Were the observer to view the oldest Italian coats of arms depicted in medieval rolls and seals, or engraved in relief on the walls of castles and other structures during the Middle Ages, he would encounter designs remarkably simpler than the ornate Renaissance and Baroque imagery identified with Italian armory today. During the Longobard, Norman, Swabian and Angevin domination of much of what is now Italy, Italian coats of arms were not too different from those encountered in France, England or elsewhere. None of this is surprising or unexpected if one considers the origins of the peoples who ruled Italy when heraldry was introduced. Devoid of the ornamentation that later came to typify the full achievement, the coats of arms of medieval Italy are distinguished by the particular use of charges and tinctures. The Rule of Tincture is rigorously respected.
Ordinaries are commonplace, but their use differs from that of English and French blazon.
Although the composition of an Italian blazon may be based on an ordinary or subordinary, this is not likely to be the only feature of the escutcheon. Except for use of the label early on, charges were rarely employed as marks of cadency. Indeed, except for occasional changes of tincture, indications of cadency are all but unknown in early Italian armory, and a unified system of cadency never developed. Various chiefs of allegiance were introduced during the thirteenth century. The two best-known of these chiefs are the Capo dell'Impero and the Capo d'Angio.