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 s’osserva dal Com. rio della Sala dell’Armi 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 dell’armi si terrà custodito con ogni particolar attentione dal Comm.rio che ne avra il carico in un Magazeno nel quale come in una Sala d’armi si erigeranno quattro Castelli in forma di Trofei per tener separate tutte quell’armi d’ogni vassello, che averanno da servire p. la campagna, accioche nelle occorrenze ogni sargente possa trovare prontamente le armi di suo vassello p. questa sala d’armi 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.
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