The Zürich armorial (German: ''Zürcher Wappenrolle'') is a

roll of arms A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coat of arms, coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms. The oldest extant armorials date to the m ...

made in presumably in what is now eastern Switzerland (in or near what is now the canton of St. Gallen); it is now kept in the Swiss National Museum in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. The document was owned by Zürich naturalist and historian Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672–1733). Its previous history is unknown. It was given to the Zürich city library by Scheuchzer's nephew in 1750. The Zürich armorial is one of the oldest and most important surviving collection of arms of the lower nobility of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

. Its geographical focus is that of greater Swabia, including the

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

area, German-speaking Switzerland, Elsass, and

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

. It consisted of four parchment strips 12.5 cm wide, with a combined length of four meters. One of the four parts was lost; on the surviving three parchment strips, a total of 559 coats of arms and 28 flags of bishoprics are depicted. A further 108 coats of arms depicted on the lost portion survive in manuscript copies, including one in the library of the counts of Königsegg-Aulendorf and one made by Hans Conrad Bernhauser (1698–1761) kept in Zürich Central Library.

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Digitalized
at e-codices {{DEFAULTSORT:Zurich armorial Rolls of arms Heraldry of the Holy Roman Empire Medieval history of Switzerland 14th-century manuscripts Illuminated heraldic manuscripts

See also

External links