Volume 1: European Armour is the first catalog to offer a comprehensive inventory of this substantial and historically significant collection in more than one hundred years. Among the highlights of the collection are imposing sets of Greenwich armor created in the sixteenth century for Henry VIII and Sir Christopher Hatton; an exceptionally beautiful set of armor created in the early seventeenth century for Henry, Prince of Wales; and an ornate field garniture belonging to Julius, Duke of Brunswick, a fine example of armor in the continental style. In addition to fresh research, the book features more than five hundred new photographs that provide clear front, back, and side views, as well as close-ups of ornamentation, maker's marks, and other features for the most important pieces. The book also includes full resources for further study, including two essays giving a broad overview of the history of the collection; specially commissioned reconstruction drawings of important Greenwich garnitures, including lost pieces; a glossary of important terms; and an index, appendix, and bibliography.

Armor and weaponry were central to Islamic culture not only as a means of conquest and the spread of the faith, but also as symbols of status, wealth, and power. The finest arms were made by master craftsmen working with the leading designers, goldsmiths, and jewelers, whose work transformed utilitarian military equipment into courtly works of art. This book reveals the diversity and artistic quality of one of the most important and encyclopedic collections of its kind in the West. The Metropolitan Museum's holdings span ten centuries and include representative pieces from almost every Islamic culture from Spain to the Caucasus. The collection includes rare early works, among them the oldest documented Islamic sword, and is rich in helmets and body armor, decorated with calligraphy and arabesques, that were worn in Iran and Anatolia in the late fifteenth century. Other masterpieces include a jeweled short sword (yatagan) with a blade of "watered" steel that comes from the court of Süleyman the Magnificent, a seventeenth-century gold-inlaid armor associated with Shah Jahan, and two gold-inlaid flintlock firearms belonging to the guard of Tipu Sultan of Mysore. Presenting 126 objects, each handsomely photographed and richly documented with a detailed description and discussion of its technical, historical, and artistic importance, this overview of the Met's holdings is supplemented by an introductory essay on the formation of the collection, and appendixes on iconography and on Turkman-style armor.

The re-creation of classically inspired armor is invariably associated with Filippo Negroli, the most innovative and celebrated of the renowned armorers of Milan.