Tagged: Later Middle Ages
Die (erste) Stuttgarter Handschrift (Sigle: St1; zu den Siglen siehe hier) stammt, wie G und Pr, aus der Werkstatt Gebhard Dachers. Anders als diese enthält St1 nur eine Kurzform der Richentalchronik – und kein Wappenbuch. Dennoch ist sie für das Verständnis der Wappen in der Richentalchronik aufschlussreich. Die Kurzfassung der Richental-Chronik ist in St1 in eine Fassung der weit verbreiteten Chronik des Jakob Twinger von Königshofen integriert. Nach Papst-...
Everybody agrees that the Bellenville manuscript is an armorial. It exclusively consists of collections of coats of arms. However, manuscripts are often not as homogenous as Bellenville. Some works we regard as armorials do not only hold collections of coats of arms, but texts and images as well, while other works with text, images and some collections of coats of arms are not considered armorials. What is the difference?...
The main purpose of my doctorate project is to have a perspective on the present situation of municipal medieval heraldry. This research is going to provide an updated gathering and analysis of heraldic sources and it is unique as it considers multiple types of heraldic imprints and at a national and comparative level. This text aims to highlight the importance of this subject in order to perceive the role...
Der Libro del conosçimiento ist eine Beschreibung der Welt (oder doch großer Teile derselben) in Form eines fiktiven Reiseberichtes, wobei die einzelnen Herrschaften oft mit ihren Wappen oder (häufiger) Fahnen vorgestellt werden. Der vollständige Titel verspricht nicht nur, “alle” Herrschaften der Welt, sondern auch ihre Zeichen und Wappen zu präsentieren. Bei so viel Wissen wundert es nicht, dass der Titel eher lang ausfällt: Libro del conosçimiento de todos los rregnos...
Richentals Chronik des Konstanzer Konzils ist sicher die bekannteste Quelle zum Constantiense, und um so erstaunlicher ist es, dass das in mehreren frühen und wichtigen Abschriften dieser Chronik enthaltene Wappenbuch bislang so wenig Aufmerksamkeit gefunden hat, wie Tina Raddatz gerade geschrieben hat. Das Wappenbuch der Richentalchronik ist aber nicht die einzige heraldische Quelle zum Konstanzer Konzil. Werner Paravicini hat schon ein vor einigen Jahren [1] auf drei weitere Handschriften...
The last post in the series on evaluating armorials is a case study of the famous Grünenberg armorial, in which different elements that have been discussed in the previous posts return. There is one question that is seldom asked: How reliable is the studied armorial – or to rephrase it: Can we trust a single occurrence of a coat of arms? The answer would in any case be...
In the first two parts of this series on evaluating armorials, many mistakes regarding coats of arms and legends have been discussed. This third part deals with the topic of comparing different armorials, and in this process the incorrect coats of arms prove to be quite useful. Comparing armorials can be important for several reasons. As we have seen in Steen Clemmensen’s previous blogposts, it is not uncommon to...
The first part of these series on evaluating armorials dealt with the identification of coats of arms in armorials. It appeared that many armorials were copied and that copyists were prone to make mistakes. This sometimes leaves the researcher with different coats of arms for the same family. This post deals with the problematic of these variant coats of arms more thoroughly by discussing their origins and how they...
Having edited a number of armorials and shown several of them to be dependent on the same sources, the editors of Heraldica Nova asked me: How does one evaluate an armorial and its contents? The short answer is by having common sense, lots of reference materials and treating armorials as non-verbal prose. In this first part of this series on how to evaluate armorial, I will deal with the...
For identifying medieval coats of arms, medieval armorials are very important sources. They have been transmitted to us in a fair number (for a list of digitised armorials see here on our blog), they are relatively easy accessible and – contrary to the other important source for coats of arms such as seals – they show the colours of the blasons. So if you are trying to identify a specific coat...
Summary The present project investigates the role of heraldry in the political culture and political representation of the early modern monarchy. It studies monarchical armorial symbolism as a dynamic visual code that was constantly reinterpreted to serve specific needs and circumstances. The royal monopolization of that visual code interfaced with the abstract notions of ‘authority’, ‘sovereignty’ and ‘dynasty’. In the process, it contributed significantly to the establishment of the...
Thorsten Huthwelker’s book on the representation of rank in late medieval coats of arms and armorials will soon be published at Thorbecke. I suppose it will resume his studies in the context of the ERC project “Rank and order: The Formation and Visualisation of the Social and Political Order of Princes in late Medieval Europe” under the direction of Jörg Peltzer at the University of Heidelberg (more details). In...
