Giro d'Italia 2021

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Chris Green
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Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Chris Green » 07 May 2021, 21:06

Time for another heraldic Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy). I managed three years in a row - 2016-18, the heraldry of which may still be found in the relevant threads. Will the legs hold out for a fourth Giro?

The first stage tomorrow (Saturday) is a short time trial that doesn't take the cyclists out of Torino (Turin).

The arms of Torino are these:

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Blazon: D’azzurro al toro furioso d’oro cornato d’argento. Lo scudo sarà fregiato della corona comitale.


I said it when the Giro visited Turin for the last stage in 2016 and, at the risk of seeming boring, I'll say it again. The bull as depicted is rampant (it is even smiling!). To me this is "furioso":

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"Taurus" is of course the Latin for "bull". So, as the city was called Julia Augusta Taurinorum by the Romans, one might reasonably say that these arms are canting. However "Taurinorum" did not mean "of the bulls" but "of the Taurini" the Taurini being the local Celtic tribe.
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Chris Green » 09 May 2021, 07:52

Sunday's stage starts in Nicelino, which is a city within the metropolitan area of Turin. It grew from a small town to its present 50,000+ thanks to becoming a dormitory for workers who commute to the FIAT factory. It does have a coat of arms, but the only example of it I could find was so small that I would be risking our eyesight by using it. Instead, here are the arms of the province of Torino, which were historically the arms of the Prince of Piedmont, first son of the King of Savoy. Hence the arms are Savoy with a label of three points.

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The route heads South for a while before settling on a North-Easterly direction through the valley of the River Po.The mountain specialists will have to wait for their chances to shine.

The riders pass through Tricerro, whose arms are canting. "Cerro" is the Italian name for the Turkey or Austrian oak (Quercus Cerris).

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Blazon: D’argento, al cerro al naturale, sradicato di tre rami, fogliati di verde e disposti a ventaglio, asccompagnato in punta dalla scritta centrata di nero: TRIBVS CERRI.


"Tribus Cerri" is Latin for "Tribe of the Cerro". Whether there was such a tribe before the Romans conquered the Ligurians I cannot say. There does however seem to be a canting pun in the words. "Tribus" to the Romans originally meant one third of the Roman population. "Tri-cerro" and the topiary of the tree into three branches suggests a very conscious effort to milk the pun for all its worth.

The next city on the route is Vercelli whose arms might equally be those of England, if England had a coat of arms. They were granted as recently as 1929, but must have been in use informally long before that.

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Blazon: D’argento alla croce di rosso.


The finishing line is at Novara, whose arms, granted in 1928 are the undifferenced arms of Savoy. How this came about is a mystery. Novara was important to Savoy but not its origin.

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Novara was the site of a major battle in 1513 when the Swiss overwhelmed a French army and drove them out of Italy. It was also the site of the Battle of Bicocca in 1849 when the Austrians under General Radetzky (he of the march) defeated a Sardinian army (Savoy had become part of the Kingdom of Sardinia).
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Martin Goldstraw » 09 May 2021, 09:51

Christian, all of this would make an interesting talk (or series of talks) on Zoom.
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Chris Green » 09 May 2021, 10:14

Or not. :o
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Jeremy Fox » 09 May 2021, 13:14

I think - "Gules, a cross argent" : "argent, a cross gules":: Ghibelline : Guelph.

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Re: Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Chris Green » 09 May 2021, 15:03

Jeremy Fox wrote:I think - "Gules, a cross argent" : "argent, a cross gules":: Ghibelline : Guelph.


So it seems. I was aware of the Guelph "capo d'Angio" (chief of Anjou) and the Ghibelline "capo dell'impero" (chief of the empire). But the use of the crosses to indicate allegiance to one faction or the other had passed me by. The problem with this identification is that it always needs to be verified. Gules a cross argent were the arms of the County/Duchy of Savoy, which was not by any means uniformly Ghibelline.
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Jeremy Fox » 09 May 2021, 18:50

Indeed, the assertion could only hold good within relatvely narrow limits of history and geography - England flew the red cross on a white field centuries before she gave allegiance to the Guelph. And, as you say, loyalties change.

I was just struck by the adjacence in your post of the symbols of those erstwhile enemies.

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Re: Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Chris Green » 10 May 2021, 06:35

Monday's stage starts from Biella, to the West of yesterday's finish.

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Blazon: D'oro, all'olmo al naturale nodrito sul terrazzo erboso di verde, all'orso al naturale passante ai piedi dell'olmo.


An "olmo" is a beech tree. When the arms were originally granted in 1660 there may still have been a few Marsican brown bears in the Alps not far from Biella. But their survival in Italy is in doubt.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200603-is-skiing-bad-for-mountain-wildlife#:~:text=A%20case%20in%20point%20comes,Marsican%20brown%20bears%20known%20today.

From Biella the route takes the race almost directly South, eastwards of Turin and passing through Asti whose arms are the same Gules a Cross Argent as Novara, and for the same reason as explained by Jeremy Fox yesterday.

At the village of Castino the route begins a sharp deviation northwards. I include the (sadly miniature) arms of Castino as they exhibit the Ghibelline "capo d'imperio" (chief of the Empire).

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The finish is at Canale whose arms are simple, straightforward, and of course fracture the tincture "rule".

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For those, particularly in Nordic lands, who treat the "rule" seriously, the mullet or on an argent field will never be acceptable. But symmetry is also important, and here the herald considered that symmetry outweighed the tincture "rule". Was (s)he wrong?
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Arthur Radburn » 10 May 2021, 10:15

Chris Green wrote:At the village of Castino the route begins a sharp deviation northwards. I include the (sadly miniature) arms of Castino as they exhibit the Ghibelline "capo d'imperio" (chief of the Empire).

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An interesting variant. AFAIK, the usual form of the capo d'impero is Or an eagle displayed Sable.
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Re: Giro d'Italia 2021

Postby Chris Green » 11 May 2021, 11:54

Tuesday's rainy stage starts from Piacenza somewhat to the East of where we have been up to now. Piacenza's arms eschew the Guelph/Ghibelline controversy entirely.

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Blazon: Partito al primo di rosso al dado d'argento; al secondo d'argento alla lupa d'azzurro, lampassata di rosso, passante


So today's first mystery is: what is the English heraldic term for the square charge that the Italians call "dado"? The French term is "carreau". "Tile" has been suggested, but that's just a guess.

The arms may not reveal the allegiance of the city but the 13th century Palazzo Comunale certainly does, with its Ghibelline merlons.

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Today's finish is in the mountains outside Sestola. It is a pity that I can't find the Italian blazon of Sestola's arms, since the two curves present something of a conundrum.

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In English are they barrulets? Probably. But how does one describe the curve? And aren't they slightly wider at the ends than in the middle (or are my eyes deceiving me)?
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