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The symbol of provinces and municipalities share a common
pattern, which includes special crowns. A province may have
either a provincial crown, which is a gold and is decorated with
some natural leaves, or an old provincial crown (corona di
provinzia antica), which is a a mural crown with eight towers,
five visible. I have also seen mentioned an even older pattern of
12 towers, 7 visible, but I think this is no longer valid.
Municipalities seem to be either "citta", i.e towns, or
communi. There seem to be no distinction in the coat of arms
based on city status. Municipalties typically have one of the
following patterns:
- municipal crown, a mural crown with "sedici" (16, I
think), towers resp. portals, of which are nine visible
- nobility crowns ("corone nobiliari") and other head
dresses, mostly because of ancient privileges. E.g. the citta di
Venezia (city of Venice) uses the head-dress of a doge, the old
city ruler.
- a special crown ("corone speciale"), which
are granted by the heraldic office via (or on behalf
of?) the president of the council of ministers (Presidenza del
Consiglio dei Ministri)
Italian subnational entities are entitled to flags, in the form
of "gonfalone", i.e. "battle standards", and
banners. It seems that these symbols have to be registered as
part of the heraldic grant. I don't think these are granted
automatically.
The gonfalone has a distinctive shap and is hosted vertically. It
is typically embroidered heavily (and seems to be unique).
Banners ("bandiere", sg. bandiera) are simpler, I think
mostly the coat of arms on a plain (or striped etc) cloth. The
article shows a couple of banner images, where a provincial
banner is a plain rectangular cloth, while the communal banner
uses a more complicated pattern, basically a gonfalone hoisted
horizontally. This may or may be not a general pattern.
This flags are mostly used on flags. Several entities, like e.g.
the city of Venice, which is described more in depth in the
article, have more flags, e.g. an Italian flags (vertically
divided in green, white and red), with the city symbol, the
golden lion of St Marc, on a red canton. This flag seems to be
for nautical use.
While there exist good coverage about Italian civic arms
(stemmi), e.g. at
www.araldicacivica.it
or at Ralf Hartemink's
"International Civic Arms", gonfaloni and
bandiere seem to have less information about than comprehensive. I
have no printed sources available. At my
site colours as used on the gonfalone of provinces and
municipalities, there exist basic information about the as
collected by Falko Schmidt. Internet source shows some gonfalone
of differing quality, some of these are used on FOTW already.
Source:
www.iagi.info
Dirk Schönberger, 10 December 2007
