Work stamped with the word “Arbois” and the crown is found at Vienna, 917, 948, and the “M” with the crescent is marked on the bard of A, 3 at Madrid, on II, 3 and II, 5, Tower of London.
[Sidenote: _Thomaso Missaglia_, Milan, _circ._ 1415-1468. Marks 27, 78.]
[Illustration: FIG. 66. Capital formerly in the Via degli Spadari, Milan.]
The family name of Thomaso and his descendants was Negroni, as is proved by a tombstone formerly in the church of San Satiro at Milan on which the two names appear. They came from the township of Missalia, near Ello, on the lake of Como. Petrajolo, the father of Thomaso, was also an armourer, and worked about the year 1390, but we have little knowledge of his history. The house occupied by the Missaglias was in the Via degli Spadari, Milan, and was decorated with the family badges and monograms (Fig. 66). It was demolished in 1901 in the course of street improvements, but was first carefully drawn and described by Sigs. Gelli and Morretti in their monograph on the Milanese armourers. The heavy work of the armourers was carried out at a mill near the Porta Romana, for which the Missaglias paid a rent of one sallad a year to the Duke of Milan. Thomaso da Missaglia was ennobled in 1435 by Philip Maria Visconti and was made free of taxes in 1450. There are many records of commissions to him and of taxes and other municipal matters connected with the family in the Archives of Milan. He died in 1469 and was buried in the church of S. Maria Beltrade, Milan. The only known work by this master is No. 2 in the Vienna Collection (Plate XXX). Baron de Cosson[144] has pointed out the strong resemblance between this suit, the effigy of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in S. Mary’s Church, Warwick, and the picture of S. George by Mantegna in the Accademia, Venice.
[Sidenote: _Antonio Missaglia_, Milan, _circ._ 1430-92. Marks 24, 25, 26.]
Antonio was the son of Thomaso Missaglia, and was one of the foremost of the Milanese armourers. As has been noticed in the Introduction, the style of armour which was evolved by him and his father seems to have been adopted by German craftsmen. There are numerous records of payments and letters connected with Antonio in the Archives of Milan from the year 1450 onwards. He worked for Galeazzo Maria Visconti and for Bona di Savoia and after the death of the former became Ducal Armourer. In 1456 he made armour for the Papal troops, and about this time he enlarged the workshops of the family in the Via degli Spadari. In 1469 the Duke of Milan gave him a mill near the S. Angelo Canal. In 1470 he received a lease of iron-mines near the forest of Canzo, near the Lago del Segrino, from the Ducal Chamber, and in 1472, in recognition of his services to the State, he was allowed to purchase the property.