Introducing the Research Project 'HERALDIC Identity in Context'

Since the mid-12th century, coats of arms have played a pivotal role in the visual construction and negotiation of identity across Europe. Traditionally understood as personal emblems used to distinguish knights in battle, recent research reveals a far more complex reality. Heraldic signs oscillated between the singular and the collective, the private and the public. They were not merely individual identifiers, but dynamic semiotic systems that expressed personal agency as much as group belo...