From: velde2@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Francois Velde)
Subject: Byzantine Heraldry
Organization: HAC - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 23:10:50 GMT

A few more blazons of Byzantine families, and an entry from the Oxford
Dictionary of Byzantium: it claims that heraldry never really evolved
in Byzantium. The earliest appearance of the double-headed eagle as 
emblem of an imperial family or an emperor seems to be early 14th c.
The 4 B's are described as firesteels (the Greek word being purekbolon,
that which throws out fire).

I also found a few other Greek/Byzantine names in the Rietstap. I only
have the illustrations handy, so I am describing from the plates. Here goes:

Angelos: gules, 4 lozenges Or with an angel on each. (Greece)
Cantacuzene: Gules, a double-headed eagle displayed crowned, Or. (Greece)
Comnene: Or, beneath an imperial crown proper, a two-headed eagle displayed 
Sable on a sword per pale Argent, the hilt Or. (Corsica, Savoy)
Comneno: Or, beneath an imperial crown proper, a double-headed eagle displayed 
	Sable, displayed Or, holding in each claw a sword paleways Argent; on
	its breast an oval escutcheon, Argent 3 bells (?) Azure. (Milan)
Comnenos (emperors of Trebizonde): Argent, three fess Sable. (Greece)
Ducas: Azure, a cross Argent. (Greece)
Koressio (dukes): Sable, beneath an imperial crown proper, a two-headed eagle 
	displayed Or, holding in each claw a sword paleways Argent. (Greece)
Lascaris: Or, a double-headed eagle Sable, beaked Gules, beneath an eastern 
	crown Or. (Greece)
Lascaris: Gules, a double-headed eagle displayed crowned, Or; on its
	breast an escutcheon: Gules, a sun Or. (Verona, Dalmatia)
Lascaris: quartered Azure and Argent, on which an double-headed eagle Sable,
	membered, beaked, crowned Or; on its breast an escutcheon: Gules,
	a sun Or. (Verona).
Lascaris: Gules, a double-headed eagle displayed crowned, Or. (Greece, Provence)
Lascaris: quartered Gules a chief Or; and Gules, a double-headed eagle 
	displayed crowned, Or. 
Lascaris-Castellar: Or, a double-headed eagle Sable, membered, beaked Gules.
	(Italy)
Palaelogos: Gules, a Cross and four B's Or. (Greece)
Paleologue:  Gules, a double-headed eagle displayed crowned, Or. (Greece, 
	Piedmont)
Vatatzes: Vert, a double-headed eagle displayed Or, above each head an estoile
	Argent. (Greece)

The following comes from the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (1991). 
I suppose anything called the Oxford Whatever is authoritative, but 
who knows what it's really worth.

COATS OF ARMS: The use of heraldic insignia as a symbolic representation
of families did not develop in Byzantium.  The broad range of images 
(Christ, the Virgin, the Cross, various saints) found on seals are 
personal rather than familial.  Certain blazons have, however, been
interpreted by some scholars as official imperial or familial coats of arms.
Soloviev considered the double-headed eagle as an emblem of the Komnenoi
and the tetragrammatic cross with four B's as the blazon (from ca. 1377)
of the Palaiologoi. G. Vikan (ArtB 63 (1981) 326) has connected other
emblems (including a multipetal flower, a swastika, and 4 overlapping
bars) with the Palaiologoi family.  Some of these symbols--whether
blazons or not--were placed on imperial standards.  Thus a ceremonial book
states that on ordinary warships the customary imperial banner (phlamoulon)
was displayed, that is, the cross with purekbola (flints?) probably the
tetragrammatic cross--whereas the ship of the megas doux displayed the image
of the mounted emperor.  In August 1439 John VIII Palaiologos conferred
upon Giacomo de Morellis, a citizen of Florence, the right to place on his
banner the imperial blazon (semeion); on the chrysobull beneath the text is
pictured a two-headed eagle. 
Sources: A. Soloviev: les emble`mes he'raldiques de Byzance et les Slaves,
Seminarium Kondakovianum 7 (1935) 119-164.
D. Cernovodeanu: contributions a` l'e'tude de l'he'ralfique byzantine et
post-byzantine, Jahrbuch der O"sterreichischen Byzantinik 32.2 (1982) 409-22.
W.H. Ru"dt von Collenberg: Byzantinische Pra"heraldik des 10. & 11. Jhs, 
recueil du 12e congre`s International des Sciences He'raldique et Ge'ne'alogique
(Stuttgart 1978), 169-81. (also published in Der Herold, Bd. 8, Heft 10, 
april-june 1977, p. 197-209).

EAGLE: [I summarize: the date of the apparition of the double-headed eagle
has been much discussed. It was certainly employed by members of the 
Palaiologoi dynasty, and was appropriated by John VI Kantakouzenos (1347-54).
Was used by Venice on a ship greeting John VIII Palaiologos. Last occurence
is perhaps on the floor of a church in Mistra where Constantine XI was crowned
in 1451.]
Sources: G. Gerola: l'aquila bizantina e l'aquila imperiale a due teste, 
Felix Ravenna 43 (1934) 7-36.
A. Fourlas: Adler & Doppeladler, in Phyloxenia (Mu"nster 1980), 97-120.


-- 

	Francois Velde

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