Seeing Proof of Townsmen on the Move: Coats of Arms, Chivalric Badges, and Travel in the Later Middle Ages

Abstract

Abstract In the later Middle Ages, traveling to sacred places and foreign courts promised honor, not least to residents of cities keen to advance their status within and beyond urban society. But the symbolic capital promised by travel had to be rendered recognizable. To this end, the inhabitants of German-speaking cities also relied on coats of arms and badges of chivalric orders, as this essay will show by looking at travel accounts, visual sources, and material remains. Analogous to noble customs, these signs were meant to record the presence of townsmen abroad and to commemorate their achievements as travelers once back in their hometowns. From town houses and church decorations to conspicuous dress, the urban space was filled with visual reminders of spatial mobility displayed for the purpose of social mobility. As it becomes clear that contemporaries were acutely aware of travelers’ ambitions, the heraldic and para-heraldic communication of travel emerges as a prominent and at times contested element of urban visual and material culture.