The Migration of Emblems through Nürnberg’s History: From Triumph to Civic Memory

In 1612 the Holy Roman Emperor Matthias I entered Nürnberg. In his honor the same triumphal arch that had been used for the entries of Charles V (1541) and Maximilian II (1570) was re-erected and newly decorated for this specific occasion. On the arch’s top, below the obelisk, were four bird statues that can be identified as emblems borrowed from Alciato, Camerarius, and the Altdorf Academy. For the triumphal arch, however, they were made into free standing, three-dimensional statues.

This essay examines the journey of the four birds from Nürnberg, as shown through their various incarnations. From the academy prize medals at Altdorf to the ephemeral triumphal arch, to the paintings of the Nürnberg Town Hall, to Rem’s and Isselburg’s printed book Emblemata Politica, and finally to Michael Rötenbeck’s Newberry manuscript Wing MS 279, all four avian emblems appear only in textual form. With Rötenbeck, however, these emblematic birds were documented as part of Nürnberg’s visual legacy and public imagination, thereby acquiring a new position as city emblems.