Medieval churches still abound in coats of arms depicted on tombs, epitaphs, windows, altarpieces and other commemorative devices. And of course it was not just knights, nobles, princes and kings that tried to preserve their memory by means of heraldry…
Author Archive for Marcus Meer
Heraldica Nova
[Report:] Visible Identities: Symbolic Codes from Personal Heraldry to Corporate Logos, London, 6 November 2017
by Marcus Meer •
It is a convenient coincidence that an event of this thematic scope took place in London, a city that is home to the College of Arms as the oldest authority of heraldry as a century-old tradition of visual identification on the one, and the headquarter…
Heraldica Nova
The Heraldry of the Weavers’ Guild of Augsburg: Mythical Origins and Everyday Display of Corporate Heraldry in Clemens Jäger’s ‘Weberchronik’
by Marcus Meer •
Clemens Jäger’s Weberchronik [1], a sixteenth-century chronicle dedicated to the history of the weavers’ guild of Augsburg, is a formidable example to demonstrate how urban chronicles can be used to analyse the importance of heraldry in urban society, especially in terms of coats of arms as an element of civic identity and collective representation. In this blog post, I am not so much interested in the heraldic illuminations that…
Heraldica Nova
[Project:] Heraldry and Urban Visual Culture in Late Medieval England and Germany
by Marcus Meer •
The medieval city was a stage of heraldry: It was displayed on the city gates and towers, the façades of the burghers’ houses and the merchants’ and craftsmen’s shops, on the ceilings and walls of the town hall, the stained glass and epitaphs of the city’s churches, the commune’s seals and coins. It was part of the visual programme of urban rituals such as the ruler’s entry, civic processions,…
Mittelalter
Neue Perspektiven einer Kulturgeschichte der Heraldik: Der Blog Heraldica Nova erweitert sein Angebot
by Marcus Meer •
Von der Geschichtswissenschaft ist die Heraldik lange kaum beachtet worden. Zu sehr, so empfanden Historikerinnen und Historiker, beschränkte sich die Disziplin auf das Systematisieren und Kategorisieren der Quellen, zu wenig bediente die klassische Heraldik die neuen, kulturwissenschaftlichen Interessen der historischen Forschung an den Interpretationen und Konstruktionen vormoderner Gesellschaften. Dabei waren heraldische Zeichen in der mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Gesellschaft allgegenwärtig und können deshalb gerade dort vollkommen neue Perspektiven eröffnen, wo die Geschichtswissenschaft historische Diskurse, symbolische und visuelle Kommunikation und Repräsentation zum Ansatz hat und Themen […]