The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-09-07
RECALLS THE DAY WHEN
GALLANT KNIGHTS HELD SWAY

The glamor of chivalry shines
strongest around the armor in which
the knights rode forth to rescue DAM
sells in distress, to re-conquer the
Holy Sepulchre, to turn back the
wave of infidel invasion, to ioust in
the splendors of his sovereign's
court, or to win more material adj
vantages and rewards. Collections of
noble armor there are many in ELL
rope, but none to compare, in rich
ness and completeness with that in
Madrid known as the "Armeria
Real" of Spain, which was founded
by Philip II, with the magnificent
armor accumulated by his war-like
father, the great Charles V, for his
personal use in his endless cam
paigns. Philip did more; he began
to add to this nucleus the arms and
armor of earlier periods, and his sue
cessors followed in his steps, until
the end of the 18th century, when
the manufacture of defensive armor
practically ceased, because gunpow-
der and ball had rendered it useless.
The collection was ransacked in | sos
by the populace of Madrid in search
of weapons with which to attack the
French. Napoleon's brother, Joseph,
during his brief and unstable reign
as king of Spain, removed the treas
ures of the armory to the garrets of
the palace in order to turn the hall
into a ballroom, the collection not
being returned to its proper place I'M
til the reign of Isabella II. 1t was
catalogued for the first time in 1S49.
Alfonso XII. on his accession, order
ed its complete reorganization, en-
trusting the task to Count de Valen
ella de San Juan, who prepared the
catalogue now in use in 1898. King
Alfonso added to the treasures in the
armory, and so did his widow, Queen
Regent Christina. 1t is likely that
the present king will see to it that
the prominence of the Royal Armory
of Madrid is not only maintained, but
increased.
A capital work on the armor and
arms in this collection has just been
published by Albert F. Calvert, un>
der the title of Spanish Arms and
Armour Being Historical and De
scriptive Account of the Royal Ar
moury of Madrid" The book is more
than a catalogue raisonne," con-
! tanning also brief history of arms
and armor from the days of the Ro-
man conquest of Iberia. There are
no less than $50 illustrations, of suf-
ficient size to allow of a detailed eX-
animation of the wondrous beauty
and intricacy of the engraved and en-
bossed ornamentation of royal and
knightly armor
Mr.. Calvert ascribes the promn-
ence which Spain enjoyed all through
the middle ages as a mandatory of
armor and a school of arms 20 her
meteorological richness. and, in the
second place, to her militant history
Spanish blades, he informs us, We're
already celebrated among the sol
diers of Imperial Rome: "Bibili's was
as much a name to conjure with
among the Roman warriors as was
the Bilbo among the galants and
swashbucklers of Shakespeare's day
Toledo and the sword are indissolu-
bly, associated in the literature of
arms; it is impossible to mention the
name of the city without recalling
the unchallenged excellence of the
blades it has given to the world
The armor in the Spanish museum
is of Italian and German as well as
of Spanish origin, the armorers of
of the three countries wing with
each other in combining strength and
serviceability with beauty. There
were no national schools of ar
mory, strongly differentiated since. in
the end the aim to be attained was
always the same, the maximum of
defensive and offensive efficiency. Sc
crets of construction could not be
kept, since VanquiShed mobiles
equipment became the property of
his conqueror;- hence it is extremely
difficult nowadays to classify armor
according to its origin, Spanish, Ital-
ian or German. The art was carried
to the highest perfection on the eve
of its decline, toward the end of the
10th century when cannon and guns
began to be considered legitimate
weapons, Notwithstanding the chiyal-
rous contempt for such cowardly in
struments of long distance attack by
knights like the great Bayard
Two useful plates are added to the
book by way of appendix. They IL
lustrate the technical names of the
different parts of a suit of armor-
John Lane Co.