Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/249

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Negroli as an example of a parade shield; we can only plead the great fame and splendid achievements of these fine armourers. We can also claim that in this case we open up another field of speculation, and that is as to who was the specific maker of certain of these superb achievements—whether they were individual productions or the work of what may be termed the school of Negroli. The shield first mentioned was, as we have shown, inscribed in such a way as to show that it was the joint work of the brothers Negroli; but this next shield (Fig. 1297), which is also in the Royal Armoury of Madrid (D 2), is signed: JACOBVS · PHILIPPVS · NEGROLVS · MEDIOLANENSIS · FACIEBAT · MDXXXIII.

Fig. 1297. Shield

Made for Charles V of Spain, 1533. Signed: JACOBVS . PHILIPPVS . NEGROLVS . MEDIOLANENSIS . FACIEBAT . MDXXXIII. D 2, Royal Armoury, Madrid

Surely the singular number of the verb shows clearly, in spite of what many have supposed, that the shield in question is the work not of two of the brothers but one of them, of one who, following a custom common enough in Milan, used in his signature two of his names. In default, then, of more precise biographical data, the two inscriptions may be said to