The Pubblica Armeria was amply restocked, when still located at Birgu or Fort St Angelo, by the knight Frà Giovanni Soubrian Arisat, commander of artillery in 1566. According to Bosio, Arisat was commissioned by the Council to buy any weapons off the thousands of Spanish, Italian, and German troops that were brought to Malta during the construction of the fortress of Valletta, in order to add these to other weapons bought from abroad ‘dopo l’assedio in più volte.’ Those soldiers who were inclined to ‘vender l’arme loro, come picche, e Alabarde, corsaletti, o morioni e gli archibusi; fu per minor interesso e danno loro, data questa commodita, che le dette arme a nome della Religione ricomperate furono, per il medesimo prezzo che gli erano state date.’ 46a In this way the commander of artillery was able to establish a ‘buonissima munitione, e restauro, e rimesse benissimo in Ordine l’Armeria Pubblica.’ Dal Pozzo records that in 1598 Grand Master Garzes ordered that 1,000 ‘sciopi sive archibusij’ be issued from the ‘Armeria Pubblica’ 47to be sent to arm the Papal expeditionary force in Hungary, ‘...facendo a Sua Santità libero dono.’ 48 Although at first such a gesture might tend to imply that the Order’s armoury was well equipped with weapons to enable such a donation, a closer look at the official correspondence between Grand Master Garzes and the Pope shows quite the opposite! Actually, the Order of St John was then in no position to donate any weapons at all, particularly firearms. The Order had then only ‘tre mila archibuggi ritrovati nella Armeria’ and in order to satisfy the Pope’s request its stock of weapons was reduced even further.48a After his election, Grand Master Garzes had found that the provision of weapons had been neglected (‘provisione ordinaria di mediocre quantità’) and had consequently given instructions for 4,000 muskets to be purchased
Detail from the map of Valletta made by Francesco dell’Antella, published in 1602 in Giacomo Bosio’s ‘History of the Order of St John’, showing a building in Strada Stretta (No.39) marked as the ‘Armeria’. Although this plan was published in 1602 it is actually based on D’Aleccio’s earlier map of Valletta and, therefore, still shows the layout of the city around 1582.
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