The Monk
As the German name for Munich, i.e. München, means "of Monks", the monk in this case is a self-explanatory symbol who represents the city of Munich. The figure is portrayed wearing a golden trimmed black cowl with a black hood and red shoes. The right hand is raised and the left carries a red book.
The open right hand of the monk is interpreted as an oath-making gesture, or a blessing gesture in Christian tradition. The red book in the left hand refers to the oath book of the city (in accordance with the gesture of the right hand), or the munincipal law book which is bounded in red and has been handed down since 1365. Another interpretation is that it is a gospel book.
When the Munich town administration developed a constitution of its council, a seal was necessary for the purposes of asserting the authenticity of town-council documents. Appearing on a document of May 28, 1239, the oldest seal of Munich has a picture of a monk wearing an open hood. While all seal impressions show the monk with the book in one hand and three outstretched fingers in the other, the monk has varied slightly, appearing in profile, then later full-faced and bare-headed. The monk as a sole heraldic figure can be found on a seal dating from the year 1304, and on flags of the city since the middle of the 14th century. Colourful representations of the town's coat of arms stem from the 15th century.
Read more about this topic: Coat Of Arms Of Munich
Famous quotes containing the word monk:
“At the time there was a claustral monk named Frere Jean of the Hashes, who was young, gallant, joyful, good natured, dextrous, bold, adventurous, thoughtful, tall, thin, with a capacious mouth, gifted in the nose, a great dispatcher of hours, quite an accomplisher of masses, a quick doer-in of vigils,—to put it in a nutshell, a true monk if ever there’s been one since this monk of a world first monked out a monk; moreover, a cleric to his very teeth in matters of the breviary.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“A monk ther was, a fair for the maistrie,
An outridere, that lovede venerie,
A manly man, to been an abbot able.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)