Heraldica Nova was founded in 2013 by Torsten Hiltmann as part of the Dilthey project ‘Coats of Arms in Practice’ (Die Performanz der Wappen). The first research phase, funded by the VolkswagenFoundation and Fritz Thyssen Foundation initiative ‘Focus on the Humanities’ and based at the Humboldt University of Berlin, aimed to study heraldry from the perspective of cultural history. With it’s second research phase on Digital Heraldry it relocated from Münster to Berlin to the Humboldt University.
The Ubiquity of Heraldry
By the end of the middle ages, heraldry was everywhere. Carved in stone and wood, painted in stained glass and embroidered on textiles, or visualised in the form of textual descriptions, coats of arms existed in virtually every public and private space. Derived from the arbitrary signs of identification borne on the shields of twelfth-century knights, coats of arms had rapidly evolved into a highly complex and extremely versatile system of symbolic representation that was available to men and women of all social ranks and occupations, and to a diverse range of groups and institutions.
Lack of Historical Research
Given this ubiquity of heraldry in medieval and early modern communication, it is astonishing that historians have paid little attention to heraldic sources. However, as an important part of late medieval and early modern culture, deeply shaped by its mentalities and part of its communicative practices, the study of heraldic sources offers innovative insights into late medieval and early modern culture and society, including issues such as kinship, family, identity, hierarchy, nobility, authority, representation, symbolic communication or visual culture, to name but a few.
Towards a Broader Perspective
In public opinion as much as in academic discussion, coats of arms are often perceived as nothing but a means to identify the makers, patrons or owners of documents, art objects and archaeological remains, which fosters an understanding of heraldry as a mere ancillary science. This restricted perspective on the usefulness of coats of arms for historical research is encouraged by a misunderstanding of the work of heraldists whose studies are too often misread as contributions to historical research, missing the fact that their purpose is quite another one, namely the coats of arms as such. When accepting the fact that historians and heraldists are following different purposes with different questions and methods of their own, however, a huge variety of collaboration is becoming a possibility.
Aims of this Blog
This blog shall serve several purposes: It shall contribute to reveal the incredible potential of heraldic sources for modern approaches in historical science and help to put it to use. Hence, it shall offer a platform to scholars in social and cultural history to communicate and share ideas, inspirations and observations on this field and provide a place to advertise new initiatives, to present current projects and, above all, to read about and to discuss. Further, it shall be a place of exchange between historians and heraldists, offering the chance to benefit from the respective competences of each other. It shall also help scholars who wish to study heraldry from a cultural-historical perspective by providing practical tools, interesting links and resourceful databases.
In all this, emphasis is put on the free flow of discussions and on the unlimited and unrestricted sharing of thoughts and ideas!
If you have any comments, ideas on how to improve this blog or do want to contribute, do not hesitate to contact us!
Email: heraldry.ifg@hu-berlin.de
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