Beretta Bartolomeo portrait

Photo of an arquebus of Lombard manufacturing.
Bartolomeo Beretta was known as a maestro da canne, or master gun-barrel maker, for the republic of Venice as early as 1526. In 1526, Bartolomeo was paid by the Arsenal of Venice to make 185 arquebus barrels. His son Giovannino inherited his father’s work in Gardone Val Trompia, and thereafter the family business was handed down over the centuries i…