Iron Crown
Iron Crown | |
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Nail purportedly used at the Crucifixion of Jesus |
The Iron Crown (in
Description
The Iron Crown is so called because it contains a one-centimetre-wide band within it, that is said to have been beaten out of a
Legend
According to tradition,
According to another tradition reported by the historian Valeriana Maspero, the helm and the bit of Constantine were brought to
The crown was used in Charlemagne's coronation as King of the Lombards in 774.[3]
History
The crown was certainly in use for the coronation of the kings of Italy by the 14th century, and supposedly since at least the 11th.
Old research dates the crown to the 8th or early 9th century.[note 2] However, according to a more recent study, the crown in its current state is the result of two different works made between the 4–5th and the 9th century. This seems to validate the legends about the origin of the crown, that date it back to the Lombard era.[1] In reality, the Lombard royalty ignored the coronation ceremonies. As for other Germanic populations, the ritual of accession was an acclamation by the armed people in the royal palace of Pavia, during which the sovereign received a lance as symbol of his power.[4]
Finally, Twining cites a study by
Thirty-four supposed coronations with the Iron Crown were counted by the historian Bartolomeo Zucchi from the 9th to the 17th century (beginning with Charlemagne). The Encyclopædia Britannica states that the first reliable record of the use of the Iron Crown in the coronation of a King of Italy is that of the coronation of Henry VII in 1312.[8][note 3] Later coronations in which the crown was used include:[citation needed]
- Charles IV (1355, at the presence of Petrarch)
- Sigismund (1431)[9]
- Charles V (1530)
- Napoleon I(1805)
- Ferdinand I of Austria (1838)
Since the 10th century, the
On 26 May 1805
On the occasion, Napoleon founded the
The last to be crowned with the Iron Crown was Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, in his role as King of Lombardy and Venetia.[note 4] This occurred in Milan, on 6 September 1838.
After the Second Italian War of Independence, when the Austrians had to withdraw from Lombardy in 1859, the Iron Crown was moved to Vienna, where it remained until 1866, when it was given back to Italy after the Third Italian War of Independence.
Coronation rite for the kings of Italy
From the 9th to the 18th century, the
The earliest definitively documented use of the Iron Crown in a coronation was at that of
Scientific analysis
In 1993, the crown was subjected to extensive scientific analysis performed by the University of Milan using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis and radiocarbon dating. The XRF analysis on the crown metal revealed that all the foils, rosettes and bezels were made with the same alloy, made of 84–85% gold, 5–7% silver, and 8–10% copper, suggesting a contemporary construction of the main part of the crown, while the fillets external to the enamel plates and the hinge pins were made of 90–91% gold and 9–10% silver, suggesting subsequent reworking.[12]
Three of the 24 vitreous enamel plates are visually different from the others in colour and construction, and were traditionally considered to be later restorations. The XRF analysis confirmed that they were made with a different technique, with their glass being made of potassium salt, while the others are made of sodium salt (sodium is not directly detectable by the XRF analysis).
Radiocarbon dating of fragments of beeswax used to fix the enamel plates to the gold foils of the crown showed that the wax under the "strange" plates was from around 500 AD, while the ones under the "normal" plates came from around 800 AD. This is consistent with the tradition of a more antique crown, further decorated during the reign of Theoderic (with the addition of the enamels), and then extensively restored during the reign of Charlemagne.
The "iron nail" was found to be 99% silver, meaning the crown contains no iron. A note from the Roman Ceremonial of 1159[citation needed] provides that the Iron Crown is so called "quod laminam quondam habet in summitate", stating that the iron was once laid over the crown (probably as an arc, as in other crowns of the era), not into it. Speculations have been made that the silver circle was added by the goldsmith Antellotto Bracciforte, who restored the crown in 1345 to reinforce it given that the (presumed) theft of two plates had weakened the hinges. (Currently, in one of the crown's junctions, two of the plates are not joined by the hinge, which is too damaged, but are held only by the inner silver ring.) In 1352, for the first time, a document (the inventory of the treasury of the Cathedral of Monza) describes the crown as being small.
The gems in the crown are seven red garnets, seven blue corundums (sapphires), four violet amethysts, and four gems made of glass.
Cultural references
A surprising image of the Iron Crown figures in Chapter 37 "Sunset" of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. The brief chapter is devoted to Captain Ahab's soliloquy. Among his delusions of persecution and of grandeur, he imagines himself crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.
The Italian film
In the Father Brown TV series, the crown figures in episode 70 (The Two Deaths of Hercule Flambeau).
Notes
- pastes
- ^ In 1996, ANTARES (Australian National Tandem for Applied Research) tested the samples of the beeswax and clay mixture used to hold the gemstones of the Iron Crown in their settings and concluded that the Iron Crown was made between 700 and 780.[citation needed]
- ^ All other sources give the year of Henry VII's coronation as King of Italy as 1311; 1312 was the year of his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor.
- ^ On this occasion, the Iron Crown itself rested on four corbel S-shaped brackets rising from the rim of the actual circlet that surrounded the Emperor Ferdinand's head and the Iron Crown, in turn, supported four S-shaped half arches supporting a diminutive orb and cross at the top.
References
- ^ a b c "Corona Ferrea, Museo e Tesoro del Duomo di Monza" (in Italian).
Recenti indagini scientifiche fanno prospettare che la Corona, che così come si presenta deriva da interventi realizzati tra il IV–V e il IX secolo, possa essere un’insegna reale tardo-antica, forse ostrogota, passata ai re longobardi...
[Recent scientific investigations envisage that the Crown, which as it is now is derived from works carried between the 4th–5th and 9th centuries, can be a royal insignias of Late Antiquity, perhaps Ostrogoths, passed to the Lombard kings...] - ^ Philipp Blom, To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting, 2002, pp. 146f.
- ^ Antolini, Francesco (1838). "Dei Re d'Italia inaugurati o no con la Corona Ferrea da Odoacre fino al regnante Imperatore Ferdinando I".
- ISBN 978-3-7001-6502-6.
- ^ a b c d Twining, Lord Edward Francis, A History of the Crown Jewels of Europe, B.T. Batsford Ltd., London, 1960.
- ^ "Le gemme della Corona Ferrea". www.goldsmith.it.
- ^ Valeriana Maspero, La corona ferrea. La storia del più antico e celebre simbolo del potere in Europa, Monza, Vittone Editore, 2003, pp. 24–29.
- ^ a b "Iron Crown of Lombardy". Encyclopædia Britannica. July 22, 2013.
- ^ Mandell Creighton: A History of the Papacy During the Period of the Reformation, Cambridge University Press, 2012, Vol. 2, p. 69
- ^ Elliott, Gillian. ""Representing Royal Authority at San Michele Maggiore in Pavia"". Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte 77 (2014). Retrieved 30 July 2022.
- ^ Woolley, Reginard Maxwell (1915). "The Rite of Milan". Coronation Rites. Cambridge: University Press. pp. 116–117.
- ^ Milazzo, M.; Sardella, P. "Analisi XRF quantitativa nelle applicazioni archeometriche" (PDF). Fisica E (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-16.
Further reading
- Buccellatin, Graziella, and Holly Snapp, eds. The Iron Crown and Imperial Europe. (Milan: Mondadori) 3 vols. and plates, 1995, with contributions by Annamaria Ambrosioni, Peter Burke, Carlo Paganini, Reinhard Elze, Roberto Cassanelli, Felipe Ruiz Martin, Alberto Tenenti, Alain Pillepich, Henrike Mraz and Giorgio Rumi.
- Valeriana Maspero, La corona ferrea. La storia del più antico e celebre simbolo del potere in Europa, Vittone Editore, Monza, 2003. (Italian).