Dear Friends,
Often reading your interesting forum, several days ago I decided to register, to ask few questions and doubts about the great coat of arms of Venice.
Great CoA of Venice
Namely, I'm researching coat of arms of Rascia, which is part of coat of arms of Kingdom Dalmatia, and I'm trying to find connection between its medieval source and its representation in the arms of Venice. However, searching for the beginnings of great arms of Venice, I couldn't find anywhere from when it dates? All I have found, are the earliest sources that mention its blazon, like the Beaziano's L'araldo veneto (1680) or Freschots Li pregi della nobiltà veneta (1682). Anything earlier than that, I could find, and in these and all later sources I have checked, I couldn't find anything about its early history.
So, I was interesting, could you help me to answer fist this one question?
The second one might be harder, but I'll try, it is about the arms of Rascia (d'oro con trè ferri di Cauallo neri per Raſcia, Beaziano, 1680). From which source it could be taken? I know that it dates from 14/15th century, but at that moment it isn't yet named as Rascia, but as the grove vô dem nuwenberge in Sernẏe - count of Novo Brdo in Serbia. So the first attribution of this blazon to Rascia is that one in the arms of Venice.
Meanwhile, probably in Ragusa, on the end of 16th century, is created manuscript in heraldry science known as Illyrian Armorial, which also contain coat of arms of Rascia, but here it isn't with Or shild, but with Azure. Because of that, it is believed that those two versions of the same arms, didn't have the same source, but that there was one older, which was used in creating of the arms of Rascia in great arms of Venice, and the later one which was used in Illyrian armorial.
CoA of Rascia from Illyrian armorial
It is interesting that the oldest version of this arms, were Argent on Or, which was later converted to Sable on Or, but some authors as Galvani in his work Il Re d' Armi di Sebenico (1884), mention this oldest version as the arms of Rascia.
CoA of Rascia from Galvani's book
I don't have much access to Italian heraldic sources, but I have saw some mentions of this coat of arms, usually without availability to check it properly, and just sawing the picture of the arms in some book, or partly mention of the arms. If you could help me, I would be very grateful to you.