The Graz armoury actually goes back the the 16th century as a storehouse for weapons and armour. The Styrian region of Austria was a boarder region with the regular incurssions by the Turks and thus needed to be fortified and equipped to defend against said incursions. Graz remained " as it was " due in part to this. After the defeat of the Turks at the seige of Vienna by Jan Sobiesky, there was a " just in case " mindset that led to keeping the place ready. By the 18th century it was obvious that Turkish military power was on the wane, but the place had started to become something of an attraction so was eventually kept as a museum.
Graz has preserved in large part the contract and purchase records for almost everything in it so it gives a rare view of who and how rennaisance munnitons armour was purchased from. Graz is and has always been what I picture in my mind when the term " armoury " is used. A building that is wall to wall arms and armour, rack upon rack of the stuff.
The book " Shiny Shapes "
http://www.amazon.com/Shiny-Shapes-Z...=shiney+shapes is an " artistic " take on some of the contents of Graz. While the author tends to mix parts of different armours together, so some of the " context " is lost , to get his compositions, it does still serve to give a good impression how crude much of the munnitions armour of the 16th and 17th centuries was and the details of construction avalible from the phots is good.
" Imperial Austria, Treasures of Art, Arms and Armour from the State of Styria "
http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Austr...arms+and+armor while not having the close up detailed photos of " Shiny Shapes" does go into the history of Graz and focuses more on some of the higher end elements of the Graz collection.
I'd love to have the chance to visit it someday.