evolution and use of the Croatian coat of arms, The

Canadian Slavonic Papers, Sep-Dec 1996 by Stan Granic

...was used by Croatian national rulers, and also pretenders to Croatian lands: Venice, Spain, Naples, the Habsburgs and Jagellons. Particular heraldic elements were also used by numerous native noble families and the church. The Croatian checkered coat of arms or individual elements of it were, thus, to the 16th century, present in the public life of Croatian lands.17

The first known (preserved) diplomatic use of the checkered Croatian coat of arms is related to the 1 January 1527 act of the Croatian parliament in Cetin. It was here that the Habsburg ruling line received the right to use this state coat of arms, when the Croatian parliament elected Ferdinand I Habsburg King of Croatia. Among the seals of the dignitaries, the charter of the election also contained a seal with the coat of arms of Croatia including the words Sigillum Regni (Seal of the Kingdom). This particular coat of arms contained 8x8 squares, the first of which was raised (red).18 From this period onward the use of the checkered coat of arms on documents, legal acts and coins dramatically increased.

The Croatian coat of arms in the form of 8x8 squares was also included in Johann Strumf's 1548 work Gemeiner lobl. Egnoschaft, Statten, Laden, Volkern Chronik. In 1525 it appeared for the first time on coins minted by King Louis (Ludovik I).19 In combination with the coats of arms of Slavonia and Dalmatia, as well as within the coat of arms of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia-DalmatiaSlavonia (plate 8), the checkered coat of arms was found on the coins minted by the following rulers: Ferdinand I (1527-1564), Matthias I (1608-1619), Ferdinand II (1619-1637), Ferdinand III (1637-1657), Leopold I (1658-1705), Maria Theresa (1740-1780), Ferdinand V (1836-1848) and Francis Joseph ( l848-1916).20

From the seventeenth century, examples of this emblem are found in geographical maps, books, paintings, and on stone monuments and chests, as well as in other works. The first critical Croatian historian, Ivan Lucid (Ionnis Luc, 1604-1679), decorated his geographical map of "IIlyricum" with a 4x4 checkered coat of arms (top left corner) in his 1668 work on the Kingdom of Dalmatia and Croatia (De regno Dalmatic et Croatit). 21 In 1669 Joannes Bleu (Blavius) published in Amsterdam his work Atlas Mayor, which included the same geographical map and a dedication to Ban Petar Zrinski (1665-1670). This map contains a sixteen (4x4) red-white checkered coat of arms in the top left corner.22 Matija Seuter's 1740 map of "Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia, Serbia and Dubrovnik" also contained the Croatian coat of arms above the scale in the lower left corner.23

The protonotary of the Kingdom of Croatia, Ivan Zakmardi (ca. 16001667), had a chest built in 1643 which was used to house state charters and documents. This chest, which is today found in the Archives of Croatia (Zagreb), contains the coat of arms in 4x4 pattern (plate 4) on its facade.24 At the beginning of the eighteenth century appeared Pavao Ritter Vitezovic's (16521713) work on heraldry entitled: Stemmatographia sive armorum Illyricorum (1701). Among the heraldic symbols contained in the work is the Croatian coat of arms in 4x5 pattern (plate 5).25