It was one of the privileges of the Council to have a seal of its
own. Both Mayor and Council had their own seals. The Mayor’s seal,
known to have existed from A.D. 1225 onwards, was of red wax
bearing the Imperial Eagle originally looking to
The seals, both of the Mayor and of the Council, though not arms,
were used as such; however, their real character was well
understood. Even in 1477 the Council decreed that the window which
the city proposed to place in the choir of St. Lawrence’s Church
should be adorned “with the arms of the Council and the privy and
common arms of the city.” Here a distinction is expressly made
between the seal and the arms.
However, the proper arms of the town were—Bendy of six Gules and
Argent impaling Or an Imperial eagle dimidiated, sable. The dexter
side of the shield is often incorrectly represented as Gules, three
bendlets argent. It is also wrong to describe it (as many writers
have done), as Barry of six, gules and argent.
Meisterlin applies to the dexter side the term Field of Swabia,
which we only mention here because it is still occasionally
employed. He gives the same name to the district in which Nuremberg
lies (apparently by confusion with the “Gau” of Sualafeld).
Nuremberg has accordingly nothing to do with Swabia, as was
probably inferred centuries ago. The origin of the arms is obscure.
It is however worth mentioning that the Burggraves of Nuremberg
bore this “Field of Swabia” as a bordure on their arms. These arms,
as we said before, have been used since the second half of the
fourteenth century as the counter-seal of the city seal above
mentioned, as also on stamped parchment and stamped paper (only
introduced towards the end of the seventeenth century), on coins
struck at Nuremberg, on public buildings, etc.
The human head on the eagle of the privy seal, afterwards called
the “Eagle-Maiden,” is explained by Mummenhoff as the face of an
emperor with long flowing locks and the Imperial crown on his head.
It retains this character throughout the Middle Ages both on the
seal, and also when the seal was used as a coat-of-arms. Mummenhoff
instances in particular the fine eagle on the town side of the
upper story of the Thiergärtner-Gate-Tower. With Albert Durer,
however, begins the quite unhistorical transfiguration of this
eagle. The emperor’s face was no longer understood and was mistaken
for a female face; and thus in course of time a series of
unjustifiable embellishments produced a coat-of-arms bearing a
maiden, described by even a modern historian as an “Eagle-Maiden.”
In quite recent times a mural crown has been set upon her head. We
will pass over the jesting explanations formerly given for this
seeming Eagle-Maiden, which would be untenable, were they even
serious. We need only mention that when the arms are set out in
colours the eagle is Or and the field Azure (and very often Vert).
These three coats-of-arms (counting the seals as coats) arranged in
different ways were employed on public monuments, buildings and
coins, and afterwards on all publications, commissions, ordinances,
etc., issued by the Council. Usually the simple eagle is at the
top, the so-called Eagle-Maiden below on the right, and the Bends
impaling the dimidiated eagle on the left. Frequently, especially
on the coins, only the eagle-maiden and the dimidiated eagle
appear. Sometimes also we find the Imperial eagle without the
shield surmounting the two lower coats, and, as it were, protecting
them with its wings.
The double-headed crowned eagle also frequently occurs, for example
on the old Fünferhaus (now the Post-Office) with the date 1521.
Here it appears alone, whereas on the Tugendbrunnen it is
associated with the eagle-maiden and the impaled dimidiated eagle.
It was also employed on the eastern part of the city wall, both on
the bastion near the Wöhrderthürlein (pulled down in 1871) and on
the line of wall. A really handsome example of this double-headed
eagle is to be seen on the entrance to the new Rathaus building
from the Fünferplatz. This eagle dates from the seventeenth century
and was formerly placed on the arsenal, and consequently bears the
inscription:—
According to Lochner it appears to have been left to the taste of
the artist whether in such combinations this the real Imperial
eagle, or the one-headed, uncrowned eagle of the Mayor should be
used.
