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| The brain child of Frederick Stibbert, the museum bearing his name is to be found in the north of Florence on the hill of Montughi where the manor house come villa that also incorporates an English-style park designed by the architect Poggi consists of two floors. Especially well known for its extensive collection of arms and armoury the museum, the only one of its kind and valued as such, has gathered together 50,000 artefacts from all around the world including the Middle East, Asia and the Far East. The artefacts that constitute the European armoury were collected by Stibbert himself from 1860 until the end of the century with armour, steel weaponry and fire arms especially from the 16th and 17th centuries and artefacts from the 14th. Especially interesting is the collection of Middle Eastern armoury exhibited in rooms 6 and 7 that also include Islamic arms originating from the Moslem Near and Middle East. Especially fascinating is the section devoted to Japanese armoury that constitutes the largest collection in existence outside of Japan consisting in fact of 90 suits of armour, 200 helmets, 300 sabres and other material originating from the Momoyama period to the Edo period (1568-1868). The museum also preserves an ample collection of European costumes that stretch from the end of the 16th century to the First Empire and include costumes originating from India, China, Japan and Turkmenistan. The museum even accommodates a section dedicated to furniture and paintings among which a series of famous portraits and various works by painters like Botticelli, Luca Giordano, Il Verrocchio, Il Bronzino, Pietro Lorenzetti among others. |
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