A prágai Szent Vitus-székesegyház királyi oratóriumának címersora közép-európai összefüggésben

Abstract

The study examines the series of coats of arms of the Hungarian and Bohemian Lands on the late Gothic Royal Oratory of the Cathedral of Saint Vitus in Prague in a Central European context. The analysis of the history of coats of arms of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown, principally that of Bosnia resulted in three new findings. On the one hand, contrary to previous concepts the creation of the series of coats of arms and along with this the completion of the oratory did not took place in the first half of the 1490’s, that is, at the beginning of the reign of Wladislaw, king of Hungary and Bohemia (1490–1516), but presumably in the 1510–1520’s. The occasion must have offered itself during the Bohemian sojourn of Louis II, king of Hungary and Bohemia (1516–1526) and his wife in 1522–1523, and presumably the coronation of Mary of Hungary in the Cathedral of Saint Vitus on June 6, 1522. On the other hand, the Bosnian coat of arms proves that the coats of arms of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown on the Royal Oratory were taken over from the heraldic representation of Emperor Maximilian I in Innsbruck instead of those of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Prague or Buda, where those were present on several such memorials from the late 1490s on (Wappenturm, Triumphzug, Ehrenpforte, etc.). Namely, at this time it was only in Habsburg heraldic representations that Bosnia was represented by the armored arm holding a sword, while in Hungarian practice the south Slavic kingdom’s coat of arms included two crowns. Thirdly, based on new research it can be stated that the coat of arms of Upper Lusatia, situated on the balustrade, could have been placed among the coats of arms of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown only during an erroneous restoration attempt at the end of the 19th century. Originally the coat of arms standing between those of the kingdoms of Dalmatia and Bosnia must have been that of Croatia whose checkered coat of arms was probably confused with the similar one of Upper Lusatia depicting a castle wall.