sometime in the 1570s. As an edifice which also served as the seat of the Order’s government, situated as it was in the heart of the new fortified city of Valletta, the Palace was well-suited to allow the knights direct central control over all their military hardware, an important formula for any autocratic government ruling over an alienated population. Establishing depositories of weapons within palatial buildings was a common enough practice; a comparable entity being the armoury in the palace of the Doge in Venice. Factually, however, this was not the case in late-16th century Valletta. Records dating to the second half of the 1500s refer repeatedly to an ‘Armeria Pubblica’ and show that this was then not located within the magistral palace. The term ‘Armeria Pubblica’ was used by the Order to refer to the central storage place for militia weapons, ‘la custodia dell’armi del pubblico.’ A good description of such a depository is given by Bosio who states that around 1566 the ‘Armeria Pubblica’ was accomodata in ‘certi Saloni (in Birgu) si che fra l’arme comprate da soladati, e le altre, che s’erano fatte venire dopo l’assedio in più volte’ and was ‘ben fornita.’ 84a By the late 1500s the ‘Armeria Pubblica’ was actually located in a building bordering Piazza San Giorgio opposite the palace itself. It was Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt who transferred the armoury from its building adjoining the Corpo di Guardia into the palace in 1604. In its stead, Wignacourt placed the chancery of the Order and the building came to be known from then onwards as the Cancelleria. A marble plaque set over the main door of the Cancelleria records the event: AN. DNI MDCIIII F. ALOFIO VIGNACOVRT M.MAGISTRO QVI INTER BELLORVM CURAS CIVILES NON OMNITTENS AD COMMODIORA LOCA QUIPPE IN PALATIUM ARMA PUBLICA ACTA CANCELLARIE HVC TRANSVLIT VELVT OPTIMO PRINCIPI AD VTRUNQ SUMMO STVDIO INCVMBENTI VT RESP. ET ARMIS DEC= RATA ET LEGIBVS SIT SEMPER ARMATA ORDO HIEROSOLYMITANVS DVM PAREM GRATIAM REFER= RE NEQVIT PERPETVAM FELICITATEM EXOPTAT(AE) Roughly translated it reads ‘To the G.M. Alof Wignacourt who, mindful both of his civil duties and his military concerns, removed to a more suitable place, that is to the Palace, the Public Armoury, and brought here the records of the Chancery. To the excellent Prince who took the greatest care that the country should be always arrayed with arms and armed with laws, the Order of Jerusalem unable to adequately express the gratitude can only wish him perpetual happiness.’ 85 The transfer of the main armoury into the Palace was only but one of the many military reforms implemented by Grand Master Wignacourt during his reign. When seen together with the reorganization of the coastal militia, involving the introduction of coastal towers, the regulation
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