2023 Maryland Statutes › General Provisions › Title 7 - Emblems; Designations; Commemorative Days and Months › Subtitle 1 - State Seal › Section 7-102 - Description

(a)    (1)    The obverse of the Great Seal of Maryland depicts:
(i)    an equestrian figure of the Lord Proprietary arrayed in complete armor and holding a drawn sword;
(ii)    a horse wearing caparisons adorned with the family coat of arms for Lord Baltimore; and
(iii)    on the ground below the equestrian figure, a sparse growth of grass on sandy soil and a few small blue and yellow flowers.
(2)    The circle surrounding the obverse of the Great Seal of Maryland contains the Latin inscription “Caecilius Absolutus Dominus Terrae Mariae et Avaloniae Baro de Baltemore”, which means “Cecil Absolute Lord of Maryland and Avalon Baron of Baltimore”, referring to Lord Baltimore’s first settlement in the new world, on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland.
(b)    (1)    The reverse of the Great Seal of Maryland depicts:
(i)    the family coat of arms for Lord Baltimore, as described in paragraph (2) of this subsection;
(ii)    an Earl’s coronet placed above the shield indicating George Calvert’s status as an earl or a count palatine in Maryland, though only a baron in England;
(iii)    above the Earl’s coronet, a helmet set full–faced;
(iv)    above the helmet, the Calvert crest, which consists of two pennons, or pennants, supported by gules (red) staffs, issuing from the ducal coronet:
1.    the dexter (right) pennon, of or (gold); and
2.    the other pennon, of sable (black);
(v)    a plowman wearing a high–crowned, broad–brimmed beaver hat and holding one side of the shield with his left hand and a spade in his right hand;
(vi)    a fisherman wearing a knitted cap somewhat resembling a stocking cap and holding one side of the shield with his right hand and in his left hand a fish that is not specific to any species; and
(vii)    at the feet of the plowman and fisherman, a ribbon containing, in Italian, the Calvert family motto, “Fatti maschii parole femine”, which generally means “Strong deeds, gentle words”.
(2)    (i)    The family coat of arms for Lord Baltimore is divided into quarters.
(ii)    The first and fourth quarters:
1.    appear in the top–left and bottom–right quarters;
2.    represent the coat of arms of the Calvert family; and
3.    are a paly of six pieces, or (gold) and sable (black), and a bend dexter (right diagonal band) counterchanged, so that they consist of six alternating gold and black vertical bars with a diagonal band on which the colors are reversed.
(iii)    The second and third quarters:
1.    appear in the top–right and bottom–left quarters;
2.    show the coat of arms of the Crossland family, which Cecil Calvert inherited from his grandmother, Alicia, wife of Leonard Calvert, the father of George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore; and
3.    are quartered argent (silver) and gules (red), a cross bottony counterchanged, so that they consist of a quartered field of silver and red, charged with a cross bottony that has arms terminating in a button or a three–leaf clover and opposite coloring.
(3)    Behind and surrounding the depiction described in paragraph (1) of this subsection are:
(i)    an ermine–lined mantle;
(ii)    a circle around the seal containing the words “Scuto bonae voluntatis tuae coronasti nos”, meaning “With favor wilt thou compass us as with a shield” (Psalm 5:12); and
(iii)    the date 1632, the year the Maryland charter was granted.