Biscione

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Heraldic animal

title: "Biscione" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["culture-in-milan", "fictional-snakes", "heraldic-beasts", "history-of-milan", "house-of-sforza", "house-of-visconti", "italian-heraldry", "italian-legendary-creatures", "legendary-serpents", "snakes-in-art"] description: "Heraldic animal" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscione" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Heraldic animal ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Arms_of_the_House_of_Visconti_(1395).svg" caption="The coat of arms of the [[Visconti of Milan]] showing the ''biscione'' wearing a crown"] ::

The biscione (English: "big grass snake"), less commonly known also as the vipera, is in heraldry a charge consisting of a divine serpent with a child in its mouth; the serpent may be variously described as being in the act of swallowing the child, or the child may be emerging from its mouth. It is a historic symbol of the city of Milan, used by companies based in the city.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/9647_-Milano-Sant'Ambrogio-Serpente_di_Basilio_II(1007)_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall'Orto_25-Apr-2007.jpg" caption="The bronzed serpent brought to [[Milan]] from [[Constantinople]] in the 11th century, today in the [[Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio]], is thought to have inspired the ''biscione''."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Castello_Sforzesco_108.jpg" caption="[[Sforza Castle"] ::

Etymologically, word biscione is a masculine augmentative of Italian feminine biscia "grass snake" (corrupted from bistia, ultimately from Latin bestia "beast"). Its iconographic origins date back to paleochristian times, to the biblical story of Jonah and the Leviathan in the act of swallowing (and/or regurgitating) him, a common motif representing the resurrection. It has been claimed that it was taken from the coat of arms of a Saracen killed by Ottone Visconti during the Crusades"). Additionally, a man being swallowed by a serpent but being rescued features in a number of legends about Theoderic the Great, most prominently in the poem Virginal, where the city of Arona, which was owned by the Visconti, is featured. The figure may also represent the circumpolar constellation Draco, from whose "mouth" emerges the brilliant star Vega, in constellation Lyra (symbolized as a falling vulture in Arabian astronomy; Lyra is near Cygnus, which is the "Chicken" in Arabian astronomy; Jonah may be related to both, because it means "Dove"), or also a symbol of the "coiling" path of the Moon towards the eclipse points.

The charge became associated with the city after the Visconti family gained control over Milan 1277; Bonvesin da la Riva records it in his De magnalibus urbis Mediolani (On the Marvels of the City of Milan) as a Visconti symbol no later than the end of the 13th century. The symbol may have been derived from a bronzed serpent brought to Milan from Constantinople by Arnolf II of Arsago (Archbishop of Milan 998–1018) in the 11th century.

One of the oldest depictions of the Biscione is in the Great Hall of the Visconti Castle of Angera. The hall was painted at the end of the 13th century with frescoes celebrating Archbishop Ottone Visconti's victory against the rival family of the Della Torre. The viper swallowing a small human figure is depicted in the pendentives of the hall.

The biscione remained associated with the Duchy of Milan even after the Visconti line died out in the 15th century. The House of Sforza incorporated the symbol into their armorial after taking the duchy.

A Renaissance Milanese writer described the insignia of the Duke of Milan in 1531: Exiliens infans sinuosi e faucibus anguis, Est gentilitiis nobile stemma tuis. Talia Pellaeum gesisse nomismata regem, Vidimus, hisque suum concelebrare genus. Dum se Ammone satum, matrem anguis imagine lusam, Divini & sobolem seminis esse docet. Ore exit tradunt sic quosdam enitier angues, An quia sic Pallas de capite orta Iovis. An infant bursting from the maw of a coiling serpent marks the noble lineage of your clan. We have observed that the Pellaean king had coinage with such a device and by it celebrated his own descent, proclaiming that he was begotten of Ammon, that his mother was beguiled by the form of a snake and the child was the offspring of divine seed. The infant emerges from the mouth. They say that some snakes come to birth that way. Or is it because Pallas sprang like this from the head of Jove? |sign=Andrea Alciato

Contemporary use

As a symbol of Milan, the biscione is used by multiple organizations associated with or based in the city. Football club Inter Milan is commonly represented by a biscione, and the team's 2010–11 and 2021–22 away shirts prominently featured the symbol. Milan-based auto manufacturer Alfa Romeo (also known as the Casa del Biscione, Italian for "House of the Biscione" or "Biscione['s] marque") includes a biscione in its logo impaled with a red cross on white (derived from the flag of Milan), as does espresso machine manufacturer . The late Italian media mogul and former Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi, who was born and raised in Milan, used stylized biscione symbols in the logos for his companies Mediaset and Fininvest (with the child replaced by a flower); his residential zones Milano Due and Milano Tre and the Mediaset-owned television channel Canale 5 also use biscione-inspired imagery.

Outside Milan, a similar design is found in the seals of the Hungarian nobleman Nicholas I Garai, palatine to the King of Hungary (1375–1385). Here the crowned snake devours a sovereign's orb, rather than a human. The arms of the towns of Sanok in Poland and Pruzhany in Belarus also feature the symbol, honoring the marriage of Bona Sforza to Sigismund I of Poland while both towns were part of Poland–Lithuania.

Similar symbols

Comparable to the biscione are some depictions of the Hindu deity Matsya. While his form is referred to as anthropomorphically having a humanoid upper half, and his lower half as that of a fish, some depictions show him with his upper body emerging from the mouth of a fish. In early Christian art of the catacombs, the Old Testament prophet Jonah is depicted as a man being swallowed by a serpent-like Leviathan, a sea creature of Hebrew myth.

Coats of arms, flags and symbols bearing the ''biscione''

Following the historical-dynastic events linked to the Visconti and Sforza families, the biscione appears as part of the municipal coat of arms also of cities and municipalities in Central-Eastern Europe:

Historically, it appeared in the coats of arms of the following states:

Gallery

File:IMG 3734 - Milano - Stemma visconteo- sull'Arcivescovado - Foto di Giovanni Dall'Orto - 15-jan-2007.jpg|Depiction of the biscione swallowing a child, the coat of arms of the House of Visconti, on the Archbishop's palace in Piazza Duomo in Milan, Italy File:IMG 6095 - Milano - Sant'Eustorgio - Cappella Visconti - San Giorgio, e stemma Visconti - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto -2-Mar-2007.jpg|The biscione above the tomb of Stefano Visconti and Valentina Doria in the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio File:Monnaie - Italie, Seigneurie de Milan, Barnabò Visconti, Galeazzo II Visconti, Gros, 1355-1378, Milan - btv1b11311860w (1 of 2).jpg|Coinage of the Lordship of Milan, featuring a biscione File:IMG 7177 - Milano - Staz. C.le - Biscione visconteo usato come stemma di MI - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto 18-Mar-2007.jpg|Milano Centrale railway station, 1931 File:Ingeram Codex 048.jpg|Ingeram Codex, 1459 File:Facciata Santa Maria Incoronata.jpg|The biscione on the facade of the Santa Maria Incoronata, 15th century File:Vigevano-porta di via xx settembre.jpg|Gate of Vigevano File:Albrecht Altdorfer 043.jpg|"The restoration of Milan to the Empire"

Notes

References

Sources

References

  1. {{harvp. Reina. 2018
  2. {{harvp. Reina. 2018
  3. {{harvp. Dunlop. 2009
  4. (1909). "A Complete Guide to Heraldry: Illustrated by Nine Plates and Nearly 800 Other Designs". T.C. & E.C. Jack.
  5. Alciati, Andrea. (1531). "Alciato at Glasgow: Emblem: INSIGNIA DUCATUS MEDIOLANENSEM". H. Steyner.
  6. (2007). "Ugod". magyar állam millenniumára. Elektronikus megjelenítés: NKÖEOK Szerkesztőség.

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culture-in-milanfictional-snakesheraldic-beastshistory-of-milanhouse-of-sforzahouse-of-viscontiitalian-heraldryitalian-legendary-creatureslegendary-serpentssnakes-in-art