Skanderbeg’s helmet is made of white metal, adorned with a strip dressed in gold. On its top lies the head of a horned goat made of bronze, also dressed in gold. The bottom part bears a copper strip adorned with a monogram separated by rosettes * IN * PE * RA * TO * RE * BT *, which means: Jhezus Nazarenus * Principi Emathie * Regi Albaniae * Terrori Osmanorum * Regi Epirotarum * Benedictat Te (Jesus Nazarene Blesses Thee [Skanderbeg], Prince of Emathia (since he was named after Alexander the Great), King of Albania, Terror of the Ottomans, King of Epirus). It is thought that the copper strip with the monogram is the work of the descendants of Skanderbeg and was placed there by them, as Skanderbeg never held any other title but “Lord of Albania” (Latin: Dominus Albaniae)
According to Dhimitër Frëngu, Skanderbeg’s scribe and one of his biographers, the first sword was curved (In the original Italian: una schimitarra storta), with a sharp edge and elegantly made of Damascened steel. Some accounts report that at one point he kept two swords sheathed in the same scabbard. Frengu then adds, rather colourfully, that Skanderbeg brought a master sword-maker over from Italy, who produced three better swords for him. One of them, “that could cut through steel,” he sent it as a present to the Ottoman Sultan. It is also known that in Skanderbeg’s last visit to the Holy See, Pope Paul II presented the Albanian hero with a sword and a cap (It: una spada ed un elmo).
