, with stock of dark wood carved to immitate
stag-horn in places inlaid with polished bone. It has a cheek-piece of bone engraved with a
lion combating a monster. The barrel is octagonal and applied to the lock is a tracery a
jour representing strap-work, the goddess Diana and over the wheel, an ornamented case
of brass (German fashion c.1615 / Laking 157).

348

Z5
Z7
Z8

Z4
Z6
Z9

349

Z4, Z5, Z6, Z7,Z8 - Tufenk, Turkish

muskets with miquelet locks. Originally
all three examples in the collection were
fitted with matchlocks and date to the
late 1500s. Barrels are of Damascus
steel inlaid with gold arabesc motifs on
the muzzle and breech.
Z9 - Detail of stock of Tufenk
decorated with brass rondels and white
and green stained bone pieces.

Z9 Miquelet muskets
and carbines with
Catalan butts.
Z10, Z11 - Miquelet
locks of hunting
muskets from the spogli
of individual knights
(South Italian or
Spanish c.1700).
Z11a - Detail of
miquelet lock.

Z9

Z10
Z11
Z11a

350

Z12 - Matchlock rampart gun, or

spingarda, also referred to as
muschettone da posta and arquebus a
croc. The barrel is inlaid with arabesc
motifs and the muzzle is of a bulbous
form known as a tulipano.
(Anatolian/European 17th century )
Z13, Z14 - Matchlock arquebus. The
the barrel has a peep sight on the
breech which is fashioned in the form
of a grotesque warrior, dressed in a
costume of about 1580. The stock is
carved with grotesque bearded masks,
and generally inlaid with scrolls in
polished bone (Flemish or French
make c.1590 / Laking 45).

Z12
Z13
Z14

351

Z15
Z16
Z17
Z18
Z15, Z16 - Flintlock musket
with inscription M I on
lockplate. Missing upper jaw
of cock (French c.1700).
Z17 - Flintlock musket
(French c. 1700).
Z18 - Musket with miquelet
lock alla Romana and Madridstyle stock (Neopolitan
c.1700).
Z19, Z20 - Flintlock musket
with inscription RGA on
lockplate (French 18th
century).
Z21, Z22 - Flintlock musket
with inscription HARDWELL
on lockplate, missing cock
(English 18th century).
Z23, Z24 - Flintlock musket
with inscription JEAN
LEONARD on lockplate
(French 18th century).
Z25, Z26 - Flintlock musket
with inscription P. GIRARD
& COMPAGNIE on
lockplate, missing cock
(French 18th century).
Z27, Z28 - Flintlock musket
with inscription P. DEVVN on
lockplate, missing cock
(French 18th century).

352

Z19
Z20

Z21
Z22

Z23
Z24

Z25
Z26

Z27
Z28

353

Z29
Z30

Z31
Z32

Z33
Z34

354

Z35
Z36

Z37
Z38

Z39

355

Z40 Z41
Z42 Z43

Z29, Z30 - Flintlock musket with inscription a Paris on lockplate (French 18th
century).
Z31, Z32 - Flintlock musket with inscription Laborde A Paris on lockplate, missing cock
(French 18th century).
Z33, Z34 - Flintlock musket with inscription A Zedant on lockplate, missing cock
(French 18th century).
Z35, Z36 - Flintlock musket with inscription PG on lockplate, missing cock (18th
century).
Z37, Z38 - Flintlock musket (18th century).
Z39 - Sporting flintlock rifle with hair-trigger; missing upper jaw (German 18th century).
Z40 - Double-barrelled flintlock hunting musket, missing left cock.
Z41 - Flintlock mezzo fucile (French c. 1700).
Z42 - Sporting flintlock rifle (Italian 18th century).
Z43 - Detail of breech of barrel inscribed with makers name GIOVAN BERETTA fitted
on a French style stock with miquelet lock.

356

Appendix

357

358

List of Weapons mentioned in the Spogli,

Spropriamenti, and Wills of Hospitaller
Knights

The following pages contain a number of selective

extracts relating to the disposition of weapons.
These are taken from various spogli, wills, and
spropriamenti of individual Hospitaller knights
who either died in Malta or abroad in their
commanderies. By regulation such weapons
automatically escheated to the Order and would
have found their way into the Palace Armoury
unless auctioned off. These extracts reproduced
here constitute only a representative selection
chosen mainly for the manner in which the various
weapons and military equipment were described
and inventoried. The names of knights are
reproduced as written in the documents with the
correct rendering added in brackets.

Fr Antoine de Tressemanes Chastueil,

1684, (died in convent),6
une espe dor de raport
plus un autre petite espe de cuivre vermeil
(red copper)
Rolle des hordes que le port en gallere
une espe dargent
une longue espe de caravane avec la garde de
fer e la poigne dargent
une paire de pistolets
un fusil
un mousquet
un garde et poigne dargent pour un sabre qui
est a Mon. le Chevalier de Fabre Mazan quon
remettra avec ses autres hardes a Mons.
Rebuffat.

Fr Frncisco de Torres, 1644,1

Dos espadines zuarnicodos de plata

Fr Louis de Saint Hillayre (Hilaire) (died in

siege of Negroponte 7.8.1688)7
due pistole che sono in potere de Mons. Miran
una spada
una scopetta che e del Fr Gio Battista Casha
Priore della Capitana.
Il Mede. Priore tiene unaltra scopetta mia in
luogo di quella che tengo in gallera.

Fr Jean Ollivier de la Serre, 1682 (died in

convent) 2
Une espe ordinaire
Une cane a plombeau dargent
Fr Alessandro de Ponteres, 1682 3
dice che ha una schopetta e due pistole
Fr Antoine de Tomas de Pierrefeu, 1683,
(died in convent)4
un epe dargent dore (15 ecus)
un autre epe de simple argent (10 ecus)

Fr Massimilien de Talezat Montgon (died in

siege of Negroponte 10.8.1688)8
un fuzil et sa bayonnette
pour pistolets un pair qui sont a mr. Des
Contures
une cane morne dargent

Fr Jean de Bartellany St. Croix, 1683, (died

in convent)5
Un paire pistolet

Fr Jean Baptiste le Marinier, 1689 (died in

convent)9
Un espe a garde et branche de vermeil dore

359

un fusil
un paire de pistolets pour mon usage, et une
autre vicille paire pour un valet
un espe de cuivre dore de longeur

Sacra Infermeria) 17
une espe dargent et une autre en consteau
aussy dargent
deux espes poigne dargent

Fr Ren de Hamel de Villechien, 1691 10

Un fusil en faon de mousqueton avec une
espe

Fr Marc Antoine de Voyer Paulmy, 1700

(died in convent) 18
trois fusils dont le plus mannais (?)
apparsient son valet
plus un grand fusil et un mousquet la turque

Fr Jacques de Castellan Mazangues, 169311

Un pair de pistolets

Fr Lazzaro Colomb (Colombo), 1708 19

Due spade dargento

Fr Paul Antoine de Villages la Chassagne

(Chassaigne), 1693 12
une espe dargent de Frnce avec sa garde
que ce parte ordinairement mon cot

Fr Nicolo Giorgio de la Rue, 1709 20

tengo una spada con la guardia dargento
una scopetta

Fr Jacques Asselen, Frere Servant 1694

(died in convent) 13
un fusil
2 mousquetons
2 paires des pistolets

Fr Josef Sousson de Millon, 171121

quatre epes dont lune est de vermeil lune
noire parmy des quelles il ya un conteau
deux pistolets

Fr Albert de Bouquenarc (?), 1694 14 (died in

convent)
un espe dargent.
Fr Frncesco Bonaventura Patoiulet
(Patoulet), 1694 (died in convent) 14
una spada, et un bastone con pomo dargento
un paro de pistole
tre moschetti
et un Alabarda
Fr Melchior Darcussin de Renest,
une espe
un manteau double de rouge
Fr Ugo de Loubeux Verdall, 1695 (died in
the Sacra Infermeria) 15
deux espes ...., et lautre de vermeil dore
Fr Louis Cesar du Mer de Blanc Buisson,
1694 (died in the Sacra Infermeria) 16
un fusil, et deux pistolets dans leur foureaux
un espe de cuivre dore poigne dargent
Fr J. des Portes Chenair, 1696 (died in the

Fr Magdelon de Maunier Sausses, 1712 22

une epe
Fr Elzcar de Sabran Chanterenne, 1712
(died in convent) 23
quatre fusils
un paire de pistolets de peu de valeur
Fr Frnois de la Champe, 1715 (died in
convent)24
une espe dargent de vermeil dore
Fr Pierre de Roquefeuil, 1715 (died in
convent)25
trios beaux fusils valant six pistols piece
une paire de pistolets de meme prix
une carabine raie (scratched)
Fr Jean Estienne de Ricard, 1716 26 (died in
convent)
un fusil a deux coups
trios fusils avec les baionettes
quattre pistolets
deux espes une dargent et lautre de cuivre
dore

360

Fr Jean Paul de Cardaillac Douzan

(Commander of the Cavalry) 1687 (died in
convent)27
duex paires de pistolets lun grand et longs
avec leurs fourneaux qui sont dans le grand
armoire
un autre paire plus petits et courts que mon
valet met a larcon de la cele du cheval quil
monte avec leurs fourneaus et son fourreaux
quattre fusils, un grand et long, un autre de
grosseur et longeur ordinaire, et un autre long
mais de petit caliber et lautre petit que mon d.
valet et a constume de porter.
Fr Hettore Pigniatelli, 1677 28
non possede altro che un habito, croce
doro della sua Religione, un vestito et una
spada et altro di questo non possede altra
cosa.
Fr Pace Lana, 1677 29
Una spada con la guardia & . (?)
dargento
Item dichiaro, che in mano dilo Ricevitore di
Venetia si deve trovare una cassetta darmi,
cio quattro para di pistole, quattro carabine,
& quattro scopetti che ho fatto venire da
Brescia per commissione del Vice Cancelliere,
et un altro para di pistole da sparare due volte
per commissione del Baglio di Montenegro
Correa sudetti Armi, sono stati comprati di mio
denaro per il prezzo di lire 1250.
... esser state trasmessi in mano del Ricevitore
di Venetia tre alter canne di scopette fatte
comprare similmente in Brescia per
commissione del Cavaliere Mirrittio
... dichiaro dhaver imprestato al Baglio di
Napoli Morando una carabina con la sua
bandoliera, e fiaschino a fibia dargento.

limpugnatura di filo dargento

un paro di pistole con le fonde di Vacchetta
rossa, e le mostre di velluto e brinette doro
con la sua calza rossa
Fr Tomaso de Gregorii, 1678 32
due spadini uno dorato et latro dargento
scopetta no. 9
un pistone
due spadi
una spada di D. Andrea di Grigori
pistole no. 4
una mazza ferrata
Fr Josephi Buaniatij(?), 33
Due cucchiaroni da trinciera
Un paro di pistole guarnite dargento
Due altre para grande d Acciaio
Un altro paio ordinarie
Tre fonde per le sudette pistole
Quattro Carabbine diverse
Una spada con guardia dacciaio con suo
pugnale e centurion
Due Spadini con guardia dArgento
Fr Frncesco Carafa, 34
Un spatino dargento novo
Fr Agostini Morando, 1679 35
Tre guarnitioni di scopettini di peso onze 3
Un manco piccolo di spatino di peso onze 4
Una scopetta lunga e due cherunini
Fr Joseph Buccadifocco, 36
Un spatino con la guardetta dargento
Quattro carabbini
Una scopetta
Una canna di scopetta nova
Una spada

Fr Lorenzo de Vecchij, 1677 30

un moschetto, et una scimittara turchesca
una carabina, e due soffioni di bocca larga con
altri armi spasse per casa, cosi da fuoco come
da taglio che tutte sono robba mia

Fr T. Labini, 37
due spadini una dargento laltro indorato quali
sono di potere del Cameriere della Galera di
San Pietro (the latter was then at sea engaged
on caravan duty)

Fr Frncesco Spada, 1677 31

una spada con la guardia traforata di ferro con

Fr Carlo Giuseppe Belloni, 1680 38

spadini due col guardamano dargento a tutti

361

due
pistole corte un paro da Agalino con sue
fonde
pistolete longhe da porre allArcione del
Cavallo pure dAgalino senza calzette, con
sue fonde
una schiopetta dazalino longa
da caccia
Fr Antonio de Cordua, 39
un paro di pistole con grilli alla Frncese
con sue vesti
un spatino con manico dargento
una spada di palmi quattro
Fr di Somma, 1680 40
due scoppette a grillo, cio una corta e
laltra lunga
uno archibugetto, tre spade ordinarie vecchie,
uno spatino vecchio
Fr Giovanni Barascone, 41
Una spada
Una scopetta di Caccia con sua boggiacca et
osso di polvere
42

Fr Frncesco Cavallo,
Due spatini dargento
Quattro scopette, et un paro di pistole con
spada
Fr Andrea Priscicelli (?), 1682 43
uno spatino dargento

pendente e un stiletto
un moschetto/dui pistole
Fr Themaso Spadagna (Spadania ?), 47
un spatino dargento alla Frncese
Fr Vincenzo Morso, 1675 48
Una spada dargente
Fr Angeli Marone (Marono/a), 1674 49
Sei fiaschi di ramo grandi e piccoli
Un paro di fiaschi di soldato
Due pistoli et un tirzaloro
U soffione coil grillo alla Frncesa
Una scopetta curta
Un arcabuggio
Dui scopettuni
Unaltra scopetta piu lunga
Una cimittara turchisca co lo fodaro
Una spatino co lo fodero Frncesa
Due balestri di sparare co la palla
Fr Matteo de Valle, 1676
Una spada dargento

50

Fr Carlo Marulli, 1677 51

Uno spadino dargento
Fr Scipione Guardat (?), 52
Due scoppette seu archibuggi vecchi
Una spada e pugnale negri
Bal Fr Charles Martial, 1729 53
un fuzil de Decot donne a M. le Major des
galeres
une paire de pistollets de ...(?) avec leur
fourreaux donner au major
deux porte fuille (fucil?) marroquin noir
un cinture de Granade pour manchon avec une
boucle de metail de prince
deux espe de Raport une donne au M. le
Major des Galeres
une espe de cuivre
un espe de .... (?)

Fr Arnaldo Valguarnera, 1683 44

una scopetta lunga
due carrubini
tre pistole
una spada con suo pignale
Fr Giacomo Maria Cupelli, 1683 45
Due cimitarre
Due archi con cassa per le frezze
Un para pistole curte
Altre pi lunghe
46

Fr Frncesco Gotho (Gotha), 1648

una spada semplice negra con sua conia

Fr Pierre de Castellana Esparon, 54

Code militaire ou compilation des reglements
et ordonnances de Louis quatorze en un tome

362

trios paires des pistolets avec les faces

fourreaux de cadis Voir(?) Vuz
quatre fusils

Fr Guy Teyssier, 1722 55

Une petite paire des pistolets
Une epe poigne dargent

Fr de Montainville, 1749 64
une pair des pistolets

56

Fr Gio Luigi di Crillon, 1711

un fucile et un para di pistole et ses fondes
una gran croce guarnita di diamanti 155 e
Quattro grossi estimata dal sign Gioielleire
Boggetti Luigi doro no.80 1280 scudi
una spada con guardia e pugnale dargento
una spada dargento con guardia tislaba(?) e
traforata
una spada con guardia dottone
una lama di spada olinda
un paro pistole con piastre alla Frncese con
sue fonde

Fr Jean Frncois de Gratett Dolomieu, 1749

due pistole, le canne de quail son fornite con
oro 65

Fr Magdelon de Monier Saussee (Sausse/y),

1712 57
Une epe uze de vermeil avec son scinturon
Fr Louis Duchon Duscrots (?), 58
Un vieux fusil

Fr Vittorio Fera de Rouville, 1741 67

due spade dargento una de quali indorata

59

Fr Jean de Damian Verngues, 1719

Un epe poigne dargent, un fusil et une
paire de pistolets
Fr Charles de Fabre (S) Mazan, 1719 60
Deux fusils
Une epe poigne dargent et une autre vieille
espe
Joseph de Resmond de Modene (Resimont de
Modona?), 1718 61
Trios fusils
Une epe la poigne et garde dargent et une
autre mechante epe la poigne dargent
Fr Jean Philip de St Viance, 1718 62
Deux fusils, et une paire de pistolets qui sont
entre le mains de larmuriere de la Religion
pour en avoir soin
Fr Jean Bertrand de Larracon (?), 1716 63
un escu vieux
une espe dargent

Fr Charles dOrmesson (Ormsson), 66

une targue couvert de cuivre rouge
un mousquet un fusil
une bandouliere
un plaston (?) et morion que ily pris a la salle
darmes
une espe de fer
deux halebardes
une paire des pistolettes
une lame dargentine
une espe de cuivre .donc. la poigne est fine
un fusil avec un faux fourreau

Fr Philibert Bernard Froissard de Broissia,68

Dans le fond de la dite armoire
Un paire de pistolets a deux coups estimez 30
sols
Un autre apire a simple canon sans platine
estimez 20 sols
Deux vieux mam(?)ais fusils dont la platine de
lun ne vaut rien 6 livres
Fr Carlo Arrigo de Lamir (Lamire), 1742 69
una spada di rame indorata
Fr Claude de Fontanet de la Valette, 1729 70
Deux fusils
Un epe avec la garde dargent
Fr Andrea de Cays, 71
il busto del GM Caraffa
Fr Frncois Jospeh Doria, 72
un fusil brine (?) carabine fort vieux

363

Fr Charles de Montolieu, 1735

Une epe dargent moderne
Une epe dacier dore

73

une paire de pistolets

un fusil
un mousquet
un plastron et un mourrion 83
Fr Accurse de Voisins, 1676 84
deux paires de pistolets avex leur fourreaux

Fr Jean Baptist de Durand, 1693 74

un petit espe
une paire de pistollets de Cheval avec leur
estrirp (?)

Fr D. Joaquin de Labitia, 85
Una espada de plata

Fr Frncesco Bonaventura Datuillet, 1694

una spada
un paro di pistole
tre moschetti et un Alabarda 75

Fr Louis de la Faye, 86
un espe de fer
Chev de Chastueil, 1676 87
un petite espe avec sa garde dargent
un pair de pistollets
un autre petite pistollet de poche

76

Fr Giovanni Raimondo Deolz (?),

tre spatini dargento di valore circa otto
doppie
Jacques des Pester Cheneau, 77
Deux espe dargent
Un espe dargent et une autre en consteau
aussy dargent

Fr Jean de Sabran, 88
deux pairs de pistolets, dont une sans
fourreaux
un fusil et un mousqueton avec leurs
fourreaux

Fr Louis Cesar du Mer der Blanc Buisson,

un fusil et deux pistolets dans leur foureaux78
Fr Maximilien de Talezat Montgon, 1689 79
pour armes un fuzil et sa bayonette - paire de
pistoletes
Fr Louis de St Aubin, 80
fusil
pair de pistolets

Fr Jean de Jittores Barronniere, 1674 89

un fuzil estant au manteau de la chemine
Fr D. Gius Ondrea y Gusman, 1777 90
dos espadins de plata
Fr Joseph Lano de la Vega, 91
un espadin

81

Fr Luigi de St Hillayre (Hilaire),

una spada
una scopetta, che e del Rev. Sign Fr Gio
Batista Casha Priore della Capitana
Medesimo Priore Fr Gio. Batista tiene
unaltra scopetta mia in luogo di quella, che
tengo qui in sala
Fr Antoine de Tressemanes Chastueil 82
une espe dor de raport
une autre petite espe dore
une espe dargent
une longue espe de caravane avec le garde de
fer et la poigne dargent

Fr Joseph Carlos de Baiona (Bayon), 1764

un espadin con pumo de plata ordinario
una escopeta
una pistola92
Fr Don Nicolas Lloret, 93
una escopetta y un par de pistolas
una cartuchera de onte para llevar la municion
de polbora per dizon y balas
Fr Don Ferdinado Correa de la Cerda,
1762 94
Tengo qui un schioppo che appartine anche
alla mia casa e voglio che sia restituito al detto
mio nipote

364

Fr Pedro Escoredo 95
guarnicion de Espadin

Fr Don Joseph de Villanel (Villnes), 1729 06

un espadin con guarnicion de plata
un par de pistolas de arcon con las contters(?)
de bronze

Don Martino Pinto, Bali di Lessa, 96

una fibbia di spada dargento dorato, ma la
spada con impugnatura do oro
Fr Anival Petrucci, 97
espadin de plata uno
fusil con bayoneta uno
pistola dos
Una espada de montar con su puno de Acero 98
Fr Don Luis Milan de Aragona, 99
dos espadines de plata dorada
un espadin con puno de Acero Negro
Fr Don Cristoval de Blanes, 100
un espadin con guarnicion de plata
Fr Rocco de Tavorra, 101
Una spada dargento dorata con la sua
boccola
Una spada di metallo fino di germania
tre trombette coperte con tela gialla
Fr Emanuel de Tradin, Bailli dAquila, 102
un par de pistolas ordinaries
tres scopettas muy ordinaries
un strabucco de campana con llarc a la
Frnzessa
un trabucco ordinario
Fr Juan de Vals, 1708 103
una scopetta
una bandiera vecchia rossa turchesca
una sacchetta di palle di piombo
Fr Emmanuele Peixotto de Silva, 1725 104
una spada alla portughese
Fr Giuseppe de Magalhan, 1726 105
Escopetti num. 6
Con tre baionetti una di quelli fornita con
argento
Due borse di chaccia
Due pari di pistole de Cavallo
Altri due pari, uno mezzano et altro piccolo

Don Juan Togores Balenzuel, 1731 107

una espada
Quattro escopetas
Fr Don Joacchin de Bustamante, 108
una sobravesta
una scopetta
un par de pistolas
un espadin de plata
una espada a la Espanola
un mosquete
una bandolera
un morion o celada
un peto de hierro
dos bolsas para las cargas
una baionetta
una calabara para beber (drinking flask)
Fr Fernando Bracco, 109
spada e pugnale
Fr Don Diego de Baldespino, 110
una espada
un Arcabuz pequeno
Fr Don Diego de Mier, 1697 111
una espada de Cinta con guarnicion ordinaria
pla....(?) de Toledo
Fr Salvador Sureda, 112
un arcabus de Guerra col sos flascas 1610
Fr Don Marion di Hora, Prior of Navarre,
1692 113
Tre Spade con le guardie dArgento
6 pistole, due di borsa, due ordinarje, due con
due bocche duna
un moschetto
et una scopetta
(..) nel gabinetto vicino la camera dInverno114
un pugnale, un stiletto
una spada di rame dorato
una spada di Azzaro

365

una spada ala Spagnola

Fr Constantino Chigi Monrari, 1791 115
Due rastrelli da schioppo a Quattro luoghi
stimati 30
Uno schioppo alla militare tutta cassa con
canna ottagonalata con merco di Spagna, e
grano doro, e mira dargento senza fucile con
castra rotta con ornato dargento - 60
Altro schioppo con canna da piedi mezza lavorata
a fioretti con gran doro; e mercio di Spagnia
con mire dargento con cassa alla Catalana
guarnito dottone con saccoccia di fustagno verde
stimato (10 )
Altro Schioppo con canna senza merco incassato
dacero guarnito dottone con focile alla Romana
con saccoccia di fustagno verde stimato ( - 7)
Altro Schioppo con canna mercata con lettere P.
Zamborelli con cassa dacero guarnito dottone
con focile alla Romana, e saccoccia di fustagno
verde stimato - 8
Altro schioppoi con canna senza merco con cassa
dacero guarnito dottone con fucile alla Romana
e saccoccia verde - 6
Altro schioppo con canna mercata G B J P
incastato dacero guarnito di ottone con fucile
alla Frncese
Marcato con merco Andre Cropison con
saccoccia di fustegno verde - 10

Altre due pistole da fondo con canne violettate

con bolli forestieri con casse di noce tinte rosse
guarnite di ottone con fucili alla Frncese con
saccoccia di Saja rossa stimate
8
Una pistola da fondo scompagna, ed una
bajonetta il tutto ordinario -60
Una spada di lama di Frncia acartoccie e fodero
bianco con guardia ducciarro
Una lama di spada larga - 10
Un spadino con guardia dottone con catenelli di
acciarro stimato /40
Tre coltelli turchi con stuccio di pelle near
manicati di osso bianco /30
Una spada con guardia, pomo, loccia ed
impugnatura di filo doro, con guarnizione doro
diverso del peso di oncie 10 cosi considerate per
non essere stata smontata - 35 scudi
Due pistole da cavalcare ordinarie con fucile alla
Romana guarniti di ferro con suoi fondi ricoperti
avanti di velluto verde guarnite di felluccia
dargento in cattivo stato.
Un armario inverniciato giallo color di noce con
entro Quattro schioppi, due pistoni, un schezzetto,
Quattro pistole con suoi fondi, con suoi guarda
fondi, con galloncino dargento.
Un armario o sia rastello da schioppi a cinque
ordini
Un schioppo allantica con fucile a ruota
Altro schioppo guarnito di ottone con fucile alla
Romana
Altro con fucile come sopra guarnito parimenti
di ottine pi grosso.

Due rastelli piccolo da pistole a Quattro luoghi

ingestito di legno bianco - 20

Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt 115

AllIllustrimo Gran Comm.re Mourier
un Archibuso stimato 8 scudi.

Due pistole da fonde ordinarie con fucili alla

Frncese con saccoccie di fustagno verde

All Ill.mo Gran Con. Moncada

Un Archibuso turchesco stimato a 6 scudi

Altri due pistole parimenti da fondo con canne, e

bassi rilievi incassati di noce guarnite dargento
con fucili alla Frncese tutti lavorati con
saccoccie di fustagno scuro - 15

Al Prior di San Gilio de Paula

Un Archibuso turchesco stimato a 4 scudi

Una carana da caccia di pelle gialla guarnita

dottone con dentro una fiaschetta da polvere di
ottone stimato - 50

Al Prior di Messina La Mara

Un Archibuso a grillo da portare al barcioni
All Ill.mo S. Jesoricio Boisboudran
Un Archibuso a grillo

366

Al Sotto Mro. Scudiero

Un Archibuso turchesco di poca valuta
Grand Master Manuel Pinto de Fonseca116
Weapons to be handed to Commander of
Artillery
Due petriere di bronzo
Quattro mascoli di bronzo
Tre sciabole rotte
Dieci altre
Tre sciabole rotte
... una patrona da soldato che il Comm dell
Artillery Cav. DArgens sesita con il suo
secondo semester
pi due pistole
Grand Master Ximenes
All Mro Onorato Zarp per manifattura di No
11,000 scartucci senza palla consegnati alle
guardie del Sua Eminezza
Cav de Guron Magg delle Guardie consegn. all
artiglieria in fucili no 114 consegn. 4to
semester del cav dargen 1775
Fr Antonio Surriano, 1790,
tre schioppi
Fr Don Gio Batta. Monforte (1673)117
due Zaffioni
due pistoni
due requette
sei moschetti e serpentina
uno pugnale et una spada delle due contenute
nella nota stante che laltra spada non si
consignata
uno corrello
una scarina rorescha
uno petto forte et uno morione che non si sono
consignati stante che sono dal Fr di Giacomo
dAquino

367

Grand Masters and Lieutenants of the Order of St John

The Blessed Gerard

(Founder of the Hospital - c.1180)
Raymond du Puy
1120- 1158/60
Auger de Balben
1158/60-1162/3
Arnaud de Comps
1162/3
Gilbert dAssailly
1163 - 1169/70
Cast de Murols
c.1170-1172'
Joubert
c.1172-1177
Roger des Moulins
1177-1187
Lt. Borrell & Ermengard dAsp
(ruled the Order after the death
of Roger des Moulins)
1188-1189
Garnier de Naplous
1189/90-1192
Geoffroy de Donjon
1192/3-1202
Afonso de Portugal
1202-1206
Geoffroy le Rat
1206-1207
Garin de Montaigu
1207-1227/8
Bertrand de Thessy
1228-c.1231
Guerlri Lebrun4
c.1231 - 1236
Bertrand de Comps
1236-129/40
Pierre de Vieille-Brioude
1239/40-1242
Guillaume de Chateauneuf
1242- 1258
Hugues de Revel
1258-1277
Nicolas Lorgne
1277/8-1284
Jean de Villiers

c.1285- 1293/4

Odon de Pins
Guillaume de Villaret
Foulques de Villaret
Lt Gerard de Pins
Helion de Villeneuve
Dieudonne de Gozon
Pierre de Corneillan
Roger de Pins
Raymond Berenger
Robert de Juilly
Juan Fernandez de Heredia
Riccardo Caracciolo
(Anti-Master not acknowledged
at Rhodes)
Philibert de Naillac
Antonio Fluviano
Jean de Lastic
Jacques de Milly
Raimundo Zacosta
Giovan Battista Orsini
Pierre dAubusson
Emery dAmboise
Guy de Blanchefort
Fabrizio del Carretto

1294-1296
1296-1305
1305-1317
1317-1319
1319-1346
1346-1353
1353-1355
1355-1365
1365-1374
1374-1376
1376-1396

1383-1398
1396-1421
1421-1437
1437-1454
1454-1461
1464-1467
1467-1476
1476-1503
1503-1512
1512-1513
1513-1521

Philippe Villiers de 11sle Adam

1521-1534

368

Pietrino del Ponte

Didier de Tholon Sainte Jalle
Juan de Homedes y Coscon
Claude de la Sengle
Jean Parisot de la Valette
Pietro Ciocchi del Monte San Savin
Jean 1Evesque de la Cassiere
Hugues Loubenx de Verdale
Martin Garzes
Alof de Wignacourt
Luis Mendes de Vasconcellos
Antoine de Paule
Jean-Baptiste Lascaris de Castellar
Martin de Redin y Cruzat
Annet de Clermont de Chattes Gessan
Rafael Cotoner y de Oleza
Nicolas Cotoner y de Oleza
Gregorio Carafa della Roccella
Adrien de Wignacourt
Ramon Perellos y Rocafull
Marcantonio Zondadari
Antonio Manoel de Vilhena
Ramon Despuig y Martinez de Marcilla
Manuel Pinto da Fonseca
Francisco Ximenez de Texada
Emmanuel de Rohan de Polduc
Ferdinand von Hompesch

1534-1535
1535-1536
1536-1553
1553-1557
1557-1568
1568-1572
1572-1581
1581-1595
1595-1601
1601-1622
1622-1623
1623-1636
1636-1657
1657-1660
1660
1660-1663
1663-1680
1680-1690
1690-1697
1697-1720
1720-1722
1722-1736
1736-1741
1741-1773
1773-1775
1775-1797
1797-1799

Lakings Catalogue of the

Armour & Arms in the Armoury
of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem.
Screen A
1. A MORION, with high comb, entirely forged from
one piece; etched with bands of trophies of arms, etc.-, and
introducing in the comb a circular medallion portrait bust
in Romanesque attire. Plate IV. Italian (Milanese School),
c. 1600.
2. A MORION, with high comb, entirely forged from
one piece; the whole surface etched with a strapwork design,
caryatids and grotesques, derived from the French school
of ornament of the middle of the 16th century. Plate IV.
Italian, c. 1580.
3. A MORION, of similar form to the preceding, the
surface etched with a chequered ornament; the
compartments containing conventional arrangements of
scrollwork; the brass-headed rivets round the lower part
of the skull-piece were intended for the attachment of the
lining. North Italian, c. 1600.
4. A BREASTPLATE, of peascod form. French fashion
and workmanship, c. 1550.
5 - 6. A PAIR OF COUDRES, or elbow-pieces. c.
1590.
7. A LOBSTER-TAILED HELMET, the skull-piece
fluted, an umbril in front through which should pass the
nasal guard. Probably Polish, c. 1660.
8. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, known as a Targe or
Target, decorated with ten cable-pattern ridges radiating
from the centre. Italian, c. 160030
9. A CLOSED HELMET, the surface blued and etched
with delicate acanthus scrollwork. North Italian,
c.
1565-80.
10. A BREASTPLATE, with a laminated sprinted plate
below. Spanish type, c. 1550-70
11. A SUIT OF ARMOUR, reaching to the knee. It still
has its original russeted surfaces free from all
ornamentation save narrow roped border. It consists of a
large splinted breastplate of the larger brayette; the back
plate corresponds in size. Complete arms, with pauldrons,
taces alnd genouillres. On the suit is now placed a heavy
sapping helmet. The absence of all fashions in this large
harness rather proves that it was made for a man of
ungainly proportions-Falstaffian in his unwieldiness than
for a man who was tall and proportionately broad. This
suit, as formerly set up at the end of the Armoury, was
drawn out to measure little short of seven feet in height,

whereas now, set together to its proper proportions, it fits

a figure hardly more than six feet high. The siege helmet
upon the suit weighs 39 lbs. ; its date is about 1640.
Probably made in Malta about 1560-80.
12. A CABASSET HELMET, etched with vertical bands
of trophies. Italian, c. 1610.
13. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, the whole surface
etched with close bands of arabesque foliage. Probably
Vend, c. 1570.
14. A CABASSET HELMET, very similar to No. 12.
Italian, c. 1610.
15. A BACK PLATE belonging to the Breastplate No.
109. French, c. 1630.
16. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, closely etched with
bands of trophies. North Italian, c. 1600.
17. A nearly similar HELMET. Of the same nationality
and date.
18. A BREASTPLATE, with slight tapul and detached
gussets. c. 1600.
19. A SERGEANTS SMALL PARTISAN. Probably
English, c. 1710.
20. A GLAIVE, with curved, cutting edge. Italian
(Venetian), c. 1580.
21. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 19.
22. A PIKE, with leaf-shaped blade. Maltese, c. 1690.
23. A SPETUM, the side blades set on at an acute angle.
c. 1550.
24. A PIKE, similar to No. 22.
25. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 29.
26. A GLAIVE, with an up-curved spike issuing from its
back edge. Italian (Venetian), c. 1580.
27. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 19.
28. A LEFT PAULDRON (shoulder-piece), etched with
bands of scrollwork. Italian, c. 1570.
29. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target without
decoration, but with four screw rivets forming the inside
attachment of the arm- straps; roped border. c. 1630.
30. A BUFFE, or detached beaver, to be worn with an
open helmet, composed of two falling plates, the upper
one pierced with the ocularia ; the surface etched with
bands of trophies of arms ; the gorget wanting. Italian, c.
1600.
31. A BUFFE, fashioned on the same principle as the
above-, the gorget also wanting; the surface deeply etched
with heart-shaped panel, the groundwork gilt. Plate V.
French c. 1580.

369

32. A BUFFE, as the above, but of larger proportions;

etched with bands of armorial trophies, early 16th century
school of ornament. Italian, c. 1590.
33. ANOTHER BUFFE, of large proportions, but of
finer workmanship; etched with delicate bands of scrollwork
in the school of Northern Italy. Plate V. Italian, c. 156070.
34. A BUFFE, of similar quality and proportions, but
etched with band of armorial trophies. Plate V. Italian
(Milanese), c. 1590.
35. A BUFFE, similar. Italian, c. 1580.
36. A BUFFE, similar in construction but of larger
proportions, etched with narrow bands of armorial
trophies. Italian (Milanese), c. 1590.
37. A CUP-HILTED RAPIER, the cup pierced with
petal-shaped panels and engraved with tulips ; the blade
inscribed IHN SOLINGEN. The fashion of the hilt is
Italian. c. 1660.
38. A CUP-HILTED RAPIER, plain cup, long straight
quillons, small pommel and the pieced inner shell known
in Spain as the Guardapolvo. The blade of fluted, diamondshaped section. Plate VIII. Spanish, c. 1690.
39. AN OVAL BULLETPROOF SHIELD. Probably
Maltese, c. 1640.
40 -41. TWO TASSETS, or thigh pieces, etched with
bands of ornaments. Italian, c. 1600.
42 -43. A PAIR OF PLAIN PAULDRONS. c. 1610.
44. A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IV. OF SPAIN, 1658.
The King is dressed in half-armour, with an embroidered
buff coat showing beneath; his left hand rests on his swordhilt; in his right hand he holds a baton. The figure is
viewed three-quarter face, turned to the left. As a work of
art it has no merit, being but a late copy of a picture of the
Velasquez school. However, it is interesting as a record
of costume.
45. AN ARQUEBUS, with the primitive match or firelock action; the barrel has on the breech a peep-sight which
is fashioned in the form of a grotesque warrior, habited in
the costume of about 1580. The stock is gracefully formed;
carved in places with grotesque bearded masks, and
generally inlaid with scrolls in polished bone. Plate VII.
Probably German, c. 1590-1600.
46. A RAPIER. It is of the usual swept hilted form,
the pommel oviform and hollow, as also are the centres of
the bars and knuckle-guard ; the surface russeted and in
places gilt, also incrusted with spiral scrolls in silver. In
the centres of the principal ornaments are now plain oval
cartouches, that no doubt in the past were enriched with
gold plaquette medallions, the holes for their attachment
still remaining. These were in all probability despoiled
for their intrinsic value. The blade is long, stiff, and of
diamond-shaped section, with an armourers mark upon
the ricasso. Plate XXII. Italian, c. 1590.
47. A BASK.ET-HILTED SWORD, known as
Schiavona. This form of basket-hilted sword was the
model from which the English basket-hilted sword was
fast taken, now erroneously called the claymore, as for
the last two centuries it has been worn with the Scotch
highland dress, in which country it must have borrowed

the old Gaelic name of claid-heamh-mor, or great sword,

the true name of the early Scotch two-handed sword.
Plate XXII. Italian (Venetian), c. 1630.
48. THE ORIGINAL BULL OF POPE PASCHAL
THE SECOND receiving under his protection the
Hospital of St. John, Jerusalem, passed in the year 1113.
49 - 50. A PAIR OF COUDRES (elbow-pieces), with
sunk bordering, delicately etched with radiating scrollwork
in the School of Missaglia. Italian,c.1540-60.
51. AN ELBOW-PIECE etched with a salamander and
flames, one of the cognisances of Francis 1 of France.
Italian, c. 1560.
52. AN ELBOW-PIECE, etched with a form of scale
ornament. French c. 1570.
53. AN ELBOW-PIECE, the entire surface etched with
formal leaf-work. Italian, c. 1580.
54. AN ELBOW-PIECE, etched with narrow radiating
bands of duplicated scrollwork. French, c. 1560.
55. AN ELBOW-PIECE, the whole surface etched with
acanthus leaf- work. Italian, c. 1580.
56. AN ELBOW-PIECE, much resembles in decoration
Nos. 49 and 50. School of Missaglia, c. 1540-60.
57. AN ELBOW-PIECE, etched with armorial trophies.
Italian (Milanese), c. 1600.
58. AN ELBOW-PIECE, somewhat different in form,
with various etched ornaments. Spanish, c. 1600.
59. AN ELBOW-PIECE, now of 17th century fashion,
but apparently altered from a fluted Maximilian harness
of the early part of the 6th century. German.
60. AN ELBOW-PIECE, etched with trophies of arms.
Italian (Milanese), c. 1600.
61. THE TWO GORGET PLATES of a Buffe, etched
with vertical bands of ornaments. Italian, c. 1570.
62. A CABASSET HELMET, etched with vertical bands
of trophies, between which are suspended cartouche
ornaments. Italian or Spanish, c. 1600.
63 and 64. A PAIR OF PLAIN (thigh pieces). c. 1610.
65. CIRCULAR SHIELD, Almost identical with No. 8.
c. 1565-80.
66. PAULDRON (shoulder-piece), for the right side, etched
with delicate bands of foliage. North Italian, c. 1570.
67. A BREASTPLATE, with a sprinted plate at the base.
Spanish type, c. 1550-70.
68. A THREE-QUARTER SUIT OF ARMOUR. This
suit is made up of various plates chosen from the Armoury,
so must be considered as a somewhat composite
harness. The plates match as to decoration, and coincide
as regards period and fashion They are all etched with
borderings and bands of armorial trophies, and edged with
brass-headed rivets that formerly retained in position the
lining. The suit consists of the breastplate of peascod form,
the backplate, full arms, pauldrons, large tassets, cuisses
and genouillres; gorget and closed helmet. The helmet is of
earlier date, and superior in design to the remainder of the
suit. It dates from the middle of the sixteenth century.
Comprehensively Italian (Milanese), c. 1590.
69. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched with vertical
bands of various trophies of arms, suspended cartouche
ornaments between. Italian, c. 1580.

370

70. ANOTHER MORION, of similar form and decorator.

Italian, c. 1590-1600.
71. A CABASSET MORION, etched with vertical bands
of armorial trophies. Italian, c. 1590.
72. A CABASSET HELMET, etched with vertical bands
of ornament, between which are suspended cartouches.
Italian, c. 1600.
73. A BACKPLATE, etched with three vertical bands of
armorial trophies. Italian, c. 1580.
74. A CABASSET HELMET, etched with vertical bands
of ornament, between which are suspended cartouches.
Italian, c. 1600.
75. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 19. Probably English,
c. 1710.
76. A HALBERD. Italian, c. 1660.
77. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 75.
78. A PIKE, Similar to No. 22. Maltese, c. 1690.
79. A BOAR-HUNTING SPEAR, with a hollow leafshaped plate. German, c. 1580.
80. A PIKE, similar to No. 78.
81. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 75.
82. A HALBERD, similar to No. 76.
83. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 81.
84. A BREASTPLATE, with a laminated splint below.
Spanish type c. 1550-70.
85. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched with narrow
vertical bands of trophies. Italian or Spanish, c. 1590.
86. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target, slightly
convex centre. Italian, c. 1600.
87. A BREASTPLATE, with a single broad sprinted plate
below, etched with three broad bands, and with a V-shaped
panel above containing conventional leaf-work, terminal
winged figures and birds. In the centre, in an oval
cartouche, the figure of the Virgin and Child. Italian
fashion and workmanship, c. 1550.
88. THE RIGHT TASSET belonging to the above
Breastplate.
89. A TASSET, etched with broad central band of foliage
and narrower chevron bands. Italian, c. 1550.
90. A CABASSET HELMET, etched with vertical bands
of trophies, bordered by roped designs. Italian or Spanish,
c. 1600.
91. A SUIT OF HALF ARMOUR, said to have belonged
to the Grand Master La Vallette. It is of Milanese make,
and is in the fashion of the end of the 16th century,
consisting of the breastplate, of peascod form, the
backplate, full arms with pauldrons, short tassets, fingered
gauntlets (the fingers missing), gorget, cabasset helmet, and
circular targe or buckler. The whole surface of the suit is
divided into bands, enriched with aqua fortis engraving
upon a ground formerly gilt; these bands are divided by
narrower bands reserved in the brightened surface. Their
decoration alternates, the one having oval medallions of
classic deities, the medallion frames joined by knotted
ornaments; the other, continuous trophies of armour,
weapons, etc. In the centre of the breastplate is an oval
panel inscribed POMPE, and on the backplate a medallion
with the subject of Mutius Scaevola before Lars Porsenna.
On the pouldrons, embossed in low relief and chased, are

lions scalps. Around the base of the cabasset run series of

rivets, the heads of which are of brass and shaped as lions
masks. This suit, though effective in decoration, shows the
decadence of the armourers art. It will be noted that the
tassets, although purporting to be of eleven plates, are in
reality embossed from, the single plate; a deception
practised during the seventeenth century, which leads to
the assignation of a later date than otherwise would have
been given to this suit. With this suit as formerly set up
were a pair of modern jambes and sollerets; a pair of cuisses
not belonging, now on the made-up suit No. 68; also an
open casque, with modern engravings, a buffe to the casque,
of good quality but not belonging, and fingers to the
gauntlets, taken from the gauntlets of another suit. Plate
VI. 1557-1568 (sic).
92. A MORION, with high comb, the whole surface
etched with bands of acanthus foliage, introducing figures
of griffins, etc. Around the base of the skull-piece is a
series of buss-headed rivets that formerly retained in
position
the
padded
lining.
Plate
IV.
Italian, c. 1570.
93. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, deeply etched with
four bands of armorial trophies, between which are leafshaped panels containing same ornament. Plate XV. North
Italian, c. 1580.
94. A RAPIER, with curved quillons, shell, and bars.
Blade partly grooved. Italian, c. 1600.
95. A GUISARME, with fleur-de-lys-like projection from
the back of the blade. Probably English, about 1540.
96- 97. A PAIR OF FLINTLOCK PISTOLS, the stocks
of walnut wood, carved at the pommel with the head of
an eagle and lion, gilt. The barrels russeted, flattened at the
breech, and inlaid with scrollworks and arabesques in gold,
introducing the name of the maker, MATHIEU
DESFORESTS, FECIT X PARIS. The name is repeated
on the lockplates. Plate VII. French c. 1670.
98. A GUISARME, similar to No. 95.
99. A GUISARME, similar to No. 95.
100. A SWEPT-HILTED RAPIER, with grooved blade.
Itatian, c. 1600.
101. A RAPIER. The hilt is of the type known as swept;
it has its original grip. The blade is of flattened hexagonal
section, grooved and inscribed IN TE DOMINE
SPERAVIT. Upon the ricasso is impressed a Maltese
cross. Plate XXII. Probably Italian, c. 1600.
102. A LEFT-HANDED DAGGER, known as a Main
gauche. It is the more advanced form of the simple
cruciform-hilted dagger in use in the latter part of the
seventeenth century. Held in the left hand to parry the
lunges and cuts of the adversarys rapier or sword. Plate
VIII. Spanish, c.1600.
103. A RAPIER. It has the cup hilt, with the overturned
edge for catching the point of the adversarys rapier; also in
the interior of the cup an additional pierced plate, known
in Spain as the guardapolvo. The blade is of flattened
hexagonal section. Plate VIII. Italian, c. 1660.
104-105. A PAIR OF PAULDRONS (shoulder-pieces).
Italian, c. 1600.
106. A VISOR OF A HELMET, used as a bulletproof

371

reinforcing plate. Probably Maltese, c. 1620.

107-108. A PAIR OF TASSETS. Italian, c. 1630,
109. A BREASTPLATE, slightly peascod form. French,
c. 1630.
110-111. A PAIR OF PAULDRONS, similar to No. 104.
112. A GORGET. Italian, c. 1620.
113. A PAULDRON (shoulder-piece) of the left side,
etched with bands of armorial trophies and two circular
medallions containing portrait busts. Italian (Milanese),
c. 1590.
114. A PAULDRON, nearly similar to the above.
115. A PAULDRON, of the right side.
116 - 117. A BACK AND BREASTPLATE (worn by
the Grand Master la Vallette, Grand Master from 15571568), with a laminated splint below. It is etched with
three broad vertical bands, containing in the centre the
figure of St. John and the Lamb, inscribed ECCE AGNUS
DEUS ; below that the shield of arms of La Vallette. Plate
IX. Italian, c. 1560.
118. A CABASSET, of pen-shaped form, etched with
bands, between which are oval medallions containing the
emblematical female figure of Fortune. Italian (Milanese),
c. 1600.
119. A SHIELD, circular and convex, of copper gilt.
Corresponding with the period of the invasion of Malta
by the Turks in 1565; probably retained in the armoury of
the Knights from that date. Its gilded surface is curiously
engraved with carnation-like flowers, cone- shaped panels,
and emblems usually associated with the art of the Orient.
Plate X. Turkish.
120. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched with vertical
bands, leaf-shaped panels between. Plate XV. Italian, c.
1590.
121 -122. A BREASTPLATE of peascod form, and
backplate belonging, etched with radiating bands of
various armorial trophies. Italian fashion, c. 1600.
123. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, the whole surface
etched with strapwork, introducing various groups of arms.
French or Spanish, c. 1580.
124. A MORION of similar form, engraved with vertical
bands of armorial trophies. Italian, c. 1600.
125. ANOTHER, of similar form and decoration.
126. ANOTHER, of similar form and decoration.
127. A PLAIN BACKPLATE. French, c. 1630.
128. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched with vertical
bands. Italian, c. 1590.
129. ANOTHER, of similar form and date.
130. A SERGEANTS PARTISAN. Probably English,
c. 1710.
131. A GUISARME, similar to No. 95.
132. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 130.
133. A PIKE, with leaf-shaped blade. Maltese, c. 1690.
134. A SPETUM. Italian, c. 1690.
135. ANOTHER PIKE, similar to, No.133.
136. A PARTISAN, Similar to No. 130.
137. AN AHLSPIESSE, with estoc blade of squareshaped section. probably Austrian, c. 1540. The Emperor
Maximilian is seen using this weapon in the Freydal.
138. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 130.

139. A SUIT OF COMPLETE ARMOUR, said to have

been made for the Grand Commander Jean Jacques de
Verdelain (1590-1673). It is full in all its parts, having
the characteristic peascod breastplate of the decadence of
the sixteenth century, complete arms, consisting of
pauldrons, rere and vambraces, coudres, fingered
gauntlets, taces, laminated tassets, large and wellmodelled cuisses, genouillres, and jambs. It seems
extremely, unlikely that it ever possessed plate sollerets,
though they exist in the portrait now hanging beside the
suit. Around the lower end of the jambe are a series of
small holes, which-would suggest the original use of the
chain-mail solleret with the plate toe-cap, as seen on so
many of the suits in the Madrid armoury. The decorations
consist of broad bands and circular panels, etched with
Romanesque heads, trophies of arms, strap and scrollwork,
all fire-gilt, upon a white or brightened field. The name
of Lucio Picinino, of Milan, as the probable maker of this
suit, at once suggests itself. So much late and poor Italian
armour of this particular school of ornamentation has been
attributed to this armourer that his name is associated with
much inferior late work; but in the suit before us we see the
really fine (both from point of design and execution) work
of the artist-armourer himself, though the copyists and
duplicators had made the ornamentation meagre by poor
reproduction and bad imitations. Plate XI. Italian
workmanship and fashion, c. 1580.
140. THE SHIELD belonging to the suit No. 91.Plate XIII.
141-142. A PAIR OF VAMBRACES (Guards to the
Forearm), etched with broad bands of armorial trophies,
in the early 16th century school. Italian, c. 1560.
143. A HEAVY BULLETPROOF BREASTPLATE, incised
with double lines, the border studded with brass-headed
rivets, and, deeply engraved in the front as though
suspended from the neck, a crucifix. The figure of Christ
is so deeply engraved that it may be said to be chiselled
in the steel. Possibly Maltese workmanship, made for the
Order of St. John, Plate XIX. c. 1660.
144. A HIGH GORGET, etched with broad bands of
Romanesque armour; between these a design of linked
leaves. Probably Spanish, c. 1560.
145. A BUFFE belonging to the suit No. 139. Plate
XII.
146. THE FRONT OF A GORGET PLATE. At first
sight it might be thought to be one of the very many coarse
17th century gorgets, such as there are in this collection,
but on close examination it will be found that this rude
armament is fashioned from the remains of a fine Italian
breastplate of the last years of the 15th century. Across
the top, now almost ground and polished away, is a broad
band of engraving with a composition of saints, rendered
in the manner of Maso (Tommaso) Fineguerra, or some
even earlier Florentine engraver. It seems to us distressing
that what must have originally been a magnificent
breastplate, made at the very zenith of the Armourers
art, should have been ruthlessly altered and cut into such
a commonplace armament ; however, it is an interesting
example of a piece of armour of early date, being altered
in shape and cut in order to fill the requirements of a later

372

fashion. Probably constructed in Malta during the second

quarter of the 17th century.
147. A PAULDRON of the right side, etched with bands
of trophies and medallion portraits. c. 1590.
148 -149. A PAIR OF PAULDRONS with the rere braces
attached, the borders etched with narrow bands of trophies.
Italian (Milanese) c. 1600.
150. A CONICAL HELMET of steel, entirely gilt. To
it, in the front, is attached a movable umbril and through
that passes the adjustable nasal guard; the upper portion
of the skull-piece is fluted, the lower part deeply engraved
with arabesque designs introducing characters. Plate XIV.
Saracenic, c. 1500.
151. A CONICAL HELMET of steel, entirely gilt. It is
of similar construction to the preceding, but less elegant
in form ; there is a fixed umbril through which the nasal
guard should pass, retained in position by a spring; the
nasal guard is missing, the upper portion of the skullpiece is closely fluted, the whole surface etched with a
duplicated foliage design, an ornamentation of German
(Saxon) influence. Plate X. Saracenic, c. 1600
152. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched with broad
bands of trophies and leaf-shaped panels between. Italian
(Venetian), c.1580.
153. ANOTHER, nearly similar.
154. A POWDER-FLASK of polished horn, engraved
with concentric circles, mounted with russeted iron.
German, c. 1650.
155. A PRIMING FLASK, triangular in form, of wood,
mounted with russeted iron. Plate VII. Maltese, c. 1660.
156. THE PORTRAIT OF THE GRAND
COMMANDER JEAN JACQUES DE VERDELAIN
(1590-1673). He is represented three-quarter face, turned
to the right; wearing the identical armour that now stands
beside the picture No. 139. However, in the portrait the
jambes finish in square-toed steel sollerets, matching
the rest of the suit. These one may venture to suggest
never existed to the suit, except in the versatile
imagination of the painter. The picture is very important
as a work of art, but interesting as showing the costume.
But even that is misleading, as it is certainly not a
contemporary work.
157. AN ARQUEBUS. The stock of dark wood carved to
represent rough stags-horn, in places inlaid with polished
bone, engraved with a lion combating a monster, etc. The
barrel octagonal, the lock on the wheel principle, that is,
a wheel is wound to tension by a spanner, which on its
release revolves quickly against the iron pyrites, that is
rigidly held against the wheel by the stationary jaws of
the hammer; this produces a spark, which ignites the
priming powder. Applied to the lock of this arquebus is a
tracery jour representing strapwork, the goddess Diana,
etc., and over the wheel an ornamented case of brass. The
whole of German fashion and workmanship, c. 1615. Plate
VII.
158. THE ORIGINAL ACT, upon parchment with its
great seal and crimson velvet bag, of the Donation of the
Island of Malta and Gozo and the fortress of Tripoli to the
Order of St. John of Jerusalem by the Emperor Charles

V., signed in his handwriting YO EL REY before the last

paragraph; passed on the 23rd March, 1530.
159. A POWDER FLASK of polished horn engraved
with combating warriors. Plate VII. German, c. 1650.
160. ANOTHER of similar form, engraved with a lady
in the costume of 1620, holding a hawk on a wrist.
161. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target. The
centre slightly convex, the border flat and finishing in a
roping, etched with five hands radiating star-like from
the centre between these are cartouches, each containing
the emblematical female figure of justice. Italian
(Milanese School), c. 1580-1600.
162. A VAMBRACE, delicately etched with a band of
scrollwork. c. 1550.
163. A SIMILAR VAMBRACE, of rather later date.
164. A BREASTPLATE, with a laminated plate at the
base, etched with a single broad band running down the
centre, containing finely drawn arrangements of scrollwork,
cornucopiae and amorini, supporting at the top a circular
medallion containing a group of the Virgin and Child; the
groundwork has been originally gilt. There are two plates
of the taces remaining. North Italian, c.1550.
165. A BREASTPLATE, of peascod form, etched with
vertical bands containing grotesques and scrollwork, and
small sprays of leaf- work dispersed along the bordering.
Italian and French, c. 1580.
166. THE RIGHT-HAND TASSET belonging to the
above Breastplate.
167. A CABASSET HELMET, etched with bands and
leaf-shaped panels. Italian, c. 1590.
168. A BACKPLATE, with a single vertical band of
etching down the centre. Italian (Milanese), c.1600.
169. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, with facetted skullpiece, etched with vertical bands and leaf-shaped panels.
Italian, c.1600.
170. ANOTHER, of similar form, etched with bands
(much rubbed).
171. A BREASTPLATE, deeply etched with three long
vertical bands of armorial trophies in the early 16th century
school. Italian or Spanish, c. 1570.
172. A CABASSET HELMET, deeply etched with
vertical bands. Italian, c.1600.
173. ANOTHER, similar, with leaf-shaped panels
between the bands.
174. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, with facetted skullpiece and drooping brim, etched with broad bands of
armorial trophies in the early 16th century school. Italian
(Venetian), c.1560.
175. A BACKPLATE, etched with three broad bands of
armorial trophies. North Italian, c. 1580.
176. A CABASSET HELMET, entirely etched with
vertical bands. Italian or Spanish, c. 1600.
177. A SERGEANTS PARTISAN. Probably English,
c.1710.
178. A BOAR-HUNTING SPEAR, with leaf-shaped
blade and decorated haft-socket. c.1600.
179. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 177.
180. A PIKE, with leaf-shaped blade. Maltese, c. 1690.
181. A HALBERD, with a long central spike of square-

373

shaped section. French, c. 1610.

182. A PIKE, similar to No. 180.
183. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 177.
184. A MILITARY FORK, with down-curved lateral
beaks. c. 1600.
185. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 177.
186. A SUIT OF ARMOUR, complete to the knee.
Consisting of the breast and backplate pauldrons, with
complete arms, having articulated plates in the inner bead
of the arms, full garde-de-rein, large laminated taces,
gorget and closed helmet. The decoration is simple, having
plain gilt radiating band, edged with an incised line and
punched ornament, alternating with the plain reserved
surfaces, the exposed portions of which are brilliantly
blued. On various plates of the suit, also punched out, are
flear-de-lys-like forms, gilt; the taces are attached to the
breastplate by a gilt hinge and screw. The borders of the
plates are edged with gilt hemispherically-headed rivets
that formerly retained the lining in position. It is
interesting to note that this advanced 17th century war
harness used formerly to be ascribed to the Grand Master
LIsle Adam, whose years of office were from 1521 to
1534, or at least one hundred years earlier than the possible
manufacture of this suit. In the past when this suit was
shown, despite the fact that the actual belonging plates
existed in the armoury, though they were certainly hidden
high up upon the furthest wall, tassets, cuisses and
gauntlets were added to it from a suit of rather earlier
date, also a pair of modern jambes and meaningless
sollerets, all painted blue, with gold stripes, in order that
they might match the rest of the suit. It is needless to say
we must entirely upset the former absurd supposition as
to its supposed ownership. The original taces and gardede-rein have been put back upon the suit, though it is
unfortunate their original surface colour of blue and gold
has in the past been cleaned off ; they have been recoloured
by a tinted copal varnish to seem a little in keeping. Plate
XVI. Probably French work, c. 1625.
187. A SHIELD, companion to No. 119.
188. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, the whole surface
deeply etched with chequered ornaments, containing
diamond-shaped panels, with various armorial trophies.
Plate XV. French or Spanish, c. 1590.
189, 190 -191. A BREASTPLATE, BACKPLATE and
full PAULDRON for the left side, deeply etched with
bands composed of groups of Cupids upholding canopies
and supporting the cognizance (the clasped hands) of the
Manfredi family of Faenza. Italian, c. 1570.
192. A PAULDRON (shoulder-piece) for the left side,
belonging to the Breastplate No. 165.
193 -194. A PAIR OF VAMBRACES, COUDRES, and
ONE RERE BRACE, etched with trophies of arms,
Italian (Milanese), c. 1600.
195. A BRONZE PESTLE AND MORTAR, moulded
with three classic friezes and the arms of the Order of St.
John of Jerusalem, and of the Grand Master, M. A.
Perellos. Beneath is the date 1710. This mortar was
formerly used in the Dispenser of the Knights in their
Hospital in Valletta, and was placed in the Armoury in the

year 1886.
196 -197. A PAIR OF PLAIN VAMBRACES. c. 1610.
198. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, the whole surface
etched with bands of scrollwork. Italian, c. 1580.
199. A CABASSET HELMET, etched with vertical
bands of armorial trophies. Italian or Spanish, c. 1600.
200 -201. A PAIR OF TASSETS, deeply etched with
various ornaments. Italian, c. 1600.
202. A RIGHT-HAND TASSET, similarly ornamented.
203. A PIKE, with leaf-shaped blade. Maltese, c. 1690.
204. A RAPIER with cup-hilt, roughly chased and pierced
with panels of hounds and scrollwork. Italian, c. 1630.
205. A PARTISAN. English, c. 1710.
206. A RAPIER with shell and complicated bar-guard.
Blade inscribed I.H.S. many times repeated. German, c.
1620.
207. A SPETUM, with crescent-shaped lateral
projections. Probably Hungarian, c. 1620.
208. A RAPIER, similar to No. 206. The blade of
diamond-shaped section.
209. A PARTISAN. English, c. 1710.
210. A RAPIER; with shell bar-guard. Blade inscribed,
ME FECIT SOLINGEN. Italian, c. 1620.
211. A PIKE. Maltese, c. 1690.
212 and 213. A PAIR OF COMPLETE ARMS AND
PAULDRONS, having the inner bend of the elbow
protected by laminated plates; they are thick and of fine
quality of workmanship, probably belonging to some late
French 17th century siege- armour.
214. A REINFORCING BULLETPROOF
BREASTPLATE, incised with double lines. French c.
1670.
215. A SAPPERS BREASTPLATE. On the left-hand
side a heart- shaped ornament, applied in the form of a
pendant. Maltese, c. 1650.
216. A HEAVY SAPPERS HELMET, the surface
blackened. Maltese, c. 1630.
217 -218. A PAIR OF LONG (LOBSTER) TACES, with
genouilleres attached; the surface russeted and incised
with lines; gilt. French, c. 1640.
219. A BRASS CANNON, moulded with a blank shield
of arms at the breech; two dolphins in full relief above
the trunnions; wooden iron-shod carriage. Maltese, about
1650.
220 - 221. A PAIR OF SHORT BRASS CANNONS,
moulded at the breech with a floral ornament, at the
muzzle an inscription in Cufic; wooden carriages.
Turkish, about 1630.
222. A BRASS CANNON, moulded with the arms of the
Grand Master Perellos (1697-1720); scrolls above the
trunnions, and with a lizard in low relief on the muzzle;
wooden iron-shod carriage. Maltese, c. 1700.
223. A BRASS CANNON, of smaller proportions,
founded with the arms of the Grand Master Manuel Pinto
on a shield above the trunnions, and similar inscription
to No. 456.
224. A BRASS MORTAR, with the arms of the Grand
Master Pinto; inscribed IL VIGOROSO, also
FRANCISCVS TRIGANCE.

374

225. A BRASS CANNON, delicately founded with classic

friezes, the arms of the Grand Master Perellos (16971720), and figures of dolphins in full relief above the
trunnions; on wooden iron-shod carriage.
226- 227. A PAIR OF CAST-IRON CANNONS. c. 1800.
228. AN IRON CANNON, cased with wood and mounted
with brass; wooden carriage. c. 1820.
229. A BRASS MORTAR, moulded with the arms of La
Vallette in a scroll-shaped escutcheon.
230. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target
etched with fan- shaped panels containing alternately
festoons of laurel ornaments, bucrania, and drapery.
French, c. 1570.
231. LIFESIZE BUST IN WHITE MARBLE OF
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, after Canova, the plinth
inscribed, Napoleon the Great: presented by His
Excellency Lieut-General Sir Gaspard Le Marchant,
G.C.M.G., Governor of Malta, 1858.
232. THE GRAND MASTERS CARRIAGE, decorated
in the style usually associated with the period of the French
monarch Louis XVI. The mouldings carved with various
classic ornaments, the panels of vernis martin; formerly
painted with the arms of the Grand Masters, the interior
lining of the carriage of cut green velvet.

THE GLASS CASE IN THE CENTRE OF THE

ROOM.
233. A PORTION OF A BRIGANTINE JACKET,
composed of small iron plates covered with linen and
crimson velvet attached by brass hemispherically-headed
rivets. The whole appears to be of Italian manufacture, c.
1530. It is said to be part of the dress of Dragut Rais,
Pasha of Tripoli, Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish
army, killed at the great siege of Malta in 1565.
234. A COMMANDERS BATON OR MACE (Turkish,
c. 1600), the head and grip of silver gilt, engraved with a
cone-shaped panel of floral ornaments. The haft of dark
wood.
235. ANOTHER MACE of similar construction and
decoration. This example bears the Turkish silver mark.
These two batons were formerly said to have been used
by the Grand Masters La Vallette and Wignacourt.
236. A BATTLE-AXE, with triangular head of bright
steel the haft of wood plated with silver stamped to
represent shagreen. Turkish, c. 1550.
237. A SCIMITAR, with curved back-edged blade, the
hilt of the usual Arabian form; of engraved silver and brass,
the grip overlaid with tortoise-shell. Turkish, c. 1600.
238. A SNAPHANCE LOCK of a pistol, pierced and
engraved with scrollwork. Plate VII. North German, c.
1700.
239. A CURVED YATAGAN, ivory grip and silver
mounts, said to be the weapon of Dragut, but more
probably a weapon dating towards the end of the 18th
century.
CASE I
240-242. Contain the COLOURS of the Regiment of
the Maltese Light Infantry, 1800-2, raised by order of lord

Lynedoch, then General Graham, given in 1884 by Dr.

Weir, son of Major Weir of the Royal Marines, who raised
and disciplined the corps ; COLOURS of the Royal
Regiment of Malta, 1805-11, deposited in 1836;
COLOURS of the Royal Malta Fencibles Regiment, 18151861, deposited in 1861.
243. A SILVER PENDANT AND BATON of the Captain
of the Hospitium or Poor House in the time of the Knights.
These insignia of office the Captain wore on parade days,
as the Chief of the Police in charge of the good order and
discipline of the Poor House.
243. A SWORD, ACCOUTREMENTS, and BADGES
of the Malta Militia, 1853-1858.
.
CASE II
244. THE OLD COLOURS of the 80th (Staffordshire)
Regiment, deposited in the Armoury in 1829.
245. THE OLD COLOURS of the 35th Regiment
(Sussex).
246. A SWORD worn formerly by Colonel Attilio
Sciberras, 98th Prince of Wales Regiment.
247. TWO BRASS-MOUNTED WANDS used by the
Guardians of the Palace Courtyard, 1858-64.
248. A BANNER with the motto of the Order of the Garter.
249. A BANNER with the Order of the Bath.
249. A BANNER with the motto of the Order of St.
Michael and St. George.
249. A BANNER with the motto of the Hanoverian Order.
SCREEN B.
250. A HELMET, the surface now russeted. The skullpiece is made in two halves, and is greatly strengthened
by the addition of reinforcing plates, screwed on either
side. It is devoid of visor or beaver; the face is protected
by full and large cheek-pieces, cut for the ocularia and for
breathing purposes; these are also strengthened by
additional applied plates. The weight of this curious
headpiece is 21lbs. Probably Maltese, c.1600. It must not
be considered that a helmet of such weight as this was
worn in the manner of even the moderately heavy closed
helmet. It was put on for but a few minutes at a time,
when the wearer, either ordinary sapper or commander,
was under the actual hot fire from the ramparts of a
besieged town or in imminent danger of missiles or hot
lead, then thrown upon the heads of a scaling or otherwise
attacking party.
251 - 252. A BREASTPLATE, BACKPLATE, AND
THE PAIR OF PAULDRONS. The breastplate of
slightly peascod form, with roped laminated, gussets and
roped turnover above. The decoration consists of three
broad, deeper etched bands containing interlaced
acanthus-leaf foliage, amongst which may be seen figures
of pelicans, etc.; between these broad bands are narrower
ones, also of scrollwork, at even intervals along the edges
project sprigs of trefoil-shaped leaves. Plate XVII.
Italian, c. 1570-80.
253. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target
slightly convex in form, finishing in a short central spike.

375

It is etched with many bands radiating from the centre,

each containing conventional armorial trophies, in the
accepted late Milanese school. Italian, c. 1600.
254. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, very similar in
decoration to the pieces No. 251. Italian, c. 1570-80.
255-256. A PEASCOD. BREASTPLATE and
BACKPLATE, etched with three broad bands of trophies,
birds, classical figure, and festoons of drapery. North
Italian, c. 1570.
257. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, with plain
brightened surface, a row of rivets round the base of the
skull-piece for the attachment of the lining. Italian or
Spanish, c.1600.
258. A BREASTPLATE, with a single laminated splint
at the base. Probably Spanish, c. 1550-70.
259. A CABASSET HELMET, with plain, brightened
surface. Spanish or Italian, c. 1600.
260. A BACKPLATE, etched with three vertical bands
of armorial trophies. Italian (Milanese), c. 1590.
26. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, with plain, brightened
surface. Italian (Venetian), c. 1570-80.
262. ANOTHER; of similar form, nationality and date.
263. A CABASSET HELMET, plain, brightened surface.
Spanish or Italian, c. 1600.
264. A SERGEANTS PARTISAN. Probably English,
c. 1710.
265. A PROCESSIONAL PARTISAN, the base of the
blade fashioned to the outline of a star, that may have
been formerly painted with the cross of the Order.
Probably Maltese, c. 1650.
266. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 264. English, c. 1710.
267. A PIKE, with leaf-shaped blade. Probably Maltese,
c. 1680.
268. A PARTISAN, a variant in form of the English
sergeants weapon of the early part of the 18th century.
269. A PIKE, similar to No. 267.
270. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 264.
271. A PROCESSIONAL PARTISAN, the companion
to No. 265. Maltese, c. 1650.
272. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 264. English, c. 1710.
273. A SUIT OF ARMOUR, complete to the knee.
Consisting of the breast and backplate, complete arms
with full pauldrons, long laminated taces finishing in the
genouilleres and gorget. With the suit is its original ballproof reinforcing breastplate, weighing 18lbs. The closed
helmet placed upon it is from another suit. The surface is
brightened and deeply etched with radiating bands,
decorated with a design of trophies of various Romanesque
arms, alternating with a continuous band of acanthus
leaves. Both are similarly bordered with an engraved
cable-pattern ornament. Upon the pauldrons, the coudres
and genouilleres are engraved large detached trophies of
various arms. These, as also the various narrow bands, are
executed in the manner usually associated with the French
school of engraving during the reign of Louis XIII. Plate
XVIII. French work and fashion, c. 1630.
274. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target slightly
concave, and decorated with raised petal-shaped panels;

the extreme border cabled. Italian (?), c. 1625.

275 -276. A PAIR OF PAULDRONS, slightly embossed
with spiral ornaments and deeply etched and with
arrangements of acanthus leaves. Italian, c. 1600.
277. THE REINFORCING BULLETPROOF
BREASTPLATE belonging to the suit No. 273 ; on it
are the trial marks of a bullet. Weight 18lbs. French, c.
1630.
278. A CABASSET HELMET, deeply etched with
vertical bands of Romanesque arms, between which are
suspended strapwork cartouches, having in the centre of
each a profile portrait bust. Italian, c. 1690.
279. THE BUFFE or movable Beaver, etched with
trophies. The two gorget plates do not belong to it. Italian,
c. 1570-80.
280. THE RIGHT-HAND VAMBRACE from the same
suit.
281. A COUDRE or elbow-piece, etched with vertical
bands of foliage and leafage. Italian, c. 1580-1600.
282. A LEFT TASSET (thigh-guard), etched with a broad
band of trophies of Roman arms, in the early 16th century
school. North Italian, c. 1560.
283 - 284. A BREAST AND BACKPLATE. The
breastplate has a laminated splint at the base, also a single
plate of the taces attached; the backplate has a garde-derein of one plate. The surface is brightened and deeply
etched with three broad bands, containing finely drawn
and well-composed acanthus scrollwork, introducing
grotesque heads and winged monsters. In the centre of
the breastplate are two warriors attired in Roman armour.
In the centre of the backplate is a female figure
emblematical of Fortune standing upon the terrestrial
globe. Plate XVII. Italian, c. 1560-75.
285. A PAULDRON for the right side, delicately etched
with broad bands of acanthus foliage, narrow bands
crossing these at an obtuse angle. North Italian, c. 1560.
286. A BACKPLATE, of brightened steel. c. 1620.
287. A BACKPLATE, of brightened steel with two
embossed annular ornaments above. Italian, c. 1600.
288. A BRASS TRUMPET. It is of the usual form, having
one elongated twist, and the funnel-shaped finial, around
which is engraved a frieze of tulip-like flower, and formal
scrollwork introducing the name of the maker in the
following inscription: DANIEL KODISCH IN
NRNBERG MACHT. The joins of the various tubes are
covered by cylindrical cases, stamped with spiral bands
of scrollwork. In the centre of the principal tube is a
depressed knop. The interesting statement to the effect
that it was the trumpet that sounded the Knights retreat
from Rhodes in Dec. 1522, must, alas ! be for ever laid
aside: its form and decoration do not unhappily allow a
second thought to be given to such precious history. The
shape of it is most characteristic of the last quarter of the
17th century, and Daniel Kodisch the name of a wellknown maker of that period. It has been described as
having been preserved with great care as a relic by the
Grand Masters, so it would not be without interest to
know when and how this story first originated. Made in

376

Nuremburg about 1670.

288A. AN EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT, described as
that of a Spanish Infante probably a portrait of Philip
IV when a boy.
289. A CABASSET HELMET, etched with bands of
trophies, medallion ornaments between. Italian, c. 1600.
290. A PAULDRON AND, RERE BRACE OF THE
LEFT SIDE, etched with spiral arrangements of acanthus
leaves. Italian (Milanese), c. 1590.
291. AN OPEN CASQUE, with high corded comb etched
with broad bands of scrollwork, introducing dolphins and
festoons of drapery. North Italian, c. 1570.
292. A COMPLETE LEFT ARM, etched with groups
of grotesques and narrow bands of scrollwork. Italian, c.
1580.
293-294. A PEASCOD BREASTPLATE AND
BACKPLATE, etched with three broad bands of
arabesque foliage, birds, masks, and festoons of drapery.
In the centre, in an oval compartment, is the Crucifixion,
surrounded by the inscription IN DOMINE TUO
SEMPER CERTABO, NON TIMEBO. Italian, c. 1550.
295. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target,
slightly convex in the centre, etched with six radiating
bands of various trophies of arms. In the fan-shaped
compartments between are vases and scrollwork. French,
c. 1570.
296. A LEFT PAULDRON (shoulder-piece), etched with
various ornaments. Italian (Milanese), c. 1600.
297. ANOTHER, nearly similar.
298. A PLAIN PEASCOD BREASTPLATE. c. 1620.
299. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, with brightened
surface. c. 1590.
300. A CABASSET HELMET, etched with bands of
trophies. c.1590.
301. A PLAIN BACKPLATE. c. 1620.
302. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched with bands
of various trophies. Italian, c. 1600.
303. ANOTHER, nearly similar.
304. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, with brightened
surface. c. 1600.
305. A PEASCOD BREASTPLATE, etched in the centre
with an oval medallion containing a mask of Cupid.
French, c. 1600.
306. A MORION, with a high comb. The skull-piece
entirely etched with zigzag bands of scrollwork, and
grotesque birds on the comb. Italian, c. 1590.
307. A SERGEANTS PARTISAN. Probably English
c. 1710.
308. A PROCESSIONAL PARTISAN, the base of the
blade fashioned to the outline of a star that may have
been formerly painted with the cross of the Order.
Probably Maltese, c. 1650.
309. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 264. English, c. 1710.
310. A PIKE, with a leaf-shaped blade. Probably Maltese,
c. 1690.
311. A SPETUM. Italian, c. 1560.
312. A PIKE, Similar to No. 267.
313. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 264.

314. A PROCESSIONAL PARTISAN, similar to

No.
265.
315. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 264.
316. A THREE-QUARTER SUIT OF ARMOUR. This
suit, presenting no particular point of interest, was chosen
from the many that surround the walls of the armoury, in
preference to any other, on account of its completeness.
By this is meant that it was made with each piece fitting,
and intended for its companion, and not built up of odd
pieces of plate armour, regardless of date and nationality,
such as those with which most of the wooden figures of
the Armoury are clothed. It shows the full armament of a
Knight during the first half of the 17th century. It is free
from decoration, save, perhaps, the little rope-pattern
border and the double lines incised upon some of the
plates. The rivets have been soldered upon brass washers.
The plates are as follows: The backplate; the breastplate,
on the left-hand side of which is attached the lance rest;
full arms with pauldrons (shoulder pieces) and gauntlets
; long taces of many plates detachable at the base from
the genouilleres, to which they are fastened by turning
staples ; gorget and closed helmet, the ocularia protected
by a ridged visor, known as an ambril. Probably German,
c. 1625.
317. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target, the
companion to No. 86. Italian, c. 1600.
318 - 319. A LARGE PEASCOD BREASTPLATE and
BACKPLATE, deeply etched with trophies of arms in
three radiating bands. Strapwork cartouches between, with
the figure of Judith carrying the head of Holofernes, and,
the figure of Mars. Plate XIX. Italian (Milanese), c. 1600.
320. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched with vertical
bands of armorial trophies. Italian (Milanese), c. 1600.
321. A PEAR-SHAPED CABASSET, similar decoration
to the last.
322. A HEAVY CLOSED HELMET, with perforations
for breathing purposes on the right-hand side of the visor.
The lower part finishes in a hollow roping that should fit
over the top rim of the gorget insuring free rotary
movement of the head. It is the type of closed helmet that
many of the figures round the walls of the armoury are
mounted with. In this armoury are 49 exactly similar
examples. Italian, c. 1600-20.
323 - 324. A PAIR OF LONG LOBSTER TACES,
finishing in genouilleres. French c. 1630.
325. A BACKPLATE, delicately etched with five bands
of interlaced scrollwork. North Italian, c. 1560.
326. AN OPEN CASQUE, with a high roped comb and
hinged earpieces, etched in the centre of the comb with a
strapwork panel containing a trophy of arms. French, c.
1580.
327. A MILITARY FORK, with down-curved cutting
beaks. c. 1600.
328. ANOTHER, exactly similar.
329. A BACKPLATE, deeply etched with three broad bands
of trophies of arms, figures of amorini, etc. Italian, c. 1600.
330. A PIKE with a leaf-shaped blade. c.1650.
331. ANOTHER, nearly similar.

377

332. A GARDE-DE-REIN, composed of scales, overlapping

upwards, incised with double lines and Maltese crosses. c.
1640.
333. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, the skull formed in
the shape of eight facets, each etched with narrow bands
of trophies, etc. Italian (Venetian), c. 1580.
334. A CIRCULAR WOODEN SHIELD, painted with
the arms of Philippe de Villiers LIsle Adam, the first
Grand Master in Malta, 1521-1534.
335. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched with six
radiating bands of various trophies, the spaces between
filled with arrangements of drapery, and other Renaissance
ornament. French, c. 1580.
336. A CLOSED HELMET, with blued surface, deeply
etched with trophies of arms, etc., in the school of Lucio
Picinino. Italian, c. 1600.
337. A BUFFE, deeply etched with broad bands of
armorial trophies in the early 16th century taste. North
Italian, c. 1580.
338. A BUFFE, etched with bands of trophies. Italian
(Milanese), c. 1600.
339. A LEFT TASSET, etched with amorini, masks and
scrollwork in bands. North Italian, c. 1570.
340. A LEFT TASSET, etched with bands of various
trophies. Italian (Milanese), c. 1600.
341. A GARDE-DE-REIN, exactly similar to No. 332.
342. ANOTHER GARDE-DE-REIN, the scale plates
overlapping downwards. French, c. 1630.
343. A RIGHT VAMBRACE, etched with bands of
trophies. Italian, c. 1600.
344. A RIGHT PAULDRON, etched with bands of
trophies and leaf-shaped panels. Italian, c. 1600.
345. A LEFT VAMBRACE, etched with bands of
trophies in the early 16th century school. c. 1590.
346-347. A PEASCOD BREASTPLATE AND
BACKPLATE, etched with broad radiating bands
containing vases supported on the heads of dolphins, and
upholding figures of winged female monsters. Between
these broader bands run narrow bands of curb-chain
ornament. Italian or Spanish, c. 1570.
343. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target, of
convex form finishing in an acute salient centre; round
the border run oblong and circular panels, etched with
various trophies of arms. In the centre are twelve petalshaped panels containing a like ornament. Italian
(Milanese school), c. 1580.
349. AN OPEN CASQUE, with high comb (the earpieces
are wanting), engraved with bands of various armorial
trophies. North Italian, c. 1580.
350. A PEASCOD BREASTPLATE, engraved in the
centre with a small oval shield, supported by pages in the
costume of about 1580. French c. 1600.
351. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION etched with six
vertical bands of armorial trophies. Between these are
strapwork cartouches containing medallion portraits.
Italian, c. 1580.
352. A CABASSET, of similar decoration. c. 1600.
353. A PEASCOD BREASTPLATE, engraved with
radiating bands of various trophies. Italian

(Milanese), c. 1600.
354. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, the whole surface
etched with strapwork and trophies of arms. French, c.
1580.
355. A HELMET, of similar form, the entire surface
engraved with radiating bands of various ornaments.
Italian, c.1580.
356. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, with six bands
etched with trophies, between which oval medallions are
suspended and supported on the top of fleur-de-lys-like
ornaments. Italian, c. 1580.
357. A PEASCOD BREASTPLATE, etched in the centre
with an oval panel containing the figure of St. George
fighting with the Dragon; strapwork borders. Possibly
English, c. 1610.
358 - 359. A PAIR OF PAULDRONS, with slight sunk
bordering, etched with scrollwork. North Italian, c. 1570.
360. A SERGEANTS PARTISAN. English, c. 1710.
361. A HALBERD. French, c. 1630.
362. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 360.
363. A PIKE, with leaf-shaped blade. Maltese, c. 1670.
364. A SPETUM. Italian, c. 1570.
365. A PIKE, similar to No. 363.
366. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 360.
367. A HALBERD, with long estoc-shaped spike.
German, c. 1580.
368. A PARTISAN, similar to No. 360.
369. A SUIT OF ARMOUR, reaching to the knees.
Consisting of the breastplate, of peascod form, the
backplate, full arms with pauldrons, fingered gauntlets
(the right gauntlet and all the plates missing), tassets,
taces detachable above the knee, gorget, and closed
helmet. The decoration chosen for the enrichment of this
suit consists of wide radiating bands and borders, deeply
etched and gilt. The bands are filled with duplicated
annular panels, each finishing in the outline of a dolphin,
joined tail to mouth. In the centre of each of these is a
rosette. These are bordered on either side by narrow bands
of conventional scroll- work - the intervening space
between being minutely granulated and filled with a black
pigment. This suit, by far the finest from the point of
armourers art in this collection, was attributed formerly
to the Grand Master Martin Garzes (1595-1601). It is quite
possible that it may have been his property ; indeed, with
the exception of the Wignacourt suit, it is the only one in
the Armoury that corresponds in period to the owner
originally accredited to it. Unfortunately the taces have
been in the past altered from their original form, three
rough plates have been added at the top, and the detachable
plate above the knee-piece has had its lower edge cut
away, and is now permanently riveted to the plate below.
Originally shown with this suit as having belonged to it
were the fine pair of jambes and sollerets (Nos. 437 &
478). German, c. 1560, possibly by the armourer Wolf of
Landshut. Plate XX.
370. A CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target.
Plate XXI.
371. A BACKPLATE.
372. A COMPLETE RIGHT ARM.

378

373. A LEFT PAULDRON. These four pieces all

belonged formerly to such a suit as No. 91, the other plates
of which are now unfortunately lost. The surface ornament
consists of alternating bands, the one band containing
variously shaped panels of figures chosen from heathen
Mythology, framed by strapwork, linked together with Cshaped scrolls; the other band various military and amatory
trophies divided by plain chevron bars. The groundwork
of these various ornaments is etched with granulated
surface, and has been formerly gilt. Italian (Milanese),
c. 1580-1600.
374. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, surface divided by
sixteen narrow, radiating bands, the groundwork occupied
by various armorial trophies. Italian (Milanese), c. 1580.
375. A CHANFRON (defence for the horses head), with
a hinged crinire (neckplate) attached, etched with bands
of trophies and studded with brass-headed rivets. Italian,
c. 1590.
376 -377. A BREASTPLATE AND BACKPLATE, the
breastplate is of semi-globose form, in the fashion of the
civil doublet of the middle of the 16th century. There is a
laminated splint at the base, and laminated gussets at the
sides, which finish like the turnover above in a cabled
design. Down the front is etched a narrow band, winding
at the top, with figures of amorini, dolphins, etc., whilst
in the centre above is a circular medallion containing a
representation of the Virgin and Child, in the school of
Giovanni Bellini. The whole of the etching was formerly
gilt. North Italian, c. 1550.
378. A RIGHT VAMBRACE, etched with bands of
conventional scrollwork. North Italian, c. 1560.
379. PORTION OF A LEFT VAMBRACE, similarly
decorated. North Italian, c. 1560.
380. PORTRAIT OF ALOF DE WIGNACOURT,
Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from
1601-1622. Painted by Caravaggio. Michel Angiolo (Amerigi
or Morigi), the pointer known as Caravaggio, was born at
Caravaggio, a village in North Italy, in 1569, and died at
Porto Ercole in 1609. The Grand Master is represented
standing three-quarter face, turned to the left. In his right
hand he holds a baton, the end resting on his thigh; his left
hand falls loosely on the pommel of his sword. He is
depicted wearing the suit that now stands beside the picture,
No. 413. The shield, No. 393, is seen standing against a
table on the right-hand side of the picture, upon which is
his helmet, his surcoat with the blazonings of the Order. It
is interesting to note that in the picture, applied to the
central spike of the shield is a larger coat of arms than now
appears upon the actual shield. This no doubt, was
originally of thin iron, painted with the Wignacourt arms,
and mounted with ormolu. By the picture it will be noted
that the gauntlets once possessed finger- plates (these are
now missing), and that the exposed linings of the suit were
blue velvet with silver lace embroidery.
381. A HUNTING SWORD. The pommel is shaped as a
falcons head; there is a single knuckle-gaud, a solid sheet,
single quillon and single pas-dne; the whole surface, now
of brightened steel, was formerly the field for the richest

strapwork etching in the Saxon school. The blade is of

falchion shape, the back of which is so forged as to form a
pistol barrel. At the hilt is attached the wheel-lock for
discharging the weapon, the trigger being released by a pin
on the opposite side of the blade. Plate XXII. German, c.
1550.
382. THE GARDE-DE-REIN of the armour of Alof de
Wignacourt.
383. A BACKPLATE, etched with three radiating bands
containing various trophies of armour; early 16th century
school of ornament. North Italian, c. 1570.
384. THE BREASTPLATE.
385. THE BACKPLATE.
386.and 387. THE VAMBRACES AND COUDRES.
388. THE LEFT TASSET.
All from the same harness, deeply etched with broad bands
of various trophies of armour and arms, also introducing
medallion profile busts, and honeysuckle-like border
ornaments. North Italian, c.1570.
389. A LEFT PAULDRON (shoulder-piece) etched with
various ornaments. Italian (Milanese), c. 1600.
390. A LEFT TASSET (thigh-piece), of many plates,
deeply etched with various narrow bands of ornaments,
trophies of arms, etc. c. 1600.
391. A LEFT TASSET (thigh-piece), from a breastplate
much resembling No. 383.
392. THE CHANFRON belonging to the suit of Alof de
Wignacourt, No.413. Plate XXIII.
393. THE CIRCULAR SHIELD, Targe or Target,
belonging to the same harness, No. 413. Plate XXIV
394. THE REINFORCING LEFT SHOULDER PLATE,
belonging to the same harness, No. 413.
395. A PEASCOD BREASTPLATE, etched with
vertical bands of various armorial trophies. Italian
(Milanese), c. 1600.
396. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, the surface deeply
etched with strapwork introducing various groups of arms.
Probably French , c.1580.
397. A SIMILAR MORION, with almost identical
decoration.
398. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched with narrow
radiating bands of trophies, the spaces between occupied
with medallions containing trophies of busts. Italian,
c.1580.
399. A PEASCOD BREASTPLATE, of large
proportions, engraved with nine radiating bands
containing armorial trophies. Italian (Milanese), c. 1600.
400. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, etched wit six
radiating bands, between which are smaller chevron bands
in the same design. Italian or Spanish, c.1580.
401. A PEAR-SHAPED MORION, the surface entirely
etched wit trophies of various arms, but having tongueshaped panels reserved in the brightened surface. Italian,
c.1580.
402. A SERGEANTS PARTISAN. English c.1710.
403. A HALBERD, with crescent shaped blade and
drooped beak. German, c.1580.
404. A PARTISAN similar to No. 402,

379

405. A PIKE, leaf-shaped blade. Maltese, c. 1670.

406. A PARTISAN, with broad-ridged blade and small
lateral projections. Italian, c. 1550.
407. A PIKE, similar to No. 385.
408. A SERGEANTS PARTISAN, similar to No. 402.
409. A HALBERD, of similar form and nationality to
No.403
410. A SERGEANTS PARTISAN, similar to No. 402.
411. A BREASTPLATE, with slight tapul ; two plates of
the taces etched with broad bands of various armorial
trophies. c. 1570.
412. A CLOSED HELMET, the surface russeted: the
skull-piece has a high corded comb, etched with a
continuous band of scrollwork, the groundwork hatched
and gilt. On the lower part of the skull are two C-shaped
scrolls, also etched and gilt. The visor and beaver are of
strongly accentuated forms, the borders also etched and
gilt. Probably Spanish, c. 1560.
413. THE FULL SUIT OF ARMOUR made for Alof de
Wignacourt, Grand Master of the Order of St. John of
Jerusalem from 1601- 1622. It is of Italian fashion, and
made in all probability by the armourer Geronimo Spacini
of Milan. Consisting of the breast and backplate, full arms
and pauldrons, showing the laminated plates in the bend
of the arms, gorget, closed helmet, tassets, full taces,
genouilleres, jambes, sollerets, and a garde-de-rein of
articulated scales (No. 382). With it is a circular buckler
(No. 393), the chanfron of the horse armour (No. 392),
and a reinforcing plate for the left shoulder (No. 394), to
be used in running a course. The decoration is extremely
rich, though the design is wanting a little in reserve. The
surface is divided at intervals of 21 inches by longitudinal
bands deeply engraved and fully gilt; these bands are
crossed at a distance of every inch by straps passing at
right angles between the longitudinals fashioned in outline
to the segment of a circle, giving at a distance a scale-like
appearance. These straps, each half an inch wide, form
the field of the finest gold azzimina damascening inlaid
with arabesque scrollwork, and introducing at intervals
the fleur-de-lys, engraved and gilt. The ground upon which
this gold enrichment is applied being deeply blued, and
the surface punched to field, matted with small circles.
The spaces between this trellis-like ornamentation are
occupied with trophies of various arms, musical panoplies,
fruit, flowers, and in places galleys manned by eight oars.
All these trophies appear to be suspended by slender
festoons of drapery. In the centre of the breastplate is a
canopy with an arched top, on which is engraved and gilt
tile figure of a Knight of St. John ; below this is the fleurde-lys. In the centre of most of the principal plates is
another such canopy, in most cases containing a figure in
Romanesque armour. On the buckler is engraved and gilt
and incrusted with silver the arms of the Wignacourt
family, surmounted by a coronet. The suit, when in its
pristine state, must have been splendid in its wealth of
colour ; the blued ground, the golds of two colours, the
silver bordering, the coloured velvet lining and gold tinsel
we see in the portrait of Wignacourt, must have made a
brave and gorgeous display; like No.91 in this collection it

cannot rank among the fine productions of the armourers

art of earlier times, but by reason of its high quality of
workmanship, its certain elegance of form, and the fertility
of its ornamentation, it has a rightful claim to the first
place among the best known 17th century suits of the
armouries of Europe. In the Wallace Collection of London
is a suit made for the family of Manfredi of Faenza (No.
1146 in the Catalogue), that somewhat resembles it in
decoration whilst in the Poldi-Pizzoli Museum of Milan
is another suit that more closely resembles it in
workmanship. The whole suit is small though evenly
proportioned, which led to Madame Sajani saying, in her
Ultimi Giorni dei Cavalieri di Malta (published is Malta,
1841), when describing Junots visit to the Armoury in
1798, that on comparing this suit of armour with the
portrait, it is seen that Wignacourt was a taller man than
the armour would now fit. She adds, that some years
after junots visit the armour was sent to London, and
worn by a noble lord, and that it was cut down so as to fit
him ; on what occasion she is ignorant. May it have been
sent to England to wear in the Eglinton Tornament of
1838? It would seem extremely impossible; and rather
than the suit having been reduced in size, it appears to
have been enlarged to its present proportions. Plate XXV.
c. 1610-20.
The following seven numbers are parts of a suit of armour
reaching to the waist, and used, like the helmet No. 250,
for sapping purposes.
414. THE CIRCULAR SHIELD.
415. THE TWO LOWER PLATES of either espaliers
(shoulder- pieces).
416. THE BREASTPLATE. Plate XXVI.
417. THE BACKPLATE.
418. THE GORGET.
419. THE CHAPEL-DE-FER, or iron hat. Plate
XXVI.
420. THE LEFT TASSET.
This extremely, interesting harness, perhaps one of the
heaviest suits of its kind in Europe, for when in its entirety
upon the wearer its weight was a little over 110lbs.,
belonged to the redoubtable Grand Master Alof de
Wignacourt. Very deeply engraved on the breastplate, and
as though hanging from the neck, is represented a chain
on which is hung an oval badge chiselled with Alof de
Wignacourts arms quartered with those of the Order of
St. John ; this shield and arms were no doubt formerly
filled in with opaque charaplev enamels in their proper
heraldic colours. Around the borderings of the various
plates is a continuous escalloped band, each segment of
the circle finishing in a trefoil. This design was originally
gilt, the remaining exposed surface being blued. The
gorget, the left tasset, and the lower plates of the espaliers,
still retain their former colouring, the breast and backplate,
shield and helmet, unfortunately at some time or other
having been polished to a brightened surface. On the
breastplate and backplate are three deep concavities
formed by musket bullets; whether these marks are
contemporaneous with its illustrious wearer, and were

380

caused by bullets actually received in battle, or whether

they were the marks of bullets purposely fired at the
armour, a test often resorted to in the 17th century, it is
quite impossible to ascertain - but whatever their cause,
it proves the obstinate endurance of this sturdy little
harness. The helmet is of an interesting type, the form
evidently borrowed from that of the salade of the 15th
century. Upon the side of the skull-piece is engraved a
fleur-de-lys, an emblazonment found on the shield of the
Wignacourt family. It may not be without interest to note
the individual weights of the various plates in the suit The breastplate, 25 lbs.
The shield, 27 lbs.
The backplate, 22 lbs.
The tasset, 6 lbs.
The helmet, 25 lbs.
The espaliers (about), 8 lbs.
The gorget, 3 lbs.
The suit is now reclaimed, if the word may be used, and
shown to the public for the first time, for until
reorganization of the Armoury it was distributed to the
four comers of gallery; the back and breastplate were
hanging in one of the corridors of the Palace, the gorget,
painted black, was upon one of the many figures against
the walls, and the two fragments of the espaliers were
consigned to a barrel full of rusty fragments eventually to
be cast aside. The helmet stood always on the pedestal of
the figure upon which was set the large suit of black
armour.
421. AN OPEN CASQUE, with gracefully moulded
comb, having on either side a shallow embossed roping.
Italian (Milanese), c. 1560.
422. A RIGHT PAULDRON, etched with various
trophies and leaf-shaped panels. Italian (Milanese), c.
1600.
423 -424. A BREASTPLATE AND BACKPLATE,
ensuite. The breastplate is high in the neck and of flattened
globose form, having three laminated splinted plates
below, each finishing in an escalloped border. The gussets
are detached and fluted. The backplate is on the same
principle. Italian, c. 1540.
425 and 426. A BREASTPLATE AND BACKPLATE,
en suite. The breastplate is of globose form, with roped
and fluted gussets, two deep splinted plates at the base.
Italian, c. 1550.
427. A CLOSED HELMET, with a roped comb, the visor
pierced with ocularia fitting within the beaver (cheekpiece is wanting). English, c. 1540.
428. A COUDRE, with sunken roped border. c. 1550.
429. A COUDRE, with sunk border, delicately etched
with radiating bands of scrollwork. North Italian, c. 1540.
430. A GLAIVE, with curved cutting edge. Italian
(Probably Venetian), c. 1550.
431. A COMPANION WEAPON.
432. A SPETUM, with crescent-shaped lateral projections.
Probably Polish, c. 1550.
433. A COMPANION WEAPON.
434. A CLOSED HELMET, with fluted crown and bellows
visor. The surface is russeted. It is of a type known as

Maximilian, from the first German Emperor of that name,

who made the fashion in such war harness. Plate XXVII.
German (probably Nuremburg), c. 1535.
435. A BUCKLER. It is circular and convex in form,
composed of the central steel nimbus and a border of
twelve plates, each fashioned to the segment of a circle,
and having in their centre an embossed ridge - all laid
down upon oak foundations, their joins concealed by
applied framing of brass. In the centre is a hole now
roughly filled in ; through this formerly passed the barrel
of a small gun, discharged by a match-lock, on the inside
of the shield. In the Tower of London Armoury, at Windsor
Castle and in Edinburgh Castle, are other such shields,
but having the gun barrels and locks existing. This most
interesting shield, one of the earliest specimens of plate
armour in the Armoury, must have had a curious and
chequered career, for it is one of a series of eighty that
were in the Tower of London Armoury, made and placed
there by order of King Henry VIII. Plate XXIX.
English work, c. 1520.
436. A CLOSED HELMET, roped comb, etched with
radiating bands, gilt, the surface russeted. To this
headpiece has been added the visor of an earlier helmet.
German, c. 1530.
437-438. A PAIR OF JAMBES AND SOLLERETS.
The toe-pieces of spreading bear-paw form, with
radiating fluting at the end, the jambes or greaves finely
modelled ; along the various borders are narrow bands of
etching of acanthus leaves, all gilt, the remaining surface
russeted. Plate XXVIII. Italian (school of Missaglia), c.
1525.
439. A SALADE or open headpiece, with hinged visor.
The skull-piece has a finely moulded crown, finishing in
a cabling, the front portion strengthened by a reinforcing
plate, the ocularia formed by the distance between the
top of the visor and the lower edge of the reinforcing plate.
The back of the skull is out-curved to form a neck-guard,
the whole of the edging being turned under to a blunted
edge, as in all armour of Gothic times. The surface is
blacked, the original patina, bordered by a delicate
ornamental design of acanthus leaves, etc., with traces of
the original gilding. The visor os of bellows form, with a
few apertures for breathing purposes. This fine and rare
helmet, certainly one of the rarest possessions of the
Armoury, was, until recent alterations, upon one of the
suits of 17th century half- armour that line the walls of
the gallery. It had received from time to time coats of
black paint, entirely obscuring the delicate etching, which
only appeared after several strong baths of hot water and
soda. In the Muse dArtillerie of Paris, a similar helmet,
the actual work of Missaglia, may be seen upon the suit
No. G. 8 of the present Catalogue. In London, in the
Wallace Collection, there are three examples, Nos. 86,
200, and 201, the foremost being Italian, and much like this
helmet in general feeling ; the other two are of German
manufacture, but closely following the Malta salade in
outline. It was the knightly helmet of Italy, in fact in nearly
all Christendom, from about 1460 to 1515, when it
gradually made way for the more complete forms of closed

381

helmet. This form of salade is constantly to be seen in the

pictures of Botticelli, Bellini and Giorgione. Italian,
probably Venetian (school of Missaglia), c.1500-1520. Plate
XXX.
440. A HAND AND A HALF SWORD. The hilt, now
of brightened steel, his straight quillons, with a single
ring-guard on either side; the grip is of dark wood, fluted.
The blade, double-edged, with a strong fluted ricasso, is
45 inches long, inscribed at the hilt IN TE DOMINE
SPERAVIT. There is another such sword in the armoury
of Windsor Castle that was taken from Malta and presented
to King George III by General Pigot in 1821. Plate VIII.
Probably Spanish, c. 1540.
441. A HAND AND A HALF SWORD. It is similar
in form to the preceding. The blade is 47 in. long, and
inscribed ESPOIR EN DIEU - ANTOI MEFEI. Plate
VIII. Probably Spanish, c. 1540.
442. A BREASTPLATE, of slightly globose form, with
a single splint at the base, etched with vertical bands of
acanthus scrolls, monsters, and birds, introducing in the
centre the figure of the Virgin holding the infant Saviour,
standing in a crescent moon.
Plate XXXI. Spanish, c. 1540.
443. A BACKPLATE, en suite.
444. A CANNON or BOMBARDE (sic). It was found
at Malta. The carriage is designed after a drawing marked
Pezza Cavalca (literally, riding piece), in an old work
entitled Pratica Manuale dell Artiglieria, published at
Milan in the year 1606. It consists of a cylinder of iron
2ft. 2in. long, upon which is shrunk a breech and muzzlering, the latter pierced with a hole, into which is inserted
a loose ring. Inside this are three other strengthening rings,
the first of the three similarly pierced to receive a ring,
but now broken ; beneath this first ring is also a
strengthening band. The rings were no doubt to facilitate
moving it. The bore is 6.5. Probably dating within the
first half of the 15th Century. Plate XXXII. (see text for
correct interpretation).
445. A BRASS CANNON, founded at the breech wit the
shield of arms of the Order and those of the Grand Master
Cotoner, engraved with the name Comre. Del Artillerie
Relhanette and the number 362 ; on iron-shod carriage.
446. A SMALL BRASS CANNON: the touch-hole forms
the cockle-shell. c.1780.
447. A SMALL BRASS CANNON, the breech founded
with a lions mask and shield of the Order. c.1750
448. A CULVERIN; the barrel of octagonal section, and
with a square breech-loading action. 8ft.8in. long. c. 1660.
449. A CANNON, the core of copper cased in wood and
bound with layers of tarred rope. It is fashioned on the
model of one at the end of the 18th century: on a wooden
carriage.
450 and 451. A PAIR OF SMALL CAST-IRON
SALUTING CANNONS on wooden carriage. c.1800
452. FOUR STONE BALLS, weighing 80lbs each.
453. FOUR SIMILAR.
454. A CULVERIN, similar to No.448.
455. A SMALL BRASS SALUTING CANNON, on
wooden carriage, c.1800.

456. A SMALL BRASS CANNON, on iron-shod carriage,

moulded at the breech with the arms of the Order and those
of Grand Master Manuel Pinto. In a small shield above the
trunnions the following engraved inscription: FR.
EMMANUEL PINTO, SACR. ORD. HIEROSOL.
SUPR. MAGISTRO PRINCIP. SUI. ANNO XXIV.
Maltese, 1765.
457. A COMPANION CANNON to No. 445, engraved
at the breech with the following inscription: IL COM.
DELL ARTIG. F. MICH. DE VERDELIN, 1670.
458. A SMALL BRASS MORTAR, founded with the
arms of Grand Master Gregorio Carafa, 1680-1690. On
the stand is modeled the name MIRI. MIVILLA F.
OBJECTS AT THE NORTH END OF THE GALLERY
459. SEDAN CHAIR OF CARVED WOOD, formerly
gilt now painted a dark green. The general character of
the ornamentation points to the period of the French
Regence, or c.1740. Used by the Grand Masters in 18th
century.
460. BREECH-LOADING CULVERIN, similar to
No.448
461. ANOTHER, similar.
462. ANOTHER, similar.
463. ANOTHER, Similar.
464. ANOTHER SEDAN CHAIR OF WOOD, formerly
gilt, now painted green, carved with beaded mouldings
and decoration characteristic of the period of the later
part of the reign of Louis XVI of France.

382

Glossary of Arms & Armour

anime - breastplate made

up of overlapping plates
archibugio - arquebus, a
short gun used by the
infantry in the late 15th,
16th and early 17th
centuries
armature - harnesses or
suits of armour
armet - Italian helmet
consisting of a skull, two
hinged cheek pieces which
fasten at the front, and a
visor (15C from old French
Armette).
aventail - mail armour
attached to the base of a
helmet, especially a
bascinet
azzarino - musket
backplate - plate armour
defence for the back
baguette - see ramrod
bajonetta, baoinetta bayonet, a stabbing blade
attached to the muzzle of a
musket
balestra - see crossbow
bandolier - musketeers

shoulder-belt holding
cartridges
bascinet - light pointed
helmet, usually worn with
an aventail and a visor
(13C to 15C)
bastard sword - a contemporary term used to
describe swords wielded
by one or both hands

halberd

bayonette triangular bayonet with blade having

three faces
bellows visor - visor with
horizontal ridges
bevor - plate armour for
the chin and lower face
bill - weapon with heavy
blade on short staff
bracciali - arm defences
bracer - armour for the
lower arm (14C)
brassart - vambrace
breastplate - plate armour
protecting the front of the
torso, referred to in the
bascinet

espalier

aventail

gauntlet

jupon

poignard

cuish

poleyn
greave
sabaton

close burgonet

383

couter

Orders documents as
pettoforte - bulletproof or
reinforced breastplate are
called pettoforti a botta
darchibuso
brigandine - a flexible
body armour made from a
large number of metal
plates riveted inside a
cloth-covered jacket.
buckler - a small round
shield
buffe bevor worn
strapped to an open-faced
helmet (16C)
burgonet - light openfaced helmet, with peaked
brow, combed skull and
hinged ear flaps
cabasset - Spanish openfaced helmet with
almond-shaped skull
ending with stalk-like
projection

canne di fucili - musket

barrels
cannonetti - miniature
cannon
carabina - a carbine,
short firearm for cavalry
use
casque - light open helmet
celata - open-faced Italian
sallet
ceppo - wooden stock
ceppo di cannone - gun
carriage
chanfron - head armour for
a horse
chausses - mail protection
for legs

morion
cheek-pieces
or ear flaps
targe

gorget

pauldron
rerebrace
breastplate
couter
vambrace

tasset

close helmet - helmet with

a full visor and bevor that
completely encloses the
head and face
collar - gorget
comb - ridge on the skull
of a helmet
comb morion - morion with
a high central comb
corsaletto - a corslet
(corselet), a light cuirass
popular in the 16th century,
consisting of breastplate
and backplate, tassets
corazza - see cuirass
cock or hammer (cane)

comb-morion

cours - see pistolets

dabordage
couter - plate armour for
elbow
crossbow - bow fixed to a
wooden stock
pan

frizzen

trigger (grillo)

spring
(molletta)

lockplate
trigger-guard (sousgarde)

384

cuirass - body armour

consisting of breast and
back protection - the
breastplate alone was
sometimes called a cuirass
and the parts combined, a
pair of cuirasses
culet - plate armour of
horizontal lames for the
rump (garde-de-rein)
pe, espe - sword
espalier - light shoulder
defence
falling buffe - bevor made
of several lames that could
be released to expose the
face

sopraveste
musket-rest

bandolier

priming-powder
flask
rapier

fiacchi fatti a maglia mail vests

fodera di sciabola - sword
sheath or scabbard
fucili - muskets
fucili di spoglio - muskets
escheating to the Order
furniture - the mountings,
usually of metal, of a gun
fusils mche - matchlock
muskets
fusil double - double
barreled musket
garde-rein - defence for a
mans rump
gauntlets -armoured
gloves for the hands,
either of mitten type or
with individual fingers
gorget - plate armour for
the neck
greave -plate armor for the
leg from the knee to the
ankle

gorget

cuirassier
harness

guardareni da cavallo see garde-de-rein

halberd - an infantry staff
weapon
half-armour - armour for
the head, body arms and
hips only
harnais - see harness
harness - a term used to
refer to a full suit of armour
jupon - a tight-fitting
garment worn over armour
kilij - Turkish sabre

lance rest - a support for

the lance when couched
lame - sword blades
mail - flexible armour
consisting of inter-linked
and riveted metal rings
mezzo corsaletto - breastplate with tassets
molletta - spring

385

morion - open faced

helmet with peaked broad
brimmed skull or high
comb
mortaletto - small mortar
mortalletto di ferro per
lanciare granate - small
iron mortar for launching
grenades
pauldron

poleyn - plate armour for

the knee, usually equipped
with a side wing protecting
the outside (genouilliere)
ramrod - the loading rod
of a muzzle-loading musket
rapier - long-bladed
slender sword for
thrusting
razzia - a raid or foray
rerebrace - plate defence
for upper arm
rondaccia - a ronadache
or round shield

mortaletto

partizan
halberd

moschetto - musket
moschetto di gioia musket donated to the
Order
moschettoni da posta rampart guns or large
muskets, sometimes
mounted on tripods
munition armour - massproduced, cheaply-made
armour for the common
soldier
muschettone - large
musket mounted on a
swivel, also known as a
rampart gun
partizan - staff-weapon
with broad double-edged
pointed blade
pauldron - plate armour
for the shoulder
picche - pikes
Pisan armour - Italian
armour of the late 16th and
early 17th century
pistolets dabordage boarding pistols
pistoletti a ruota - wheellock pistols
plackart - a half-breast
plate to protect abdomen,
usually worn with a
brigandine (15C)
poignard - dagger

sabaton - plate armour for

foot
sajf - curved Arab sabre
sallet - a light helmet,
sometimes with a visor,
and with tail to protect
back of neck
savoyard - 17th century
close helmet with holes for
eyes, nose and mouth
sciabola, sciabla - sabre
and hanger, light swords
with curved single-edge
blades
schiavona - a Venetian
sword with metal basket
knuckle guard
schinati forti - reinforced
backplates
schioppo da caccia fowling piece
shishak - Turkish helmet,
see zischagge
shaffron - see chanfron
smeriglio - swivelmounted guns of small

386

calibre
sopraveste - surcoat or
garment worn over armour
spada - sword
spada alla Spagnola - see
rapier
spadone - large heavy
sword
spingardi - rampart guns
spuntone/spontone spontoon, a kind of
halberd
stiletto - small pointed
dagger
taces - tassets
target - Small round shield
tasset - plate attached to
breastplate to protect
thigh
testale da cavallo - see
chanfron
tromblon - blunderbuss
vambrace - plate armour
for the arm
zischagge - fluted helmet
with nasal guard, cheekflaps, peak and long
lobster-shaped neck guard
(from Turkish shishak)

Sources & Bibliography

387

388

References & Notes

The Origins of the Palace Armoury

1. Riley-Smith J, The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus c.1050-1310,
p.53 (London - 1967).
2. Bruman, E, The Templars: Knights of God, p.21 (Kent - 1986).
3. Riley-Smith, op.cit., p. 58.
4. Smail, R C, Crusading Warfare 1097-1193, p.96, (Camb. Univ. Press - 1989 -first
publ. 1956).
5. A plain Latin cross was used at first; the eight-pointed cross came in much later
6. Riley-Smith, op.cit., pp.118-19.
7. ibid.
8. Theoderich, Theoderichs Description of the Holy Places (c.1172 AD), (trans. &
ed. Aubrey Stewart) London in Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, V (1896), pp.30-2.
9. Riley-Smith, op.cit., p.57.
10. Statutes of John de Villiers, Chapter General of 1288 held at Acre quoted in E J
King, The Rules, Statutes & Customs of the Hospitallers 1099-1310, p.33 (London
-1934); that all armour, which escheats at the death of brethren, or of those who
depart from this country, or which escheats from any cause, should be placed in
charge of a brother, who should be appointed for the purpose by the Marshal,
which brother should set in writing what he received, and what he gives out at the
command of the Marshal: and those who would refit from his equipment, may make
an exchange and have it. The crossbows (arbalestres) which come in should be
placed in the Treasury. (p.33, S.8).
11. Chapter General of 1258 held in Acre, King, op.cit., p. 20.
12. Chapter General of 1303, King, op.cit., p.129.
13. Archives of the Order of St John in Malta, (hereafter referred to as AOM) Vol. 100,
f. 141 (1600).
14. Statutes of William de Villaret, King, op.cit., p.129.
15. Statutes of Hugh Revel, King, op.cit., p.12.
16. AOM 1700, f. 56v.
17. King, op.cit., p.189, The Customs (Usances 113 /115).
18. Cartulaire Gnral de lOrdre des Hospitaliers de St. Jean de Jrusalem (11101310), no.4050, ed. J. Delaville le Roulx (Paris - 1894-1906).

389

19. Marshall, C, Warfare in the Latin East, 1192-1291 ( Camb. Univ. Press. - 1992),
pp. 51-6.
20. ibid., p. 218.
21. ibid., pp. 58-60.
22. Spiteri, S, Fortresses of the Cross - Hospitaller Military Architecture 11361798, see chapter on Hospitaller Castles in Outremer (Malta - 1994).
23. Irwin, R, Islam and the Crusades 1096-1699, in The Oxford Illustrated History
of the Crusades, edited by J. Riley Smith (1995), p. 249.
24. Bosio, J, DellIstoria della Sacra Religione et. Ill.ma Militia di San Giovanni
(Rome - 1621-1629) Vol.II, p. 143.
25. Bosio, II, p. 323 (1470).
26. Luttrell, A, and Jepesson, K, The Maussoleion at Harlikarnassus (Hojberg 1985), p. 146.
27. Poutiers, J C, Rhodes et ses Chevaliers, p.183 (Bruxelles - no date).
28. Bosio, II, p. 322 (1470).
29. Bosio, II, pp. 330-1.
30. Bosio, II, p.264 (1459).
31. Bosio, II, p.156 (1397): quoted in Luttrell, The Hospitallers at Rhodes 13061421, p. 291-92.
32. Bosio, II, p. 366.
33. Delaville, Orient, Vol.1, p. 412; Vol. 2, p. 97 - deux bombardes, quelques balistes
et viretons, pris dans ntre arsenal la demande du Gran-Maitre de Rhodes; authorization was given on 27 May 1402.
34. Caggese, R., Roberto dAngi e I suoi tempi (Florence - 1922), Vol. I, p. 212.
35. Bosio, II, p. 206 (1434).
36. Bosio, II, p. 216 (1440).
37. Bosio, II, p. 143 (1491).
38. AOM 77, f. 140.
39. AOM 1700, f.126v.
40. ibid., f.160v.
41. Bosio, II, p. 350.
42. Bosio, II, p. 644.
43. Rottiers, B E A, Description des Monuments de Rhodes (Bruxelles - 1828), p. 314
and pl. XXIII.
44. Bosio, III, pp. 1-2 (1523).

The Knights of Malta

1. Description of 13th century armament of the Castrum Maris quoted from
Document XI - 1274 - Luglio 29. Ind.II, reproduced from Malta nei documenti
Angioni del r. Archivio di Napoli by Vincenzo Laurenza, edizioni dellArchivio
Storico di Malta, XIII (Rome - 1935); For 15th century armaments see G Wettinger
The Castrum Maris and its Suburb of Birgu during the Middle Ages in Birgu: a
Maltese Maritime City, (Malta - 1993), Vol. I, p. 44.
2. AOM 6559, f. 92 et seq.
3. Wettinger, op.cit., p. 45.

390

4. Bosio, III, p. 89.

5. ibid., p. 85 (1530).
6. Leopardi, E R, The Island of Gozo 1432-1453 in Melita Historica (1964), Vol.4,
No.1, p. 20 .
7. Bosio, III, p. 150.
8. ibid., p. 100 (1531).
9. ibid., p. 100; ... molti de quali trovandosi proveduti dalcune armi.
10. King, E (Sir), and Luke, H C (Sir), The Knights of St. John in the British Realm
(London - 1967), pp. 98-102.
11. Bosio, III, p. 529; AOM 78, f. 95.
12. ibid., p. 490.
13. ibid., p. 514.
14. University Manuscript, Vol.13, ff. 440v-43v (29.4.1565).
15. Bosio, III, p. 561.
16. ibid., p. 577.
17. Braudel, F, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of
Philip II, Vol.II, p. 839.
18. Bosio, III, p. 561.
19. Balbi di Correggio, F, The Siege of Malta trans. Maj. H.A. Balbi, p. 156
(Copenhagen - 1961).
20. AOM 91, f. 74v.
21. AOM 91, f. 60 (4.11.1562).
22. Bosio, III, p. 122 (1533).
23. ibid., op.cit., p. 640.
24. AOM 6387, f. 354.
25. AOM 6387, f. 342.
26. AOM 91, f. 74v: a corslet (corselet) was a light form of cuirass - Si chiam cos
una specie di corazza leggiera che verso la fine del 16 Secolo si portava senza
spallacci e senza fianchi; the cuirass was a piece of armour for the body consisting
of breast and back protection - the breastplate alone was sometimes called a cuirass
and the parts combined, a pair of cuirasses, and the breastplate a half-cuirass. The
bracciali were defences for the whole arm and shoulder, and consisted of a pauldron
(spallaccio), rerebrace, couter, and vambrace. The hands were protected by gauntlets.
27. Bosio, III, p. 617.
28. ibid., p. 606.
29. ibid., p. 544.
30. de Giorgio, R, A City by an Order, p.89 (Malta -1985); ASV Fondo Borghese,
Serie I, p. 569.
31. ibid., p.97.
31a. AOM 43, f . 193 (24.7.1566).
32. ibid., p. 101; Spada, e pugnale, o sia Sica, e cingolo di gran prezzo furono
mandati in dono al Gran Maestro dal Re Filippo Secondo per la Vittoria ottenuta
contro lArmata Turchesca - this sword was taken away from Malta by General
Bonaparte and is now at the Louvre in Paris.
33. Balbi, op.cit., p. 179.
34. Bosio, III, p. 605.
35. ibid.
36. Balbi, op.cit., p.178.
37. See chapter 1, pp.22-3.
38. The Adventures of Count George Albert of Erbach translated from the German

391

of Emil Kraus, into English by Beatrice Princess Henry of Battenberg, p.85.(London

- 1891). Erbach records how the captain of the Orders Galley on which he was
sailing to Malta informed him that many Persian blades were displayed also in the
hostelries for strangers, pp. 51-3.
39. Bosio, III, p. 608.
40. Freller, T, The life and adventures of Michael Heberer von Bretten, p. 109 (Malta
- 1997).
41. de Giorgio, op.cit., p. 101.
42. ibid., pp. 101 &106.
43. In 1614, the Duke of Osuna reported to the King of Spain that the Maltese were
left unarmed on the advice of the members of the French Langue who felt that they
would thus retain a better hold over the islanders who, being numerous, could have
caused problems in seeking to associate themselves more closely with the Spanish
Crown in preference to allowing the Order to rule over them.
44. Denaro, V, The Buildings of Valletta (Malta - 1967), p.41.
45. Dal Pozzo, B., Historia della Sacra religione Militare di S. Giovanni
Gerosolimitano detta di Malta (Verona - 1703-1715), p.570.
46. AOM 6552, f. 39.
46a. Bosio, III, p. 777 (1566).
47. AOM 100, f. 49V.
48. Dal Pozzo, op.cit., p. 399.
48a. AOM 1378, f. 12 (1598), ...un delle cose di che mag. cura hanno havuto gli Illust.
nostri precedessori, si simile dobbiamo haver noi di provedere alla conservatione di
queste fortezze che non manchino loro, ma pi tosto avranno le arme, e
particolarmente archibuggi onde avvenga Dio che doppo la nostra elettione al
Magistero havessimo trovato la provisione ordinaria di mediocre quantit, ci parve
non di meno di dare ordine che se ne comprassero in Lombardia fino a quattro milla
di pi; et gia si sarebbero comprati se non fossero che non havendo in quella nostra
ricetta cosi pronto tutto il denaro necessario, non s portato di manco, se non
aspettare che si metisse insieme.
Intanto havendo a trattare de diminuire la provisione che si ritrova qui nellArmeria,
non essendo punto maggiore, anzi meno del nostro bastervole ... delle arme cosi
necessarie come sono archibuggi et moschetti ... finche fu risolto di tre mila archibuggi
che il Med. Ing, si chiarito con ogni verita non essere con di vantaggio gliene
fossero subito consignati mille con tutti i loro fornimenti, benche non siano in tanto
numero, quanto Sua Santit haver fosse creduto di poter cavare di qua: AOM 1378,
f.13v, ... che di tre mila archibuggi ritrovati nella Armeria della Religione ne faccia
parte a Sua Santit di mille con tutti i loro fornimenti.
49. AOM 120, f. 214.
50. AOM 92, f. 67V.
51. AOM 92, f. 71v.
52. AOM 90, f. 117.
53. Dal Pozzo, op.cit., p. 279.
54. AOM 199, f. 16.
55. De Lucca, D, Romano Carapecchia (Malta - 1999), p. 224; details taken from
AOM 927, f.103 and AOM 931, f. 39; Bonello, G, The Melanchony death of Romano
Carapecchia, Architect, in the Sunday Times (of Malta) (13.12.98).

392

A Sala dArmi in the Grand Masters Palace

1-2. Erbach, op.cit., p. 130.
3. Charles Alexander De Cosson, in the introduction to Sir Guy Lakings A record of
European Armour and Arms through Seven Centuries, p.xxxxviii (London 1920-22)
4. AOM 1061 - section which deals with Palace Armoury; see also pages 96-9. The
portrait seen by St Felix is probably that attributed to Lionello Spada. The portrait
by Caravaggio showing Wignacourt in the so-called Verdelin armour, now in the
Louvre, had by then already reached France. John Evelyn noted it in the Palace of
the Comte de Liancourt. Although Belloni, writing around 1645, alleges that this
portrait was then still in the Armoury, it is most probable that he was actually
referring to the Spada portrait - See D Cutajar, Caravaggio in Malta; his work and
his influence ed. P Farrugia Randon, pp.3-5 (Malta - 1989).
5. Erbach, op.cit., p. 110.
6. AOM 227, f. 93; AOM 220, f. 187-87v.
7. Paolo Del Rosso, R F, Statuti della Religione de Cavalieri Gerosolimitani
tradotti dal Latino in Lingua Toscana (Firenze - 1567), p.108.
8. AOM 1679, f.243: See also Codice Rohan, Stat.XXII, Ord. 19 Tesoro.
9. AOM 742, ff. 6-13.
10-11. AOM 114, f. 256v.
12-13. AOM 220, f. 187v.
14. AOM 273, ff. 297 & 339v-41.
15. AOM 1112, f. 132.
16. AOM 220, f. 187v.
17. ibid, f. 189 (24.10.69).
18. ibid., f. 189.
19. AOM 212, f. 538.
20. AOM 227, f. 1034.
21. Dal Pozzo, op,cit., p. 99.
22. AOM 1700, f. 126v.
23. Erbach, op.cit., p. 125.
24. Pepper, S, & Adams, N, Firearms and Fortifications: Military Architecture
and Siege Warfare in Sixteenth-Century Siena (Chicago - 1986), p.16.
25. AOM 261, ff.144v-45.
26. AOM 6437, f. 119; see also f. 118 - Si faccia provisione darmi, cio moschetti e
archibugi di Biscaia.
27. AOM 261, f. 151.
28. Laking, G. F., A Catalogue of Arms and Armour in the Armoury of the Knights of
St. John, p. xi (London - 1903).
29. AOM 120, f. 214.
30. Abela, G F, Della descrittione di Malta (Malta - 1647), p. 71: AOM 222, f. 167
Fondatione del GM Lascaris a favour della Religione per compra di miglio salnitro,
moschetti, e polvere (1645); AOM 1759, f. 277v, ... la provisione per tempo dassedio,
sono gia nel Magazeno o Armeria per quest effetto destinati m/4 moschetti con le
sue bandoliere e mecchia. (1651).
31. AOM 212, f. 2.
32. AOM 261, f. 145.
33. AOM 6552, f. 11v.
34. ibid., f. 39.
35. ibid., f. 4v: see also Chev. de Coyenart, Le Chevalier de Folard (1669-1752)

393

(Paris - 1914), p. 150.

36. AOM 266, f. 142v.
37. AOM 6547, no foliation.
38-39. ibid.
40. AOM 6552, f. 8v.
41. AOM 267, f. 115v.
42. ibid., f. 151.
43. ibid., f. 179.
44. Hayward, J F, The Art of the Gunmaker (London - 1963), Vol.II , p. 52.
45. AOM 271, f. 92.
46. AOM 1014, f. 1.
47. AOM 634, ff. 82-3.
48. See also AOM 6558, f. 84v (1761).
49. Funchen, L & F, The Lace Wars (London - 1977), part 1, pp.60-4.
50. AOM 1065, f. 144.
51. AOM 1061, ff. 121-22.
52. Testa, C, The Life and Times of Grand Master Pinto (Malta - 1989), p. 258.
53. AOM 634, p. 89.
54. ibid., f. 66.
55. ibid., f. 68.
56. AOM 1061.
57. Wismayer, J, The History of the KOMR and the Armed Forces of the Order of St.
John (Malta - 1989), pp. 29-49.
58. AOM 1015, f. 177.
59. ibid., f. 204.
60. AOM 1005, Vol. entitled Armi: nel quale sono descritte le Armi che il Tesoro
consegna ai cavalieri per esercitarsi nell arte della milizia, f. 26;
Some other manufacturers marks found on the surviving muskets and pistols in the
Palace Armoury are FAF Champ, Challter A-Perigueux, F Marsili, Pier Fabri, Jean
Leonard, a Paris, Tivets, Laborde A Paris, Govet (Carbine), P G, A Zedant & P DEVVN.
61. Barthorp, M, and Embelton, G A, Napoleons Egyptian Campaigns 1798-1801
(London -1992 edn.).
62-63. AOM 634, f. 82.
64. AOM 1015, ff. 77-8.
65. ibid., f. 79.
66. ibid., f. 439.
67. AOM 1020, f. 600.
68. AOM 257, ff.48 & 21.
69. AOM 634, f. 96.
70. AOM 1061, f. 99.
71. AOM 1061, f. 83.
72. AOM Manuscript 6524, ff. 24-31.
73. This was an instrument for measuring the quality of gunpowder - cest en
general une machine propre mesurer le degr de force ou de bont de la poudre
canon - Le Blond, 1762.
74. Testa, C, The French in Malta 1798-1800 (Malta - 1997), p. 618.

394

A Profusion of Armouries in the 18th Century

1. AOM 634, f. 96.
2. ibid., f. 82.
3. ibid.
4. AOM 262, f. 112.
5. AOM 1061, f. 100.
6. ibid., f. 100.
7. AOM 1015, f. 78.
8. ibid., f. 87.
9. Schermerhorn, E, Malta of the Knights (London - 1929), pp. 287-90 .
10. AOM 1061, f. 87.
11. ibid., f. 82.
12. Fiorini, S, and Buhagiar, M, Mdina: The Cathedral City (Malta - 1997),
pp. 445-46.
13-15. ibid.
16. de Lucca, D, Mdina; A history of its urban space and architecture(Malta 1995), p. 109 : Cathedral Museum Misc. 60, f. 6.
17. University Library Manuscript Vol. 89, no foliation (19.12.1728).
18. University Library Manuscript Vol.187, f. 39.
19. de Lucca, D, Architectural Interventions in Mdina following the
Earthquake of 1693 in Mdina and the Earthquake of 1693, ed. Can. J Azzopardi
(Malta - 1993), p. 58.
20. ibid.
21. AOM 1061, f. 112.
22 ibid.
23. Treasury Manuscript Vol. A103, ff. 414 & 429: AOM 1023, f. 263.
24-25. ibid.
26. AOM 1061, f. 54; An example of the arms of a Greek ship deposited at Fort St
Angelo is found at AOM 6437, f.85v - il far restituire, se cosi li pareva, alli Greci del
Londro condotto dalle galere nello state passato almeno larmi bianche.
27. For reference to the armoury in Fort Manoel see AOM Treasury 27 (A) vol.2 f.f.
51,52, 56, 62. This armoury was still in use in the 1790s.
28. AOM 271, p.92.
29. AOM 6553, f.64v.
30. AOM 6554, Stato del Castello, e Torri Maritime del Gozo.
31. ibid.
32. AOM 1016, f.198; LArmeria del Castello non hebbe dal terremoto quel male
che se gli attribuiva, e per cui se ne levarono le armi, transportandole fuori, e calandole
al Rabato: The Cittadellas armoury is again mentioned at f. 433.
33. AOM 6554, Stato del Castello, e Torri Maritime del Gozo.
34. AOM 265, ff. 39v-43v.
35. Spiteri, op.cit., p. 615.
36. ibid.
37. Stato del Castello , e Torri Maritime del Gozo.
38. AOM 1061, f. 121.
39. Wismayer, op.cit., pp.7-9.
40. AOM 1015, f. 79.
41. ibid., f. 87.
42. ibid., f. 434.

395

43. ibid., f. 401.

44. ibid., f. 419.
45. ibid., f. 23; AOM 977, f. 11.
46. Regolamenti delli sei Regimenti di Campagna ( Malta - 1761).
47. ibid., pp. 11-2.
48. ibid., p. 12.
49. AOM 1015, f. 450.
50. ibid., f. 435.
51. AOM 771, f. 123.
52. AOM 1015, f. 502.
53. ibid., f. 555.
54. Testa, op.cit., p.47. Azopardi in his Giornale della Presa di Malta e Gozo (1836)
recounts how the Knight-Commander Simon gathered the men of Zebbug regiment
in the village square and began to march them off along the road to Qalet Marku,
where he told them they would find their arms waiting for them along the way ( he is
here referring to a deposito darmi as established in the regulations). We are told
that the villagers, however, suspecting that he was fooling them and tricking them
into surrendering tried to lynch the knight who had, as a consequence, to flee for
safety and find refuge inside the village parish church.
55. ibid., p. 262.
56. ibid., p. 261.
57. Library Manuscript Vol.1020, item 4.

The Organizational Framework

1. AOM 87, f. 35 (Fr Simon de Sesa); Sammut, E, The Valletta Armoury and a letter
from Sir Guy Laking, reprinted from Scientia, Vol.XXV, No.1(Malta - 1959), p.4 .
2. AOM 73, ff. 60 & 61v.
3. Dal Pozzo, op.cit., p. 445, (1601) ... laccidente fu che havendo Fr D. Francesco
Pontiosa Cavalier Castigliano ferito dun taglio sopra la mano un Artigianaro Spadaro
della Valletta, per differenza di certo servitio della sua arte, e mala creanza di parole;
Guilliame Le Blond (1762) describes an armourer as an ouvrier qui travaille la
fabrique, lentretien & au nettoyement des armes. Il est absolument ncessaire
davoir des Armuriers dans une Place assige soit pour raccommender les armes
des soldats, soit pour en faire de neuves en cas de besoin. Il seroit mme desirer,
pour lutilit du service, quil y en et quelques-uns attachs la suite de chaque
Rgiment.
4. Sometimes his surname is written as Lubrana or Labruno; Erbach states that the
captain of a galleon informed him that the Order possessed skilful armourers, In
the cause of religion, no cost or pain are spared to provide the most efficient arms.
Not only do we possess in our island most skilful armourers, but we also take
advantage of every opportunity offered by our cruises to lay in a stock of good
weapons, not to speak of the Damascus & Persian blades which we take from the
Turks in our engagements with them.
5. Luttrell, A, The Hospitallers at Rhodes 1306-1421, pp. 291-92.
6. AOM 1015, f. 78.

396

7. AOM 1082, f.340.

8. AOM 998, ff. 222-24; AOM 650, f. 297.
9. AOM 634, f. 101.
10. AOM 977, f. 97 (1772).
11. AOM 1020, f. 522.
12. ibid.
13. Spiteri, S, An Armaments Deal - 18th Century Style, in the Sunday Times of
Malta, 16.11.1997.
14. AOM 634, f. 225.
15. ibid., f. 240.
16. ibid., f. 66; AOM 977, ff.18-9.
17. AOM 634, f. 240; AOM 999, f. 145; AOM 1000, f. 169; AOM 1001, f. 167.
18. AOM 634, f. 100.
19. AOM 6534, f. 85, undated.
20. AOM 273, ff. 339v-40.
21. Bono, S , Naval Exploits and Privateering in Hospitaller Malta, ed. V. MalliaMilanese (Malta - 1993), p. 386.
22. It appears these men were brought purposely from France.
23. AOM 1015, ff. 79-80.
24. ibid.
25. AOM 262, f. 10.
26. Testa, The Life and Times of Grand Master Pinto, p. 122.
27. ibid., pp. 255-56.
28. AOM 116, f. 176v.
29. AOM 6534, f. 85.
30. ibid.
31. AOM 1015, f. 79.
32. ibid., f. 439
33. University Manuscript Vol. 89 (1726), no foliation.
34. AOM 267, f. 177v.
35. ibid.
36. AOM 6547, f. 4
37. AOM 6534, no foliation; see also AOM 1061, ff. 99 & 105.
38. AOM 273, f. 340.
39. Treasury AOM A 27 (2), f. 62.
40. AOM 233, ff. 142v-143.
41. AOM 1061, ff. 105-6.
42. AOM 273, f. 339v.
43. AOM 1015, f. 80.
44. AOM 6552, f. 2v (5.11.1714).
45. ibid., f. 6 (7.1.1715).
46. AOM 650, ff.297-97v.
47. AOM 634, ff. 100-4.
48. ibid.
49. AOM 1015, f. 192.
50. AOM 1024, f. 21.
51. University Manuscript Vol.89, no foliation.
52. Treasury Manuscript Vol. A 27 (2) ff. 51,52 & 62.
53. AOM 1026 to 1031 (various).

397

Artillery Stores & Gunpowder Magazines

1. AOM 73, f.144v (1464); pro bombarderio.
2. AOM 73, f. 135v (24.8.76).
3. AOM 77, f. 65 (1.12.1491).
4. AOM 77, f. 109 (12.9 .1493); AOM 81 f. 210 (1516) - Item si ordina che li
bombardierij infrascripti siano deputati a la guardi continua a la detta torre. Per non
saranno obligati ad altro angarie dela religione et sono questi cioe, f.191v.
5. AOM 74, f. 49; Bosio, II , p. 322.
6. AOM 73, f. 140.
7. AOM 89, f. 116v (1552); AOM 89, f. 4 (1554): AOM 88, f. 31v (1555)
8. Bosio, II, p. 846.
9. AOM 271, f. 191.
10. AOM 1444, f. 43v-44 (1669).
11. AOM 1015, f. 398 (1793).
12. DHomedes bastion, Fort St Angelo.
13. AOM 1015, f. 134.
14. AOM 222, f. 167 (1645).
15. AOM 1444, f. 43v-44 (1669.)
16. Spiteri, S, The Development of the Bastion of Provence, Floriana, in Sacra
Militia Journal, 2002, Issue 1 (Malta - 2002) p. 10.
17. AOM 260, f. 139.
18. See illustration on p. 191.
19. AOM1020, f. 490.
20. AOM 1016, f. 198 (1693).
21. Testa, Grand Master Pinto, p.179.
22. AOM 1015, f. 208 (1778).
23. AOM 270, f. 60v.
24. University Manuscript Vol. 6, f. 31.
25. AOM 259, f. 2v.
26. Spiteri, S, The Fougasse; the stone mortar of Malta (Malta - 1999), passim.
27. AOM 1015, f. 270 (1781).
28. AOM 260, f. 17.
29. AOM 260, f. 155.

The Development of the Palace Armoury

1. Libray Manuscript 142, Vol.IV, f. 137.
2. de Lucca, Romano Carapecchia, p. 148.
3. Testa, Life and Times of Grand Master Pinto, pp. 62-5.
4. de Lucca, Romano Carapecchia, p. 43; Library Manuscript 81, p. 15v.
5. Grassi, G, Dizionario Militare Italiano (Naples -1835).
6. Bosio, III, p. 777.
7. Nouvelle Relation du Voyage et Description Exact de LIsle de Malthe -par un
gentilhomme, p. 104 (1679)
8. Treasury Document A1, f. 132v.

398

9. AOM 120, f. 214.

10. AOM 257, f. 7.
11. Testa, Life and Times of Grand Master Pinto, p. 243.
12. AOM 950, f. 113.
13. AOM 950, f. 27v & f. 28.
14. AOM 950, f. 160.
15. Library Manuscript Vol. 164, ff. 59-60.; Regola che sosserva dal Com. rio della
Sala dellArmi nel mantenimento a custodia delle Med.me, ...Tutte le armi bianche,
e di fuoci, scartucci, fugili, bacchette, palle, pietre e tutto quello che riguarda
generalmente lo stato dellarmi si terr custodito con ogni particolar attentione dal
Comm.rio che ne avra il carico in un Magazeno nel quale come in una Sala darmi si
erigeranno quattro Castelli in forma di Trofei per tener separate tutte quellarmi
dogni vassello, che averanno da servire p. la campagna, accioche nelle occorrenze
ogni sargente possa trovare prontamente le armi di suo vassello p. questa sala
darmi si stabilira dalla Ven. Cong de Vasselli un Mro Armiere molto capace e esperto
pagato a giornata o a partito, o come meglio le pareva ....

From Armoury to Museum

1. Laking, A Catalogue of Arms and Armour, passim.
2. National Archives (Santo Spirito Rabat) hereafter referred to as NA, Despatch
from Buthurst to Maitland (5.7.1822)
3. NA, Despatch from Buthurst to Maitland (13.11.1822)
4. Ellul, M, History on Marble: A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Presidential
Palaces in Valletta, San Anton and Verdala Malta (Malta - 1998), p. 50.
5. Laking, op.cit., pp.xv-xvi
6. Badger, G P, Description of Malta and Gozo, pp.143-46 (1838)
7. Brief notes on the Palace Armoury (Malta -1906), p.13: the collection was then
taken charge of by the Ordnance Department, and the old arms and armour, which
appeared to have been considered solely from a utilitarian point of view, were cast
aside as useless lumber, to make room for small arms of tower manufacture; See
Also Ellul, op.cit., p. 50.
8. Public Records Office (PRO) Kew, MPH 889 part 1(9); WO 44/139; Plan and
Section of Magazine in Bastion Vendome, Fort St Elmo, showing its proposed conversion into an Armoury, and communication to the same within the Fort. The plan
is signed by Francis Ringler Thomson, Lt.Col. CRE 22.7.1853. On Lt. Col. Ringler
Thomson as a Commander of the Royal Engineers in Malta see Spiteri, The Fortress
Builders in British Military Architecture in Malta (Malta -1996), pp. 89-95.
9. Badger, op.cit., The numbers given by Badger seem to be inflated - particularly
the 30,000 pikes; he may have relied on hearsay rather than on official figures given
that there did not then exist any form of inventory.
10. ibid.
11. Blue Book extracts; Public Works 1855, pp, 56 -59; 1856, pp.52-55; 1857, pp.5457; 1858, pp.54-57; 1860 , pp.56-59.
12. NA, LGO 1625/1858 (21.12.1858).
13. NA, LGO 2750/1859.

399

14. NA, Weekly reports on the Civil Work. December 1855-1859.

15. Blue Book 1860, Memorandum p.21.
16. NA, LGO 11255/1900; LGO 10897/1900; Government Gazette, no.3701 (15.12.1894);
Gov. Notice 203.
17. NA, LGO 20072/1902 (13.3.1902).
18. NA, LGO 22850/1902 (3.9.1902).
19. Daily Malta Chronicle (14.10.1902).
20. Sammut, op.cit., p. 6.
21. Czerwinski, A, and Zygulski, Z, Palace Armoury of Valletta (Unesco, Paris 1969, report), p. 6.
22. ibid.
23. NA, Minute Paper 734/Works (9.5.1903).
24. Sammut, op.cit., p. 5.
25. NA, Letter from P. Asnew to Lord Grenfell (23.1.1903).
26. NA, Gatt to Lt. Governor 1.4.1903 (4198).
27. NA, Works 3047/3 (18.9.1903).
28. NA, Gatt to Lt. Governor (31.8.1903).
29. NA, Clarke to Grenfell (1.9.1903).

The Collection of Arms & Armour

1. AOM 1380, f.50v; The documents containing this information were first discovered
in March 1998 by Prof. David M. Stone of the University of Delaware. In 1999, he
gave several lectures in the United States (to be published shortly) on the
iconography of Caravaggios Louvre portrait of Wignacourt in which these
documents were featured. I also had the opportunity to come across and examine
this documentation independently in the course of my own research for the
preparation of this publication.
2. AOM 1380, f.f. 153-54 (22.6.1601).
3. AOM 1381, f. 204v (12.8.1602).
4. In addition, there are a cuff of a gauntlet (III. 798) and a pauldron lame (III.959) in
the Royal Armouries Leeds (This information was supplied by Ian Eaves.).
5. A rather similar armour in the Real Armeria, Madrid (Cat. no. A 354) is marked by
the Master MP who certainly worked in Flanders (This information was supplied
by Ian Eaves.).
6. The earliest record of Pompeo della Cesa appears in a letter of 11 October 1571 in
the Civic Armoury of Milan (J A Godoy, Emmanuel -Philbert de Savoi (1528-1580):
un portait, une armure (Genova, N.S. Vol. XXXII, 1984) p.86 (This information was
supplied by Ian Eaves.).
7. Watts, K, The Armour of the Knights of St John, Malta in Royal Armouries
Yearbook, Vol 3, 1998, pp. 29-43.
8. Boccia, L, LArmeria del Musaeo Civico Medievale di Bologna (Bramante Editrice,
Busto Arsizio - 1991), p. 66.
9. Phyrr, S, & Godoy, Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli
and his Contemporaries (New York - 1998), passim.
10. Boccia, op.cit.

400

11. National Museum of Art in Bucharest, dated to around 1620.

12-13. This information was supplied by Ian Eaves.
14. Erbach, op.cit.
16. Watts, The Armour of the Knights of St John, Malta.
17. Phyrr, S, European Helmets, 1450-1650, Treasures from the Reserve
Collection, p. 30,
18. The term casque is a somewhat ill-defined French one. In English texts it is
often (but dubiously) used to designate a burgonet that has no cheek-pieces (This
information was supplied by Ian Eaves).
19. Dal Pozzo, II, pp. 530-37, 573, 598-623, 650-67; the use of petards to open a
breach in a gate of the castle of Tripoli in 1590 is also recorded by Dal Pozo p. 319.
20. Trap in The Armoury of the Castle of Churburg, p. 127.
21.Schermerhorn, Malta of the Knights, p. 49n.
22. Ryan, The House of the Temple, p. 265
23. Franzoi, U, Armoury of the Doges Palace in Venice (Venice -1966), p. 82, fig 58d.
24. AOM 931 Vol 17. f. 27v.
25. AOM 931 Vol 21, f. 108v.
26. Boccia, p. 131.
27. AOM 950, f. 50.
28. Wackernagel, R H, & Eaves, I, The Armoury of the Castle of Churburg, 176,
29-30. AOM 220, f. 187-89.
31. AOM 931, Vol. 3, f. 261.
32. AOM 931, Vol. 3, f. 261.
33. AOM 930, f. 9v.
34. AOM 930, f. 194.
35. AOM 950, f. 160.
36. AOM 950, f. 27v.
37. Information on bayonets was kindly supplied by Graham Priest.
38. Hull, N, Building and firing a replica Mary Rose port piece in Royal Armouries
Yearbook (Great Britain - 1998), Vol. 3, p. 57.
39. Freller , T, The Cavaliers Tour and Malta (Malta - 1998), p. 111.
40. Information on the Ximenes cannon was taken from a detailed study presented
in a still unpublished paper by Mario Farrugia.
41. AOM 979, f. 6.
42. AOM 931 Vol. 7, f. 15v.

List of Weapons mentioned in the Spogli, Spropriamenti, and Wills of

Hospitaller Knights
1. AOM 930, f. 38v; small sword (espadin) decorated in silver.
2. AOM 929, f. 8; walking cane with silver button.
3. AOM 929, f. 11v.
4. AOM 929, f. 12.
5. AOM 929, f. 19v.
6. AOM 929, f. 32; smallsword; list of weapons taken on board for caravan duties.
7. AOM 930, f. 82v.

401

8. AOM 930, f. 83v; musket and bayonet.

9. AOM 930, f. 93.
10. AOM 930, f. 107; roughly translated, musket in the manner of a blunderbuss.
11. AOM 930, f. 124v.
12. AOM 930, f. 129.
13. AOM 930, f. 138v.
14. AOM 930, f. 142v.
15. AOM 930, f. 145; vermeil dor, reddish gold.
16. AOM 930, f. 163v; foureaux, pouches, generally of leather or cloth..
17. AOM 930, f. 168v: poigne dargent, silver handles or hilts.
18. AOM 930, f. 194
19. AOM 930, f. 264
20. AOM 930, f. 265v.
21. AOM 930, f. 389v.
22. AOM 930, f. 407.
23. AOM 930, f. 408v.
24. AOM 930, f. 431.
25. AOM 930, f. 454.
26. AOM 930, f. 46; cuivre dore, gilded copper or brass..
27. AOM 921, f. 71.
28. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 5.
29. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 7; para di pistole da sparare due volte, pair of doublebarrelled pistols.
30. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 9v: soffioni di bocca larga, blunderbusses.
31. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 14v.
32. AOM 931,Vol. 30, ff. 22 & 29; una mazza ferrata, metal mace.
33. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 36-36v; centurion, belt.
34. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 47.
35. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 52.
36. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 58
37. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 82-3.
38. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 88.
39. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 92.
40. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 106v.
41. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 118.
42. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 152.
43. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 154.
44. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 167; carrubini, carbines.
45. AOM 931,Vol. 30, f. 175 - v; cimitarre, scimitars.
46.AOM 931,Vol. 29, f. 33v
47. AOM 931,Vol. 29, f. 60.
48. AOM 931,Vol. 29, f. 103.
49. AOM 931,Vol. 29, f. 105 -107.
50. AOM 931,Vol. 29, f. 124.
51. AOM 931,Vol. 29, f. 139-v.
52. AOM 931,Vol. 29, f. 149v.
53. AOM 931 vol 24, f. 13.
54. AOM 931,Vol. 24, ff. 30, 41v.
55. AOM 931,Vol. 24, f. 143.
56.AOM 931, Vol 23, ff. 2-30 (no date c.1711 f.21).

402

57. AOM 931, Vol 23, f. 42; epe uze , used sword, scinturon, sword-belt.
58. AOM 931, Vol 23, f 106 (vieux = old).
59. AOM 931, Vol 23, f. 147.
60. AOM 931, Vol 23, f. 149.
61. AOM 931, Vol 23, f. 172.
62. AOM 931, Vol 23, f. 192v.
63. AOM 931, Vol 22 f. 143 & f.147v.
64. AOM 931, Vol 21, f. 91.
65. AOM 931, Vol 21, f. 95.
66. AOM 931, Vol 21, f. 108 (no date); targue couvert de cuivre rouge, shield
covered with red copper; bandouliere, bandolier.
67. AOM 931, Vol 20, f. 44.
68. AOM 931, Vol 20, f. 86v (no date but c.1741); pistolets a deux coups, doublebarrelled pistols.
69. AOM 931, Vol 20, f. 96v.
70. AOM 931, Vol 18, f. 164v.
71. AOM 931, Vol 19, f. 16v.
72. AOM 931, Vol 19, f. 66 (no date but c. 1773 - died in Marsaille).
73. AOM 931, Vol 19, f. 104-5; epe dacier dore, sword of gilded steel.
74. AOM 931, Vol.17, f. 9.
75. AOM 931, Vol.17, f. 27v.
76. AOM 931, Vol.16, f. 87 (no date but c. 1690).
77. AOM 931, Vol 16, f. 106.
78. AOM 931, Vol.17, f. 112v.
79. AOM 931, Vol 15, f. 17.
80. AOM 931, Vol 15, f. 29.
81. AOM 931, Vol 15, f. 45.
82. AOM 931, Vol 14, f. 35v.
83. AOM 931, Vol 14, f. 65; plastron, shirt front.
84. AOM 931, Vol 13, ff. 5 -7.
85. AOM 931, Vol 13, f. 10 (no date but c.1676); espada de plata, silver sword.
86. AOM 931, Vol 13, f. 20.
87. AOM 931, Vol 13, f. 82; petite pistollet de poch, small pocket pistol.
88. AOM 931, Vol 13, f. 101.
89. AOM 931, Vol 12 , f. 3a.
90. AOM 931, Vol 10, f. 48.
91. AOM 931, Vol 10, f. 57 .
92. AOM 931, Vol 10, f. 174; escopeta, musket.
93. AOM 931, Vol 9, f. 61; cartuchera, cartridge pouch.
94. AOM 931, Vol 9, f. 76.
95. AOM 931, Vol 9, f. 140.
96. AOM 931, Vol 8, f. 46.
97. AOM 931, Vol 8, f.61.
98.AOM 931, Vol 8, f. 158.
99. AOM 931, Vol 8, f. 163.
100. AOM 931, Vol 7, f. 10.
101. AOM 931, Vol 7, f. 15v.
102. AOM 931, Vol 4, f. 54.
103. AOM 931, Vol 4, f. 52.
104. AOM 931, Vol 5, f. 160.

403

105. AOM 931, Vol 5, f. 201.

106. AOM 931, Vol 6, f. 4.
107. AOM 931, Vol 6, f. 72.
108. AOM 931, Vol 1, f. 31; un peto de hierro, iron breastplate, dos bolsas para las
cargas, two cartridge bags, una calabara para beber, a drinking flask.
109. AOM 931, Vol 1, f. 60.
110. AOM 931, Vol 2, f. 93; un Arcabuz pequeno, a small archibus.
111. AOM 931, Vol 3, f. 7.
112. AOM 931, Vol 3, f. 261.
113. AOM 931, Vol 3, f. 307.
114. AOM 931, Vol 3, f. 309.
115. AOM 950, passim.
116. AOM 924, ff. 8v-11.
117. AOM 742, ff. 6-13.

404

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