Decorated Great Siege armours for the Hospitaller Knights at the Palace Armoury Museum, Valletta

摘要

The collection of arms and Armour at the Palace Armoury Museumudin Valletta represents the Hospitallers' military adaptations duringudthe path of warfare in history and their artistic tastes. Particularlyudinteresting are the mid-sixteenth century Armours, frequentlyudtermed the "Great Siege Armours". The latter bear intricate designsudof decorations that speak a Mannerist artistic language, inherited byudthe Italian Renaissance. This language, one may perhaps add, wasudinternational and spread from Northern Italy and Southern Germanyudthroughout Europe, manifesting itself in the emergence of differentudschools of armourers and decorators.udThe present collection was first catalogued by Sir G. F. Laking inud1903. Laking categorised and attributed several pieces and harnesses,udand he was to remain the only scholar to research these valuableuditems until 1969. In 1969 the UNESCO sent two Polish experts toudstudy and inventory the arms and armours within the collection. Z.udZygulsky and A. Czerwinsky worked on an extensive and very importantudinventory between 25 January and 7 February 1969. Unfortunately,udthe work carried out by the Polish experts lost much ofitsudvalidity in 1975 when the armoury was moved to what were once theudPalace's stables. The UNESCO experts had organised and cataloguedudeach item, inventorizing portions, measurements and case numbers.udHence, the items had to be re-ordered. For a more academic study onudthe collection of arms and armour, and Hospitaller military organisation,udthe most recent study was that carried out by S. C. Spiteri inud2003. As for the decorations and methods of identification of HospitallerudGreat Siege Armours, the most important work was recentlyudcarried out by K. Watts. The latter is the curator of Art and Armourudat the Royal Armouries of Leeds.