THE BORROMEO HERALDRY
Noble coats of arms have a precise function: to identify a person or a family unambiguously.
They were adopted starting from the Middle Ages and initially had a function that was more practical than noble: they served to distinguish between the warriors taking part in tournaments and battles.
With the regulating of the use of coats of arms and blazons of arms, the latter became distinctive elements of noble lineages but also of ecclesiastical roles.
Over the centuries the Borromeo family too has developed its own original coat of arms following alliances, marriages, variations in status and territorial conquests.
The heraldic coat of arms of the Borromeo Arese family is composed of various elements. Some are known extensively, such as the unicorn, the camel or the cedar tree, but their structure is not always clear.
It is composed of a central shield divided into a number of parts and many decorative elements added over the centuries, such as helmets or mottos. Inside the shield, the family coat of arms known today shows the silver bit, a blue snake, crowned and represented in the act of swallowing a little boy.
On the left, a black eagle with crown on a gilded field and its black wings lowered on a silver field symbolise the first-born of the Arese family and were added following the marriage of Renato Borromeo to Giulia Arese in 1652.
Standing out against the rest of the coat of arms is the motto Humilitas, written in Gothic letters and surmounted by a gold crown with heraldic flowers, these too gilded.
The coat of arms rests under a soft red mantle, lined with ermine with gold fringes, surmounted by a princely crown and two helmets, one bearing a snake with a winged human head, the other with the camel that is already present on the shield.
The insertion of the central core of the shield dates back to the 15th century: for example, the pronged crown was adopted when Vitaliano Borromeo I was named Count of Arona in 1445; the sea waves would seem to belong to the branch of the Vitaliani in Padua, while the bit is referable to the victory over the Swiss.
The three diamond-tipped rings represent the Sforza, Visconti and Borromeo families.
They symbolise the union of the three families and the gift received from Filippo Maria Visconti and Francesco Sforza as a reward for having safeguarded their territories.
The blond braids tied by a pink bow represent the hair of Saint Justina, the Christian martyr, patron saint of the Borromeo and the Vitaliani families, with which the family is still associated today. The union of the two branches of the Vitaliani and the Borromeo families is further reinforced by the presence of the cerulean waves (Vitaliani) and the red and green bands (Borromeo).
The family coat of arms, and above all the motto Humilitas, are elements that have now become so famous that they are recognisable on the façades of churches and buildings, on books and porcelains, taking us back to the glorious past of the family that is still visible and admirable today.
The “Borromeo knot” consisting of the three rings, the symbol of an inseparable bond, was used by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan to illustrate his psychoanalytical theory of the three registers – Real, Symbolic and Imaginary – and is discussed in molecular chemistry as the most microscopic example in knot theory.
The symbol also appears on the cover of the fourth album by the historic rock band Led Zeppelin.
