Islamic Arms and Armour from the Odescalchi Collection at Palazzo Venezia in Rome

The brief paper introduces a barely known group of Islamic arms and armour belonging to the larger Odescalchi collection owned by Palazzo Venezia, today part of the museum complex Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia (VIVE) in Rome. As these Islamic arms have been so far overlooked by scholarship, the paper provides a preliminary description, putting them in the cultural context of Italian collecting during the second half of the 19th century, and envisaging an in-depth study