Des livres aux objets et vice versa. Collections d’armures et mythes des grands hommes dans l’Empire du XVIe siècle

Résumé En

In the mid-sixteenth century, Charles V introduced into the German Empire the fashion for ceremonial armour. Armour changed a prince’s body shape in a heroically resplendent figure. In the same time, around 1550, German princes begun collections of armours, particularly at Ambras Castle, where Ferdinand of Habsburg founded a brilliant collection of armour housed in five huge rooms. The heart of the collection was the famous “Heldenrüstkammer”, thechamber of heroes’ armours, filled with 120 works of armour worn by famous valiant heroes. Later in 1601-1603, this room was the subject of a sumptuous and double publication in Latin and German, entitled the Armamentarium heroicum. Both its title and the portraits alternating with biographical details place the book in the famous men genre. The explicit reference to a literary genre affords us a better understanding of the particular status of these objects which were endowed with a new commemorative, aesthetic and symbolic usage, closely linked with chivalric literature.