THE ARMOURY AT DOGE'S PALACE IN VENICE
Recently, in my visit to Venice I had the pleasure to visit the Doge's Palace and the armoury collection.
Here are some of the weapons and armours, some taken at close range, hopefully to show details of the construction and the craftsmanship of the makers. Mainly 14th - 17th CE.
The rooms of the Armoury contain a valuable historical collection of weapons and armaments from several sources. The core of the collection is already documented as existing in the 14th century; and at the time of the Republic the Armoury, under the control of the Council of Ten, was stocked with weapons that would be readily available for the Palace’s guards. On particularly delicate or important occasions, these guards might be joined by the arsenalotti, the highly-trained workforce from the shipyards of the Arsenale (e.g. when a Doge died, all the gates to the Palace were sealed and placed under the guard of the arsenalotti). Comprising various valuable pieces, the collection of arms was partially dispersed after the fall of the Republic, but it still contains over 2000 exhibits. These include very famous examples of 15th and 16th century suits of armour, along with swords, halberds, quivers and crossbows.
All the photographs follow different categories (i.e. A, B, C,) with illustrations at the beginning of each category identifying the weapons with the exception of category X at the end.
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Category A
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Category B
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Category C
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Category D
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Category E
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Category F
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Category G
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X - Brigandine (inside)
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X - Origins and coats of arms of aristocratic Veneto families, 1476 - 1500
Y
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