Fable heraldry

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Imaginary symbolism of "grim reaper" in a mythical coat of arms (picture by Hans Holbein the Younger )

Fable heraldry is the teaching of the imaginary ("pictorial") coat of arms and primarily comprises the areas of "imaginary heraldry" and "imaginary heraldry". Imaginary heraldry deals with coats of arms, which in their structure, their symbolism and / or in their meaning refer to people or human-like beings who were part of the collective memory or the collective imagination before the emergence of heraldry .

The "imaginary people / human-like" that are taken up in heraldry include, for example, the fictional characters of literary heroes, mythological hybrid creatures such as the griffin , but also personifications (for example, human-like figures that allegorically embody abstract content such as grim reaper , the virtues or vice et cetera).

history

The teaching of the imaginary coat of arms goes back to the French historian and heraldist Michel Pastoureau (* 1947). In his opinion, this is one of the most important scientific fields of heraldic research that has opened up since the second half of the 20th century.

It is no coincidence that imaginary heraldry originated in France . As early as the 20th century, extensive, interdisciplinary research on "l'imaginaire" (Eng. " The imaginary ") was established there, in which French philosophy and sociology in particular are intensively involved. Important authors in this context are Michel Maffesoli , Jean-Luc Nancy , Jean-Paul Sartre , Cornelius Castoriadis and, in a narrower sense, the writings of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan .

Whether imaginary heraldry will become an integral part of German heraldry in the wake of the increasing reception of Lacan and Pastoureau is still open.

The imaginary types of coats of arms

Coat of arms of the Trinity in the Wernigeroder Wappenbuch

There are different types of imaginary coats of arms. The historian Michel Pastoureau suggests the following categorization:

  • Real historical figures of antiquity and the Middle Ages : kings of Rome, the great figures of the Greek and Roman popes, emperors and kings of the early and high Middle Ages. The coats of arms of Alexander , Gaius Iulius Caesar , Charlemagne and the Nine Good Heroes are most frequently represented in this category .
  • Heroes and gods of Germanic and Scandinavian mythology : The representations of coats of arms in this category are currently less numerous than those from Greco-Roman mythology. The category includes, for example, coats of arms with reference to Odin , Thor , Siegfried the dragon slayer or the heroes of the Nibelungenlied .
  • Real or imagined heroes and personalities who lived outside of Western Christianity : Emperors of Constantinople, emirs , viziers and sultans , Attila , Chinese emperors or the princes and princes from their surroundings.
  • People, kingdoms and places created by the medieval imagination (for example, the priest king John ).
  • Literary heroes such as Roland and his companions, characters from Germanic novels, Arthur and his companions.
  • Various personifications : vices and virtues, allegorical personifications (as in the rose novel ), animal figures with a person (as in Reineke Fuchs ), rivers, winds and the world.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michel Pastoureau: L'Art de l'héraldique au Moyen Âge. Éditions du Seuil, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2-02-098984-8 , p. 192.
  2. ^ Christiane Raynaud: Images et pouvoirs au Moyen Âge. Le Léopard d'Or, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-86377-117-5 , pp. 101-114.
  3. ^ Robert L. Wyss: The Caesar carpets and their iconographic relationship to the illustration of the 'Faits des Romains' in the 14th and 15th centuries. In: Yearbook of the Bern Historical Museum. Vol. 35/36, 1955/1956, ISSN  1013-3518 , pp. 103-232.
  4. ^ Robert Folz : Le souvenir et la légende de Charlemagne dans l'Empire germanique médiéval (= Publications de l'Université de Dijon. 7, ISSN  0223-3762 ). Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1950, (also: Dijon, University, Thèse, 1950).
  5. ↑ Nicolas Cível: Les Neuf Preux et leurs armoiries. Un cas d'héraldique imaginaire. Paris 1995, (Nanterre, Université de Paris X, Mémoire de maîtrise, 1995, dactyl).
  6. ^ Christiane van den Bergen-Pantens: Guerre de Troie et héraldique imaginaire. In: Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art. Vol. 52, 1983, ISSN  0035-077X , pp. 3-22.
  7. ↑ Otto Höfler : On the origin of heraldry. In: Karl Oettinger , Mohammed Rassem (ed.): Festschrift for Hans Sedlmayr. Beck, Munich 1962, pp. 134-200; Georg Scheibelreiter : Animal names and coat of arms (= publications of the Institute for Austrian Historical Research. 24). Böhlau, Vienna et al. 1976, ISBN 3-205-08509-4 .
  8. ↑ Michel Mollat ​​du Jourdain, Jean Devisse: L'Image du Noir dans l'art occidental. Volume 2: Des premiers siècles chrétiens aux “grandes découvertes”. 2 parts. Office du livre, Friborg 1979.
  9. ↑ Hans Hostmann: The coats of arms of the three kings. In: Kölner Domblatt . Yearbook of the Central Cathedral Building Association. Vol. 30, 1969, pp. 49-66.
  10. ↑ Rodney Dennys: The heraldic imagination. Barrie & Jenkins, London 1975, ISBN 0-214-65386-2 , pp. 96-102.
  11. ↑ Rita Lejeune, Jacques Stiennon: La légende de Roland dans l'art du Moyen Âge (= Bibliothèque de la Faculté de philosophie et lettres de l'Université de Liège Publications exceptionnelles.. 1, ZDB -ID 1353097-5 ). 2 volumes. Arcade, Bruxelles, 1966-1967.
  12. ^ Gustav A. Seyler : History of Heraldry. (Wappeness, Wappenkunst and Wappenwissenschaft) (= J. Siebmacher's large and general Wappenbuch. Vol. A). Bauer & Raspe, Nuremberg 1890, pp. 1–135.