Клинковое оружие с городской гербовой маркировкой в коллекции Львовского исторического музея

Abstract

The article examines the exhibits of cold bladed weapons from the Lviv Historical Museum, marked by the city emblem of Lviv. The author studies samples with coats of arms made in different traditions – from the form approved in 1526 to the “papal”, adopted in 1586 and the local variations as well. The Bastard sword of the 16th century and the ceremonial saber of the 18th c entury s tudied t horoughly. T he a nalysis o f h eraldic i mages a lso i ncludes a two-handed battle sword, two sabers and swords. The general chronology of the studied weapons and coats of arms covers more than three hundred years – from 16 to the second half of 19th century. Applying interdisciplinary research methods, the author identified the range of tasks of such a mark system and the possible areas of its application. Like any other ownership symbol, the city’s coat of arms on weapons had to establish property rights or indicate the customer of weapons, first. Thus, the city coat of arms testified that the weapon was in the communal property of Lviv, and it was ordered by the magistrate and other local governments. The coat of arms and its elements were used as a mark of the city arsenal or property brand of one of the city guilds. The rare cases of combining the personal noble coat of arms and the city emblem may indicate the transfer (donation) of weapons to the city or the fact that a noble owner of weapon was a member of the city administration. Finally, the city and guild weapons, decorated with the Lviv coat of arms, had a ceremonial significance, being used during corporate and city celebrations. The author notes that in Ukraine, the tradition of marking weapons with the city emblems is most fully represented in Lviv, testifying to the identity of Lviv urban culture, its age integration into the Western European cultural and legal context.