---
title: Armi della morte - armi per la vita! Sottoscrivete al prestito della vittoria (Weapons of death, weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armi-della-morte-prestito-1918/
description: An Italian loan poster shows two bare-chested smiths at a forge hammering a sword into a ploughshare, laurel branches at the foot, under the legend…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Armi della morte - armi per la vita! Sottoscrivete al prestito della vittoria (Weapons of death, weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/armi-della-morte-prestito-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/armi-della-morte-prestito-1918.jpg)

# Armi della morte - armi per la vita! Sottoscrivete al prestito della vittoria (Weapons of death, weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan)

An Italian loan poster shows two bare-chested smiths at a forge hammering a sword into a ploughshare, laurel branches at the foot, under the legend 'Weapons of death - weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan.' The tell is that abstractions ('death', 'life', 'victory') carry the appeal with no rate, price or maturity printed, while the swords-into-ploughshares image lends peaceful-labour prestige to a war-finance ask.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Kingdom of Italy (national war-loan appeal; sponsor not named on the sheet); artist T. Corbella, printed by Stab. Lit. E. Guazzoni, Rome
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Kingdom of Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=kingdom-of-italy)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Orlando Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=orlando-government)
- **Leader:** [Vittorio Emanuele Orlando](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=vittorio-emanuele-orlando)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Fundraise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=fundraise)
- **Themes:** [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2004666222/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1918; LOC: no known restrictions on publication) T. Corbella; Stab. Lit. E. Guazzoni, Rome, 1918. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-12054.

## Text on the object

Original (Italian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
"ARMI DELLA MORTE-ARMI PER LA VITA!
SOTTOSCRIVETE AL PRESTITO DELLA VITTORIA"

T. CORBELLA

[printer's roundel, lower left, partly legible: STAB. LIT. E. GUAZZONI]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
"Weapons of death - weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan"

T. Corbella

[printer's roundel: Lithographic works E. Guazzoni]
```

The printer's roundel is small and only partly legible on the scan; its reading follows the LOC record's publication statement (Roma: Stab. Lit. E. Guazzoni).

[← Auch die Geduld hat ein Ende (Even Patience Has an End), German-language leaflet for German soldiers](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/allied-leaflet-auch-die-geduld-hat-ein-ende-1918/) [Emprunt de la Libération: on souscrit à la Banque d'Alsace et de Lorraine (Hansi, 1918) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/banque-alsace-lorraine-emprunt-liberation-hansi-1918/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)
- [The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ansong-ford-toshikata-1894/) (1894 · Glittering generalities)
- ['The Congress Cross or "Swastik"' (Pickings from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hindi-punch-congress-swastik-1896/) (Feb 1896 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Un combate en el río Zapote (A Fight on the Zapote River), Blanco y Negro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-combate-en-el-rio-zapote-1898/) (Jul 9, 1898 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)