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Rather unusually, these Angels wear white hart (deer) badges, with the personal emblem of King Richard II of England, who commissioned this, the Wilton diptych, about 1400.


For the album by Matt Pond PA see Emblems (album).

An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.

Distinction: emblem and symbol

The words emblem and symbol often appear interchangeably in day-to-day conversation without causing undue confusion. A distinction between the two may seem unnecessarily fastidious. Nevertheless, an emblem is a pattern that is used to represent an idea, or an individual. An emblem crystallizes in concrete, visual terms some abstraction: a deity, a tribe or nation, a virtue or a vice. An emblem is an object or a representation of an object.

An emblem may be worn or otherwise used as an identifying badge. A real or metal cockle shell, the emblem of St James the Apostle, sewn onto the hat or clothes identified a medieval pilgrim to his shrine at Santiago de Compostela. In the Middle Ages, many saints were given emblems, which served to identify them in paintings and other images: St Catherine had a wheel, or a sword, St Anthony Abbot a pig and a small bell. These are also called attributes, especially when shown carried by or in close proximity to the saint in art. Kings and other grand persons increasingly adopted personal emblems that were distinct from their family heraldry. The most famous include King Louis XIV of France's sun, the salamander of Francois I, and the boar of King Richard III of England. In the fifteenth and sixteenth century there was a fashion, started in Italy, for making large medals with a portrait head on the obverse and the emblem on the reverse; these would be given to friends and as diplomatic gifts. Pisanello produced many of the earliest and finest of these. In current American usage, police officers' badges refer specifically to their personal metal emblem — sometimes with a uniquely identifying number or name on it — while the woven emblems sewn on their uniforms identify all the members of a particular unit.

A symbol substitutes one thing for another, in a more concrete fashion: the Christian cross is a symbol of the Crucifixion; it is an emblem of sacrifice. A red cross on a white flag is the emblem of the humanitarian spirit. The Red Cross is a symbol of the International Red Cross.

The crescent shape is a symbol of the moon; it is an emblem of Islam. The skull and crossbones is an symbol identifying a poison. The skull is a emblem of the transitory human life.

Other terminology

A totem is specifically an animal emblem that expresses the spirit of a clan. Heraldry knows its emblems as charges. The lion passant serves as the emblem of England, the lion rampant as the emblem of Scotland.

An icon consists of an image (originally a religious image), that has become standardized by convention. A logo is an impersonal, secular icon, usually of a corporate entity.

Emblems in history

Since the 15th century the terms of emblem (emblema) and emblematura belong to the termini technici of architecture. They mean an iconic painted, drawn, or sculptural representation of a concept affixed to houses and belong — like the inscriptions — to the architectural ornaments (ornamenta). Since the publication of De architectura libri decem by Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) the emblems (emblema) are related to Egyptian hieroglyphics and are considered as being a secret iconic language. Therefore the emblems belong to the Renaissance knowledge of antiquity which comprises not only Greek and Roman antiquity but also Egyptian antiquity as proven by the numerous obelisks built in 16th and 17th century Rome.

The 1531 publication in Augsburg of the first emblem book, the Emblemata of the Italian jurist Andrea Alciato launched a fascination with emblems that lasted two centuries and touched most of the countries of western Europe. "Emblem" in this sense refers to a didactic or moralizing combination of picture and text intended to draw the reader into a self-reflective examination of his or her own life. Complicated associations of emblems could transmit information to the culturally-informed viewer, a characteristic of the 16th century artistic movement called Mannerism.

See also

Matt Pond PA is an indie band formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1998 by singer/songwriter Matt Pond, along with guitarist/bassist Josh Kramer, violinist Rosie McNamara-Jones, cellist Jim Hostetter, and drummer Sean Byrne (previously of Lenola and The Twin Atlas).
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Emblems is the fifth album from Matt Pond PA, released in 2004.

Track listing

  1. "KC" - 2:53
  2. "Closest (Look Out)" - 4:48
  3. "Lily Two" - 4:03
  4. "Bring on the Ending" - 4:14
  5. "The Butcher" - 4:15
  6. "New Hampshire" - 4:50
  7. "Claire" - 3:03

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IMAGE (from Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration), or Explorer 78, was a NASA MIDEX mission that studied the global response of the Earth's magnetosphere to changes in the solar wind.
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As the term is used in mainstream cognitive science and philosophy of mind, a concept is an abstract idea or a mental symbol, typically associated with a corresponding representation in and language or symbology.
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moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim.
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truth extends from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular.[1] The term has no single definition about which the majority of professional philosophers and scholars agree.
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An allegory (from Greek αλλος, , "other", and αγορευειν, agoreuein, "to speak in public") is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal.
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monarch (see sovereignty) is a type of ruler or head of state. Monarchs almost always inherit their titles and are rulers for life; that is, they have no term limit. Historically monarchs have been more or less absolute rulers.
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saint is one who is sanctified (cf. 2 Chron. 6:41). The early Christians were all called saints. (Heb. 13:24; Jud. 1:3; Phile. 1:5, 7) Over time, the traditional usage of the term saint
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Symbols are objects, characters, or other concrete representations of ideas, concepts, or other abstractions. For example, in the United States, Canada and Great Britain, a red octagon is a symbol for the traffic sign meaning "STOP".
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IDEA may refer to:
  • Electronic Directory of the European Institutions
  • IDEA Center
  • IDEA League
  • Ieros Desmos Ellinon Axiomatikon
  • Improvement and Development Agency
  • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
  • Indian Distance Education Association

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badge is a device, patch, or accoutrement which is presented or displayed to indicate some feat of service, a special accomplishment, a symbol of authority granted by taking an oath (e.g.
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For people and places called Saint James, see the disambiguation page.


Saint James, son of Zebedee

Saint James the Elder by Rembrandt
Apostle and Martyr
Born Unknown,
Died 44, Judea
Venerated in All Christianity
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There are seven St. Catherines:
  • Saint Catherine of Alexandria (4th century)
  • Saint Catherine of Siena (Doctor of the Church, 1347-1380)
  • Saint Catherine of Bologna (1413-1463)
  • Saint Catherine of Ricci (1522-1590)
  • Saint Catherine of Sweden (circa 1332–1381)

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Saint Anthony the Great (c. 251–356), also known as Saint Anthony Abbot, Saint Anthony of Egypt, Saint Anthony of the Desert, Saint Anthony the Anchorite, Abba Antonius and The Father of All Monks.
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Heraldry in its most general sense encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of officers of arms.[1] To most, though, heraldry is the practice of designing, displaying, describing, and recording coats of arms and badges.
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Louis XIV (baptised as Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715) ruled as King of France and of Navarre.

He acceded to the throne on May 14 1643, a few months before his fifth birthday, but did not assume actual personal control of the
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salamander is an amphibian of the order Urodela. As with many real creatures, pre-modern authors often ascribed fantastic qualities to it (compare the allegorical descriptions of animals in Medieval bestiaries), and in recent times some have come to identify a legendary salamander
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Francis I the Father and Restorer of Letters
King of France, Count of Provence (more...)

Reign 1 January 1515 – 31 March 1547
Coronation 25 January 1515, Reims
Titles Count of Angoulême (1496 – 1515)
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S. scrofa

Binomial name
Sus scrofa
Linnaeus, 1758

The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig.
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King Richard III of England
By the Grace of God, King of England
and France and Lord of Ireland

Reign 20 June 1483 - 22 August 1485
Coronation 6 July 1483
Born 2 September 1452(
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A medal is a small metal object, usually engraved with insignia, that is awarded to a person for athletic, military, scientific, academic or some other kind of achievement. There also exist devotional medals, worn to indicate religious faith.
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Pisanello (or Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto), or erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, (c. 1395 – probably 1455) was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento.
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Symbols are objects, characters, or other concrete representations of ideas, concepts, or other abstractions. For example, in the United States, Canada and Great Britain, a red octagon is a symbol for the traffic sign meaning "STOP".
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International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement French: Mouvement international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge, is an international humanitarian movement whose stated mission is to protect human life and health, to ensure
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International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement French: Mouvement international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge, is an international humanitarian movement whose stated mission is to protect human life and health, to ensure
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crescent is generally the shape produced when a circular disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points (usually in such a manner that the enclosed shape
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skull and crossbones is a symbol consisting of a human skull and two bones crossed together under the skull. Today, it is generally used as a warning of danger (usually in regard to poisonous substances).
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Skull symbolism is the attachment of symbolic meaning to the skull, generally human. The most common symbolic use of the skull is as a representation of death and mortality.
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