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
Etymologically, word
biscione is a masculine
augmentative of Italian feminine
biscia "
grass snake" (corrupted from
bistia, ultimately from Latin bestia "beast").
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.
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 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.[ Page 257] 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:
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 Globus cruciger, rather than a human.
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
-
Province of Alessandria
-
Province of Asti
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Asti, Rione San Silvestro
-
Province of Bergamo
-
Province of Brescia
-
Province of Como
-
Province of Cremona
-
Province of Lecco
-
Province of Lodi
-
Province of Mantua
-
Province of Milan
-
Province of Monza and Brianza
-
Province of Novara
-
Province of Parma
-
Province of Pavia
-
Province of Sondrio
-
Province of Varese
-
Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola
-
Ticino
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:
-
Lordship of Milan
-
Duchy of Milan
-
Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)
-
Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia
See also
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
Sources
Further reading
External links
