HEART
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In heraldry a heart is a leaf-motif and not a
realistic representation of a real heart but most resembles a poplar leaf. It
has, together with a lime leaf known in the pack of cards as ‘spades’, likely
a similar symbolic meaning. It is not
known why this particular shape was chosen nor if the shape of the poplar
leaf has something to do with its symbolical meaning. Both the heart and the spades have
been badges of office. [1] If by the hearts and spades
leaves are meant, the fact that a tree
is often the symbol of a particular territory may give us a clue to their
symbolical meaning (guardian/keeper/caretaker of the territory?). |
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Human
heart |
Poplar leaf |
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An early representation of hearts is on a Persian piece of cloth today
in Aachen.
Peacocks. Fragment of a reliquary
cloth. Silk twill. Persian, 3rd - 4th century. Aachen, Cathedral treasure. Pairs of
confronting peacocks share a nimbus, crowned by lily-like leaves; between the
peacocks, pillars with foliate capitals. Close in style to the Antinoë silks,
this fabric is one of the best examples of this kind. [2] On this
interesting piece there are many different symbols. The central
representation consists of a sun surrounded by 29 stars or planets and is
crowned by a lily-shaped ornament or crown. Two peacocks are serving as
supporters. Between this apparently repeating composition is a pile decorated with nine red hearts. A recent
publication could give an indication
about the meaning of the hearts and the stars. [3] From it it appears that the number of hearts
and stars correspond with the number of regions and provinces of Persia in gthe time that the silk cloth
was made. In the
time of the Sassanid king Shapur I (240/241-272 AD) therewere nine regional
governors (šahrab
= satrap)) in Persia. These are summed up on an inscription on the Kaába
of Zoroaster in Naqši Rustam. This inscription consists of the names of the
satraps, his function and his region. As follows: 1.
Vārzin šahrab of Gay 2.
Ardaxsir šahrab of Goyman 3.
Tiyanag, šahrab of Hamadan 4.
Ardaxsir, šahrab of Niriz 5.
Narseh, šahrab of Rind 6.
Friyog, šahrab of Veh-Andiyk-Sabuhr 7.
Rastag, šahrab of Veh-Ardaxsir 8.
Pabag, šahrab of Husro(-sad)-Ohrmazd 9.
Abarez-soy, šahrab of Husro-sad-Ohrmazd For
the rest there were 29 provinces (šahr) governed by a mogbed
namely: |
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Taking into account that the piece is originating
from Persia it would represent the administrative division of the Sassanid
Empire in the time of Shapur I. The moon (a sun was usually represented as a
disc radiant in Persia) and the
stars are probably the symbol of the state and its provinces, the peacocks
the badges of rank of the Grand vizir and the achievement the emblem of his
government. In this constellation the hearts are the emblems of the satraps
(vice-kings) ranking right below the Grand Vizir. A second
example of the use of hearts is from the Roman Empire. Here the heart was an
emblem of high military officials, the comites
domesticorum. These commanded the corps of officer cadets, the domestici pedites and -equites. Their rank, illustres, indicates that they were
amongst the most highly placed officers of the military hierarchy and often
one of their number would become a magister
militum. Their status allowed them to be ex officio members of the consistory, and as such they were rsponsible
to the emperor and to no other military official. [7] The shields of
these comites domesticorum are in
the Notitia Dignitatum, compiled around the turn of the 4th and 5th century |
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Comes Domesticorum Peditum in
the West according to the Notitia Dignitatum. fol 186r |
Comes Domesticorum
Equitum in the West according to the Notitia
Dignitatum fol 186r |
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Comes Domesticorum Peditum in the East according to the Notitia Dignitatum. fol 208r |
Comes Domesticorum Equitum in the East according to the Notitia Dignitatum. fol 208r |
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The shields are each decorated with a
ten-pointed sun, the emblem of the realm of the Roman Empire, with hearts between their rays. On the shields of the comites of the East an achievement of the Imperial Imago’s
supported by angels are added in chief. The suns-and-hearts may be interpreted as the
emblems of High Servants of Officials of the Empire
Portrait of a Byzantine official, 6th cent. Mosaic in the absis of the
San Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna White tunica with purple cuff bands, purple mantle
strewn with golden hearts. White scarf ensigned with a black cross. Probably
Bishop Maximianus (546-556) or the first Exarch of Ravenna, Decius (585-586)
or one of his successors.
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A third
example of the use of hearts is from Byzantium. Here in the 11th century the
official dresses of some high officials were decorated with red or golden
hearts. There are
for example representations of St Demetrius, the patron saint of
Thessalonica, on which he is dessed in a mantle strewn with hearts which
probably made him a important official of or from Thessalonica. Spades and
hearts are also on the dresses of several and on the Hungarian crowns of
Monomachus (1042-’55) and of St Stephen/Geza I 1074-’77) dating from the same
time. [8] Here the official dresses
of courtiers and the emperor and empress themselves are decorated with
hearts. What the hearts symbol actually means in this context is documented by the portrait of Emperor Nikephoros III (1078-’81) on which he is flanked by his senior court dignitaries, all of them proedroi, (presidents) in a manuscript from the1070s. From left to right: the
proedros and epi
tou kanikleiou
(keeper of the imperial inkstand)
his red mantle strewn with golden spades the
prōtoproedros and prōtovestiarios (keeper of the sacred (imperial)
wardrobe, a eunuch, since he is beardless), his tunica decorated with rings
enclosing four red lions passant. the
emperor, his blue mantle strewn with
golden hearts the
proedros and dekanos, (chief of ten) his red mantle
strewn with golden hearts the
proedros and megas
primikērios
his red mantle strewn with golden hearts and XI-cyphers Of these
the emperor, the decanos and the megas primikerios have the hearts in common. Internet
learns us that: Decanus means "chief of
ten" in Late Latin. The term originated in the Roman army and became
used thereafter for subaltern officials in the Byzantine Empire, as well as
for various positions in the Church, History
and functions[ The decanus was originally
the leader of a contubernium, the squad of eight legionaries that lived in
the same tent and the two support units/servants of the contubernium. It must
not be confused with the decurio, which was a title given to civic officials
and to leaders of 30-strong squadrons (turmae) of cavalry. In Greek texts, it
is equivalent to the rank of dekarchos ("commander of ten"). From the 4th century, it
became used for palace messengers, particularly those in the service of the
Roman empress. They also apparently served as guards at gates, and in the 6th
century, John Lydus equates them
with the ancient lictors. In the 899 Kletorologion of Philotheos, the decanus
(transcribed into Greek as δεκανός, dekanos) was a
mid-level functionary, serving under the protasekretis. According to
the mid-10th century De Ceremoniis of Emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (r. 913–959), he was "in charge of the
imperial papers" when the Byzantine emperor was on campaign |
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The Latin term primicerius,
hellenized as primikērios (πριμικήριος), was a title applied
in the later Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire to the heads of administrative
departments, and also used by the Church to denote the heads of various
colleges. Etymologically the term derives from primus
in cera, which is to say in tabula cerata, the first name in a
list of a class of officials, which was usually inscribed on a waxed tablet. Civil
and military In the Late Roman army, the primicerius was a rank junior to the tribunus and senior to
the senator They are best attested in units associated with the imperial
court, chiefly imperial guards. Thus in the 4th to 6th centuries there were
the primicerii of the protectores
domestici and of the Scholae
Palatinae, but also primicerii in charge of the armament
factories (fabricae), which, like the Scholae, where under the jurisdiction
of the magister
officiorum. Primicerii are also to be found in the staffs of
regional military commanders (duces), as well as in some regular military
units. In the later Byzantine era, under the Komnenian emperors (1081-1185), primikērioi appear as commanders
in the palace
regiments of the Manglabitai, Vardariōtai, Vestiaritai and the Varangians. In the late 11th century,
the dignity of megas
prim[m]ikērios ("Grand Primicerius") was established,
which ranked very high in court hierarchy well into the Palaiologan
period, where he functioned as a
chief of ceremonies. All three offices (including the one of Emperor) have a military
background and for that reason a heart may be the badge of a (non-operational-)
military official. |
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Left: St.
Demetrios. Constantinople, 1st half 11th century [9] Right: Proedros Dekanos.
(President of Chiefs of Ten) |
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Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV (1068-’71) |
King Geza I of Hungary (1074-’77) |
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Both are dressed in Byzantine official dress strewn with golden hearts.
Byzantine official on the Pala d’Oro Also some other persons represented on the Pala d’Oro (1102) have
official dresses strewn with hearts. |
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Not long
after the end of the House of Comnenus in Byzantium the heart appeared in
West European heraldry. They are on a pilow found in the shrine of King Canute
IV of Denmark (†1086) and on the arms of King Canute VI of Denmark
(1182-1202) on his seal of 1190. The
symbol was probably transmitted through the Byzantine-Scandinavian connection
of the Varangian Guard, created in 988. This connection went from Byzantium
through Novgorod and Uppsala and lasted until the middle of the 14th century.
Also Harald III, King of Norway (1045-1066) had served for some time in the
Byzantine Army as a mercenary: [10]
Seal of King
Canute VI, 1190 ca Arms:
Strewn with hearts, thre lions passant guardant. L.: …………q rex. [11] The
hearts remained on the arms of the Danish kings until the present day.
King Valdemar Atterdag of Denmark (1340-’75) On a fresco in St. Peter’s
Church in Naestved, painted shortly after his death. On this fresco the hearts from the arms are on the
purple tunic of the king. The lambrequines are strewn with black hearts
instead of being ermine which is quite unusual. The arms strewn with hearts was borne by his father
Waldemar III, deposed in 1330 and since then Duke of Schleswig (†1364). This
suggests that arms with the hearts were the prerogative of the head of the
royal danish family, usually also King of Denmark. It looks like a
continuation of the use of te symbol as a symbol of the byzantine megas primikerios here interpreted as
the ‘first commander of the palace’. Some
sixty years after the appearance of the hearts on the seal of Canute II the
hearts appeared also on the almost identical arms of the king of Sweden and
on the arms of the Swedish jarls
from the House of Bjelbo. Heraldic Seal
of King Waldemar of Sweden, 1252 Arms:
Strewn with hearts, three crowned lions passant guardant. L. .X............[SVEOR]VM (n° 15)
Heraldic Seal of
Duke Magnus Birgersson, 1270 Arms: Strewn with hearts three bends sinister a
lion rampant over all. L.: ..PIS DVCIS SVEORUM
(n° 23) These
arms were borne by the kings of Sweden from 1275-1364. They were adopted by
the succeeding kings without the hearts however. |
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An other
example from the muslim world comes from the 13th century Wijnbergen Armorial
which gives for Le roi de tunes: Arms: Azure, strewn with square crosses three
hearts 2& 2 Or. This is
most likely the emblem of the (christian) Megas
Primikerios of the Almohad empire.
A last
example are the arms of Friesland which
are probably derived from the Swedish Royal arms:
Arms of Friesland in in a French armorial Paris, Bibliothčque Mazarine Ms. 3711-1288. D.: ca. 1475. Arms: Bendy of seven pieces Azure and Argent, nine hearts Gules 1:3:3:2 in
the bends Azure. L.: Le roy de frise In the 16th century these arms became the arms of
the Groninger
Ommelanden. In about
the same time (the 15th century) the hearts appear as a color on playing
cards together with the clovers, tiles and pikes. Thes symbols have no other
meaning than being a color of the playing cards and they can also be replaced
by other figures.
From a Hungarian pack of cards, 20th cent.
From a French pack of cards, 20th century See: Playing cards, History on internet. |
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© Hubert de Vries 2015-03-20
Heraldry of the World