Images of regalia in the titular heraldry of the Moscow Kingdom. Iconography and semantics

Abstract

The article analyzes the history of the using the regalia images of regalia in the titular heraldry of the Moscow Kingdom of the 16th – 17^th centuries. Titular heraldry is a complex of coats of arms for the territories of which the names were part of the object title of the Russian sovereigns. The total number of titular coats of arms of the Moscow Kingdom is more than thirty. They were first recorded on the Great Seal of Ivan the Terrible in the late 1570s. On this seal, out of 24 titular coats of arms (emblems, “seals”), four had the images of certain regal objects. In two cases, these were the conditional crowns cresting the armorial figures and testifying to the royal status of the designated administrative territories (the Kazan and Astrakhan kingdoms). In two cases, the images of a “place” were used, which meant a seat for the ruler (or an authorized officer). On the Novgorod seal, that place had the steps, which was, apparently, a more archaic version of such a seat on the Tver seal, the “place” looked like a throne. The pastoral staff in the Novgorod “place” and the princely cap in the Tver “place” testified to the local specifics of the management of these most important titular objects in the general context of the power system of Muscovy. Subsequently, the Astrakhan coat of arms had underwent a radical change, and the appearance of the crown began to resemble a royal crown of the Western European type. The same crown instead of a princely hat appeared on the Tver emblem by the end of the 17th century. In the “Titulyarnik” (title reference book) of 1672, two more coats of arms with the images of regalia appeared. In the Siberian coat of arms, the crown again symbolized the royal status of the titular object. In the Vladimir coat of arms, the crown cresting the lion apparently signified the special status of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir among the lands of northern and north-eastern Rus’. In general, the images of the regal objects in the titular coats of arms followed clear patterns, corresponded to the status of the analogous objects, as well as to their historical significance.