Maggiore. When account is taken of the fact that there were so many Italian armourers working in France at the same time, there will seem to be nothing out of the way in a suit of armour made in France being stamped with devices bearing an Italian character; but one could never admit that a German suit of armour was stamped in such a manner. The stamps found on the New York suit are to be seen on the salade, on the gorget plate of the bevor, and on the back of the right pauldron. On the salade there are three marks placed in a triangle—a purely Italian method of stamping. The upper one is partly effaced, but the two lower ones are formed of the letters B, G, or B, C—possibly even B, O, since the second letter is not very legible—surmounted by a cross with two feet, which are inclined towards each other like a compass. This is the type of many Milanese stamps of the XVth century. The stamp on the gorget is also made up of three, placed triangularly and unfortunately very much effaced. The upper one consists in one or two letters surmounted by a crown; and the two lower ones are made up of two letters that appear to be I and A, surmounted by a cross.
But the most interesting mark to examine is that on the pauldron; for this is also found upon two pieces that formerly belonged to the Royal House of France, on a chanfron also in the Dino Collection (see Chapter XXII) which belonged to Henry II when Dauphin, and on the poitrel of the horse armour of that suit made for Louis XIII now in the Artillery Museum. The mark in question is composed of a globe surmounted by a cross on which can be read in Italian Gothic characters the words, Rom Rom. How comes it about that the same mark is found on a late XVth century suit, on a chanfron of 1539, and on a Louis XIII horse armament? Both in shape and craftsmanship the chanfron of Henry II has quite the character of the work of the end of the XVth century. It may therefore be surmised that under Louis XIII the armourer's art had so deteriorated that an armourer of the time who wanted to put forward a fine example might conceivably prefer to make use of a bard already existing in the Royal Arsenal of the Louvre, merely enriching it with decorations in order to make it conform to the fashion of the day. It is otherwise difficult to imagine that an armourer of the reign of Louis XIII should have used as a stamp a mark in Italian Gothic letters.
If we were desirous of entering the field of conjecture we might let ourselves recognize in the stamp I A on the bevor of the suit under discussion the mark of Jacobino Ayroldo, in the B, C, of the salade the
