A Brief History of the Armoury in the Palace of the Grand Masters, Valletta
by Stephen C. Spiteri
One of the most important aspects of the Grand Masters' Palace throughout the larger part of its history as a magistral residence, was its role as the seat of the Order’s government, both civil and military. Situated in the heart of the fortified city of Valletta, this solidly built and sombre enclosure, reminiscent of a castral keep, was well sited to allow the Knights direct central control over the city.
Its role as a
martial headquarters was particularly accentuated by the presence of a
sizeable sala d’armi within one wing of the building - a huge central
depository of arms and armour, capable of equipping the Order’s armed
forces with the weapons necessary for war.
The presence of this military storehouse within the
confines of the palatial complex was, however, not a feature that was
built into the design of the building as laid out by its 16th century
builders. The 'Armeria' was
only established inside the Palace by Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt in
1604, after he removed it from another building in Valletta then known as
the Pubblica Armeria, situated in Piazza San Giorgio. This move was but
one of the many military reforms implemented during Wignacourt's reign in
an attempt to introduce a more effective control over the Order’s
military resources at a time when the island had begun once again to
attract the attention of the Turks.
Once inside the Palace, however, the armoury no
longer remained simply a prosaic storehouse but quickly began to assume
the character of a showpiece reflecting the military power and glory of
the Order, capturing the attention and imagination of many a distinguished
visitor to Malta. Although
still primarily a functional depository of weapons, it also began to
acquire the qualities of an antiquarian collection and as such, became an
instrument of propaganda exalting the Order’s heroic past. That the
armoury had acquired this new role shortly after its transfer is well
attested by Count George Albrecht of Erbach’s description following his
visit to Malta in 1617. In his account, Erbach records how the German knights made it
a point to show off the armoury to their distinguished guests,
particularly the armour worn by various grand masters in battle, which was
hung up on the walls amidst portraits of the grand masters themselves,
together with the impressive mass of arms and armour.
Count Erbach’s account of his tour of the 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. Initially,
however, it does not appears that this hall formed part of the original
building designed by Gerolamo Cassar. Depictions of the palace in late
16th century plans of Valletta, such as that by Matthaus Merian, distinctly show the palace with only one ground floor block
along Strada San Giacomo
(Merchant’s street) - the Cavallerizza.
It is not yet clear when the armoury hall was acttually added on to
the Palace, and whether or not it was purposely erected to house an
armoury. What is evident, is
that the large sala d’armi
bears no direct relationship to the rest of the building. Its floor level,
for example, rests on a
considerably higher plane that 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.
A plan of the Palace Armoury found in the National
Library of Malta shows that right until the early 18th century the
relationship between the armoury and the palace was much different from
that with which we are familiar today.
Initially, the entrance into the storehouse was approached directly
from the upper courtyard through a corpo
di guardia and up a
flight of steps. Internally,
there was no direct link between the Armoury hall and the Palace.
According to Agius de Soldanis, it was actually Grand Master Pinto who
established such a connection, ...
lo uni con la Armeria. This
work may have been undertaken by Balì
Rene Jacques de Tignè, the Commissioner of Fortifications and a
competent military engineer in his own right, for
in 1767, he was paid 150 scudi
for having supervised the works per rimettere detta Armeria (la Sala d'armi della Città Valletta).
It is not known, however, what the works alluded to in this entry actually
consisted of but the sum of 150 scudi
(practically a year's wages) suggests that these were not insignificant.
Nor is it certain, either, if this entry is actually referring to the
Palace Armoury or to one of the other secondary armouries in Valletta,
such as the Falconeria or St. James Cavalier, for the title Sala
d'Armi della Città Valletta is an ambiguous one and has not been
encountered in other documents. If
it really does refer to the Palace Armoury then it could explain when the
new baroque portal at the main entrance to the Armoury was constructed.
Still, historians tend to ascribe the design of this portal to the Italian
architect Roman Carapecchia, albeit on stylistic grounds alone. 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 Balì de Tignè's involvement. Even so, the portal
retains the original wooden doors with cresent-shaped brass knockers,
leaving little doubt as to the fact that the Armeria
owed its new look to Grand Master Pinto de Fonseca, who reigned from 1743
until 1773. So does the large painted escutcheon bearing his arms on the
ceiling immediately above the portal.
Of an elaborate baroque design with fluted pilasters and ionic capitals, and surmounted by an entablature and scrolled pediment, the Armoury portal bears a niche with the bust of Flaminio Balbiani, Grand Prior of Italy. This is inscribed with the year 1663, and clearly belonged to some earlier arrangement. It may have actually surmounted the old entrance into the hall when this was still approached through the corpo di guardia from the courtyard. The connection between Balbiani and the armoury has yet to be figured out. 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.
In 1714, French military advisors visiting the island
remarked that the Knights had the habit of referring to the salle
d’armes 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. Strictly speaking, the Palace Armoury was simply a sala
d’armi set aside for the storage of arms. For a long while
throughout the 20th century, the Palace Armoury was incorrectly described
as an Armeria di Rispetto, since
this title means a reserve armoury and this was a designation which was
never applied to it. This misinterpretation was mainly due to a literal
translation of the term into
'Armoury of Honour ' undoubtedly influenced by the notion, then widely
held, that the Palace Armoury had always been simply a showpiece. As
a matter of fact, in all the original documents that have been unearthed
to-date which deal with the Order’s 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.
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 Order’s
documents speak also of an adjoining salette, or salleta minore which was in use throughout most of the 17th century.
It is best described in a French account of 1679 as
un supplément de la grande, ou
dans un pareil ordre se voyent encore 6000 Mousquet, autant de
bandouilliers, deux mille casques & autant de cuirasses. Its
precise location is not revealed by documents
but it appears that this was located in a room later converted into the
grand staircase leading up to the armoury during the British
administration. In 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 in
a Saletta Piccola, che sta
congiunta con la sala grande delle armi inside the Palace. Until then,
the muskets of the Lascaris foundation were housed in another building
adjoining the Casa della Zecca.
Abutting the main hall of the Palace Armoury was also a small armourers’ workshop, the so-called Ufficina dell’Armeria. (12) In this workshop laboured a handful of armourers, skilled-labourers and, occasionally, even slaves, all under the direction of the Capomastro del Armeria. The Ufficina was generally well equipped with all outils du métier that enabled the armourers not only to clean weapons with olio e smeriglio, but also to repair and assemble muskets, pistols and armi bianche. The armieri, together with the Sala d'armi, came under the direct control of the Commander of Artillery, a senior knight of the Order. Many an illustrious knight occupied this position through the centuries though only one of those known to have held this post appears to have ever made it to the magistracy - Frà 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 the renowned Frà Luca d’Argence, went on to serve for longer periods.
The Storage of
Arms and Armour
As a military storehouse, there were very few
technical features which distinguished the armoury from the other rooms in
the Palace. An important requisite, apart for a large storage area,
was a damp-proof environment necessary
for the preservation of weapons. This was conveniently achieved by placing
the armoury on the first floor. The
other basic requirement for any sala
d’armi were the racks or cupboards required for the storage of arms.
At the Armoury, wooden racks, referred to as gabioni,
were placed in four long rows running nearly all along the length of the
gallery. Others were fixed onto the walls. The gabioni were some 4 metres high and held various shelves and pegs on
which were hung, or laid, muskets and swords. The polearms were placed in
rows along the walls of the gallery.
The old antique arms and armour, on the other hand,
were mostly displayed along the walls in a series of 24 trophies-of-arms. Others were either placed sopra
li cornicioni that ran along the top part of the walls or fixed to the
large wooden ceiling beams, while a few small cannon, the leather gun, a
number of grenade-throwing mortars and some harnesses were displayed in piazze
throughout the gallery.
A detailed inventory, drawn up by the Knight St.
Felix, Commander of Artillery in 1785, gives a unique insight into the
actual contents of the Armoury and the manner in which these were laid
out. In essence, the Palace
Armoury was divided informally into two sections with the antique items
mostly displayed along the walls and the munitions weapons stacked in
racks in the centre. The
latter took up the greater part of the hall and contained 16,112
Brass-furnished muskets (fucili di munizione nei gabioni guarniti in ottone),
1,188 iron-furnished muskets, 643
officers’ muskets, 491 carabines, 2
hand-held blunderbusses (Tromboni a
mano), 21 heavy blunderbusses
(a cavaletto), 1,050pistols,
357 Bajonette di rispetto and
126 bullet moulds
(Battipalle) .
The
antique arms and armour were displayed in the following manner:
A:
Items displayed above cornice moulding and on ceiling beams.
131
Corsaletti sopra li travi and another 123
sopra li cornicioni, 124 Casche,
e morioni forti (helmets & morions),
123 Picche, ed alabarde, 429
Spade alla Spagnola, 11 Rondaccie (intorno i due
retratti) 284 Bajonette (nei
cornici) and 242 Pistole
diverse.
B:
Trophies-of-arms.
Dietro il Sole sul ritratto Wignacourt
1
Balestra, 1 Spada alla Spagnola
and 2 Canonetti di Bronzo.
Dietro
il Sole sul ritratto in fondo
2
Balestre, 1 Spada alla Spagniola and 2
Mortaretti di ferro per granate.
Trofeo
sul cornicione
vicino il garnicolo
1
Rondoccia, 2 Pistole, 6 Picche, 2
Sciabole and a Mezzo corsaletto.
In
Seguito
1
Rondaccia, 2 Pistole, 5 Picche, ed
alabarde, 2 Sciabole, 1
Fucile di Spoglio and a Mezzo
corsaletto.
In
seguito
1
Rondaccia di ferro, 1 Mezzocorsaletto,
2 Sciabole, 6 Spuntoni and
2 Fucili di Spoglio.
In
seguito
1
Corsaletto, 1 Rondaccia di ferro,1 Balestra,
1 Pistola, 2
Sciabole and 20 Picche, e spuntoni.
Primo
Trofeo sulla piccola porta
nell’ingresso
2
Corsaletti, 6 Picche, e spuntoni,
8 Sciabole, 2 Pistole, 2 Balestre, 2
Fucili de Spoglio,
1 Canna di fucile, and
a guardareni da Cavallo
45 Pistole in
giro della porta
Trofeo in
seguito
2
Corsaletti, 6 Spuntoni, 3 Pistole, 10 Sciabole, 2
Balestre, 1 Fucile di spoglio,
1 Canna de fucili and
a guardareni da cavallo
Trofeo sulla
porta di Palazzo
9
Spuntoni, 3 Spade, 14 Sciabole, 5 Balestre, 1
Mezzarmatura, 1
Corsaletto, 6
Pistole, 5 Fucili di
Spoglio
and a guardareni di Cavallo
40 Pistole in giro della porta
In seguito
2
Corsaletti, 6 Spuntoni, 1 Canna di fucile, 3 Pistole, 2
Fucili di Spoglio, 2 Balestre, 10 Sciabole and a Guardareni da
Cavallo
In seguito
2
Corsaletti, 6 Spuntoni, 1 Canna di fucile, 2 Pistole, 2
Fucile de Spoglio, 2 Balestre,
11 Sciabole and a
guardareni da cavallo
Trofeo in
seguito
1
Corsaletto,
6 Spuntoni, 1 canna di fucile, 1
pistola and 2
Sciabole
Intorno al
quadro in fondo,
e sulla guadarbrobe
2
Corsaletti, 2 Canonetti di ferro,
1 Mortaretto di ferro per
granate, 20 Spuntoni, 5 Pistole,
9 (?) canne di fucili, 2 Fucili di Spogli, 1 Spadone, 1
Rondaccia, 1 Mezzarmatura, 3
Sciabole and a Balestra
In seguito
2
Corsaletti, 4 Pistole, 7 Sciabole, 2 Fucili di Spoglio,
1 Canna di fucile, 6
Spuntoni
and 4 Mortaretti di ferro
per granate
Trofeo in
seguito
2
Corsaletti, 10 Sciabole,
9 Pistole, 2
Fucili di spoglio, 6 Spuntoni, 1 Canna di fucile and a
guardareni da cavallo
In seguito
2
Corsaletti, 2 Pistole, 2
Balestre, 12 Sciabole, 2 Fucili di spoglio, 6 spuntoni,
1 Canna di fucile and a
guardareni da cavallo
Trofeo sulla
porta del balcone
1
Mezzarmatura, 1 Corsaletto, 6
Pistole, 3 Balestre, 4 Fucili di Spoglio,
21 Sciabole, 1
Spada alla Spagnola, 1
Guardareni da cavallo, 1
Cocchiara di rame, 9 Spuntoni and
a Testale da Cavallo
Trofeo in
seguito
2
Corsaletti, 2 Balestre, 3 Pistole, 1 Cocchiara di rame,
9 Sciabole, 1 Fucile di Spoglio,
1 Guardareni da Cavallo, 1
Canna and 6 Spuntoni
In seguito
2
Corsaletti, 3 Pistole, 2 Balestre, 10 Sciabole, 2
Fucili di Spoglio and a
Guardareni da Cavallo
Trofeo Sotto il
ritratto Wignacourt
3
Armature, 2 mezzarmature, 44
Spuntoni, 9 Canne della goija, 2
Spingardi and a
Balestra
C. Grouped in
'piazze'.
Prima Piazza in faccia ai gabiani della piccola porta
4
Armature, 4 Spade alla Spagnola,
2 Balestre, 2 Sciabole and 16 Spuntoni
2da. Piazza
8
Armature, 4 Balestre, 4 Sciabole and 40 Spuntoni
3za. Piazza
12
(?) Armature, 4
Spadoni, 8 Spade alla Spagnola, 4
Balestre, 4 Sciabole, 4 Spingardi,
32 Spuntoni,
4 Mortaretti di ferro per
granate and
a Cannonetto di bronzo
scolpito
Various other items were then to be found at the
entrance to the armoury and in the adjoining armourers’ workshop
situated in a room adjoining the gallery itself, namely 2 Armature,
1 mezzarmatura, 203
Corsaletti, 1 cannonetto di bronzo, 1
mortaletto di ferro per granate, 18 Petti
e schinati forti, 1 labarda, 2
Rondaccie di ferro, 1 Spada alla
Spagnola, 78 Pistole
and 40 Sciabole di scarto.
Evidently, judging by the above inventory, the
collection in the Armoury today, although still a substantial one,
is nonetheless only but a pale shadow of what it was in 1785.
Any attempt to compare this list with the surviving contents,
however, presents various difficulties since the present-day collection is
in reality a combination of the remains of the munitions weapons, the dècorations
de la Salle d’armes, and many other items which came from the
secondary armouries of the Order as a result of their dissolution in the
post-1798 period. Thus, for
example, there is no mention of the hundreds of 17th century powder flasks
to be found in the collection today nor of the Venetian Schiavona.
The latter, however, together with twelve other such swords, is recorded
in the inventory of armoury in St. James Cavalier, similarly drawn up by
the St. Felix in 1785.
The list also reveals some curious items such as an arco
di legno con sua freccia, long since lost, and mentions
the Grand Master’s
own private collection of 40 hunting muskets, many of which, richly
decorated, can still be seen on display. Surprisingly, there is no
specific mention of the Turkish firearms though these were probably
included under the term fucili di
spoglio.
By the time of the capitulation of the Order in 1798,
this 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. Despite
the emphasis laid on the antique arms and armour, the inventory
nonetheless demonstrates quite clearly that the true nature of the Palace
Armoury was a military storehouse first and an antiquarian gallery second,
for the hall was primarily taken up by the thousands of munitions
firearms in store - these were the weapons necessary to equip the bulk of
the Order’s troops.
From Armoury to Museum
With
the surrender of the Order of St. John to the French in 1798 the Palace
Armoury entered into a new phase in its history. The years 1798-1800, and
the rest of the following century were, however, to prove a
period of dramatic change. By the first half of the 1800s, this vast
depository of weapons was despoiled of the
larger part of its contents.
What was left would only come to represent but a fraction of its original
splendour. Traditionally, the main cause for this predicament has been
attributed to the rapacious sacking that accompanied the French invasion,
but all evidence clearly shows that the blame for this spoliation lies
elsewhere. In 1903, Sir Guy Francis Laking’s 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 many an item going to enrich museums
abroad, the rest ending up as souvenirs in private collections. William
Reid, in his introduction to Arthur Richard Dufty’s European
Armour in the Tower of London (1968) remarks
how quantities of 16th
/17th century
'Italian munition armour ... brought from Malta ' in 1826 and
1846 made the then Tower Armouries an important centre for the study of
this type of armour.
The
haemorrhage would have continued unabated had it not been for the
propitious endeavours of three Governors -
Sir Willian Reid, Sir Gaspar Le Marchant and Lord Grenfell.
It was Reid who began the process of
rehabilitation of the Armoury by clearing away the many
British weapons which had been grafted onto the old collection and
initiated the construction of a new monumental
entrance but it is Sir
Gaspar Le Marchant (1858 to 1864), however, who is popularly accredited
with the reorganization of the Palace Armoury, since most of the work was
carried out during his tenure of office. Actually, it was the local
Superintendent of Works, in his letter of the 20th December 1858, who
actually brought the matter of the poor state of the collection to the
attention of the Governor and requested his intervention. Fortunately, Le
Marchant, himself an amateur connoisseur of antiquities, proved to be more
than sympathetic to the idea and under his own personal direction the arms
were restored and rearranged.
The system of trophies and
panoplies was retained and developed further.
Wooden mannequins were built to take the suits of armour
and many papier-mâché round shields were made to decorate the
hall with emblems of the
Langues and the coat-of-arms of Grand Masters and ornamental iron
chandeliers were introduced
to light the gallery. The
rehabilitation was over by 1860 and from then on the Armoury was opened to
the public on a regular basis.
An
important addition to the Armoury, during this period were the rows 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. When these works were over in March 1902, the Supt. of Works
was asked to take steps to cause a preliminary inventory of the articles
to be compiled. For this
task, Lord Grenfell succeeded in securing the services of the King’s
Armourer, Guy Laking, who was
then considered one of the best authorities in Europe on arms and armour.
Laking arrived in Malta in October 1902 and in the short space of
just one month worked hard to rearrange the collection. (19)
After a scrupulous selection, he chose nearly 500 items of arms and
armour and placed them in the middle of the gallery, hanging on big wooden
screens. Others he placed in showcases and the rest were returned to the
vast panoplies on the walls. He then added a number of portraits of Grand
Masters on the wooden screens amongst the armour, giving the collection,
in the words of Czerwinski and Zygulski, a strong historical accent.
Laking's new layout remained practically unaltered
until the outbreak of the Second World War, when all the contents were
removed for safe-keeping to the basement vaults and the Inquisitor’s
Palace in Girgenti. One wall of the gallery was actually damaged and had
to be rebuilt. After the War,
the Malta Armoury, as it was generally called, and its contents were
transferred to the custody of the Museums Department.
In 1969 the Maltese government sought UNESCO assistance and two experts by the name of Czerwinski
and Zygulski were sent over to help take stock of the situation and study
the conservation problems. (21) Some five years later, however, the whole
Armoury was hastily dismantled and placed in the ground floor halls that
were once the palace stables in order to make way for a new House of
Representatives. 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 splendour and dignity into the bargain. It is hoped that the
collection of arms and armour will at some future stage be returned to its
original gallery so as to ensure its historical continuity. For unlike
many a museum of arms and armour to be found around the world, the Palace
Armoury is not a mere collection of antiques, but the unique residue of a
veritable sala d’armi surviving in its original building - a rare occurrence
indeed.
.Note: All illustrations featured in this page are taken from The Palace Armoury - a study of a Military storehouse of the Knights of the Order of St. John, where they were reproduced by courtesy of the Museums Department.