A Study of the Palace Armoury it Collection, and the Military Storehou e of the H pitaller Knight of the 0 rder of St John 0 Stephen C Spiteri Mid ea Book in associat ion with Fondazzjoni W irt Artna ArmolllY 0/ fhe Knighfs ha been re earched, wrillen. and desgned by tephen C piteri. Contact addr : PO Box 460. Vallella CMR 01, Malta G e-mail: sspiteri maltaneLnet ORMIFDDZ © Copyright tephen C piteri 2003 o part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any foml or by any means. electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwi e, without the previous written permis ion of the author. AI7lIOIIIY offhe Knighfs was first published as 77le Palace ArmolllY -A SflIdy 0/ a MilifOlY STOrehollse o/fhe Knighfs o/fhe Order O/Sf John in 1999. Al7llOlIry of fhe Knighfs has been published by Mid. ea Books Ltd in association with Fondazzjoni Wirt Anna and printed by Gutenberg Press Ltd, Tarxien. ISB 99932-39-33-X (hardback) ISB 99932-3945-3 (paperback) This book i al 0 available on CD-ROM (PDF format) in limited edition. (I B 99932-64-0-6). Ofh er books by fhe same OIahor; Discovering fhe FOrTijicOfions 0/ fhe Kllighfs 0/ Sf. Jolm ill Malia The Knighfs' FonijicOfions The Brifish FOrTifiCaTions Forfl't!s es 0/ fhe Cross: HospilOller MililOl)' Arr:hifecfllI't!. 1136-1798 Brifish MilifOlY Archifecml't! ill MallO The FOllgasse: The Sfolle MolUu' o/MallO Fonresses o/fhe Knighfs 111 our halls is hung Armoury of the invincible knights of old' WillianWords\\Onb(l 07) For Iy Parents, Marlene and Joe, and my wife ifarthy Annolll), of the Knights is a second, revised, and expanded edition of The Palace Annollry - A Stlldy of a Milito!), Storehouse of tlte Knights of the Order of St John first published in 1999 and sponsored by the Farsons Foundation. Coot EJ1t s Introduction 5 fure~~ 6 Preface 9 Origins of the Palace Annoury 17 The Knights of Malta 47 A 'Sala d' Anni' in the Grand Master's Palace 75 A Profu ion of Amlouries in the 18th Century 119 The Organizational Framework 141 Artillery Stores & Gunpowder Magazines 163 The Development & Layout of the Palace AmlOUry 183 From Annoury to Mu eum 20 I The ollection of Ann &Annour 229 el ctive Record of the ollection of Arm. & Ann ur 273 ppel/dix Li t of Weapons mentioned in the pogli, propriamenLi. and Wills of Hospitaller Knights 359 Laking's 'Catalogue of the Armour & rill in the Annoury of the Knight of t John of Jeru alem.· 369 Glossary of Arm & Armour 383 References & otes 389 Bibliography 405 I n t rO OU ct i 01 It wa with great pleasure that I accepted to write thi forward to tephen C Spiteri's excellent new work on the ubject of the historic annouries in Mal tao Bei ng myself an aficionado of m iIi tary history albei t better versed in periods more modern than that covered by thi book, I can very well appreciate theeruditeness by which it has been both researched and written. I consider mysel f to have been singularly pri vileged to witness its long and meticulous gestation. Throughout this period I ha e enjoyed many great hours spent in regular discourse on the subject with Spiteri. This has not only enlightened meon a subject which I was soon to realize how little I knew abou t; it has also made me more conscious to the u niq ueness and at the same time the fmgi Ii ty of our national armoury collection. As is to be seen in this book, the contents of our national armoury collection, most of which isba edatthePalaceArmouryMu eum are indeed ome of the fine t example of their kind. Many were made by the able r of ma tel of the tmde for the noble t and riche t oftheirtime. Contained in thi mas ive treasure collection are great work ofartthatcertainlycompare well with any of our preciou canva e by great and famou master uch a Caravaggio, Preti, and Favray. Yet, for officialdom, in particular, thi collection tillremain anendle ourceofconvenientobjelsd·arltoline up corridors and stately halls in our gmnd public building . Thi false pmctice to gothicize the interior of our public building transcend from our fonner colonial masters. It is foreign and certainly hold no historic water with us. In my opinion, this great work by Spiteri should not only serve to trace the history 0 f this co llecti on and document its contents for the readers to enjoy and students to better understand. Itshould also serve to make us aware of the great needs that exist in the long-term preservation of this great historical collection. It also oughtto gal anize the will to take timely action to ascertain that this unique treasure house is guaranteed a ecure future through better management and ongoing conservation. Mario Farrugia Executive Dircctor FW, 23.ll.03 FcreNcrd A considerable number of young Maltese re earchers 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 stiU 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 illu tration of the treal ures bequeatiled to us by our forebears and our erstwhile ruler , in connection with our military defence. His specialization has not, however, narrowed in scope. Hi. book. about our fortification ha e become to be con idered clal . ics oflheir kind, altracting encomium in Iheir re iew b the pecialized learned journals. On the other hand he has n Ire lri led his .Iudie 10 the mo.t. pecla ularly beautiful and ingenious ba ·tion built by Ihe Knight of aint John around Valletta and the Thrce itie. He ha el hi gaze n the later British Fortifications in the rth r the I land and scrupulou.ly described every redoubt, tower, and fort throughout the I land. He ha even made researching pilgrimages to the fortification erected by the Ho pitaller before they came to Malta. Spiteri has also focused on the study of arnlOur and in particular on tile Armoury. This book i a result of his labours in the closest possible position, and contains a great deal of original research into the vicissitudes of tile Armoury as an institution, as weU as an invaluable study of many of tile individual items. Spiteri s work has the attractive trait of not only providing material for the experts in the particular discipline, further reinforcing in tilis way his standing as a recognized authority. but of interesting and intriguing aU 'lay' lovers of our history. For this study sheds light, from a certain angle but given the times and circumslances, an extremely relevant angle, on our Island ' history and tile history of the Order. The hi lOry of Malta and Gozo during the years 1530- 1798 is perhaps unique. We were governed by a religious Order of Hospitaller\warrior knight , with a tanding arnlY and a neet fitted out not only to defend but al 0 to police the eas around us. We acqui red on of the largest and be t equipped hospilal a well nigh impregnable line of 6 fortificati n encircling our citie , a university, and a et of u tom-mad 'Municipal Laws'. We as a nation were ometime hard put but never completely removed from some ay in the running of our country; in actual fact most of the civil ser ants, judge . doctors. urgeon ,and officer. in the Army and Navy w re Maltese. We acquired a pennanent a ern lage of young and no longer young ari tocrat Fr m all over Europe, e selllially trying to tind a justification for their Ii e in the ideal of defending from here th whole of hristendom. ome of course made a nuisance ofthemselve and betrayed their vows. Taking on an overalJ view. there i no denying the fact that we began in 1530 a history of separate and independent political exi tenee. That we are today an independent republic governed from within owes much to the events following 1530 and our severanee 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 amlour has, therefore, become symbolic as well as emblematic. It was not, howe er, merely decorative or ceremonial. The regalia in ow' Armoury at the Palace but a fraction of what we mu. t have had, and what Stephen Spiteri now discovers to have actually had, are not simply shown together as a museum collection: the are in all en. es the real thing: the re ource entre for the armed defence of our country in time. gone by. It speaks eloquently for the fa t thatlhe Order saw in the defence of Malta the raisoll d'elre of their existen e that tll Grandma. ters hould have lodged the annoury within their own re idential palace. tephen piteri's new opus is thu a contribution toward. the beller understanding of our history. It i al 0 more. It draw allention to the state ofpreservation of the treasure in th Annoury. We of thi generation have an obI igation, to preserve. to maintain. to study. to exhibit for the purpose of education, to exhibit for interest in leisure time. The Armoury attracts nol only Maltese but also visitor from abroad. Stephen Spiteri's 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. go Mif ud Bonnici Praace !4 cloistel' witholll a libl'{//Y is like a castle lI'itholll all al'mowy, Fol' the libl'{I/y is 0111' al'mollry' Geoffrey de & ..e uil ( 1165) In his introduction to J F Verbruggen's The Art of Warfare ill Western Europe during the Middle Ages, Manhew Bennen 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 Annoury from the day it was first e tabli hed as a mu eum way back in 1860 ha been an unfamiliarity with it hi. torical p~ t; a situation that hru condemned it to the lalU of a gallery of curio itie ever since. This inability t depict the rmoury beyond the c mmon notion ofa mere antiquarian collection tem primarily from an a toni hing lack of hi. torical research. Until very recently. no seriou efr It wa ever hanneled toward, understanding the real significance of the Pala e Annoury. Basic que ti n of when and how thi Aml0ury was set up. of how it wa administered and equi pped with weapons. and of how it functioned and developed within the overall Hospitaller military organization were ne er ever raised, let alone answered. As a result. the whole corplls of knowledge on this subject remained dependent on a few isolated facts draped in much speculation and myth. Throughout the Annoury s 140 years as a museum, there was only one attempt to make a scholarly analysis. And iliat was nearly a century ago when Lord Grenfell, Governor of Malta, called in Guy Francis Laking (then one of the world's leading experts on anns and annour) to study and evaluate the collection. The lasting product of Laking' brief intervention wa his publication but this, conceived as a catalogue, wa mainly concerned with the description of the mo t notable items in tile ollection and aid practically nothing at all on the hi. tory of the Annoury it elf. Its purely d~ criptive approa h, based largely on tylistic compari. on . may ha e then been pennissiblc in the field of tudy of aml and annour, but it did no ju tice to the historicity of the Palace mloury. F r the nnoury collection i not 9