File talk:Coat of Arms of the Bulgarian Empire.PNG

Anachronistic and unsourced change of the blazon

When I created the Coat of Arms of the Second Bulgarian Empire on 15 September 2007, I put the following explanation:

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Description: Coat of Arms of the Second Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Tsar Ivan Shishman (1371–1395). The image is based on the original miniature from the end of 14th century, depicted by an anonymous Arab traveller. Source: self-made As a pattern the Coat of Arms of the Emperor of Bulgaria, Armorial by Conrad Grünenberg, Constance Codex, 1483 is used.

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This is the only blazon (or round shield with border in gules, three lions passant guardant in gules), which was recorded in medieval Bulgaria during the reign of Tsar Ivan Shishman:

It is described in "History of Bulgaria", volume 4 The Bulgarian people under Ottoman rule (from XV to the beginning of the XVIII century), Publishing house of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, 1983, page 58, as the Coat of Arms of Bulgaria. The same blazon is described by Ivan Voinikov in his "History of the Bulgarian state symbols" in the chapter "Ruler's symbols of the medieval Bulgaria". It was worn by the royal guards in the Bulgarian capital of Veliko Turnovo, where it was depicted by an anonymous Arab traveller, who visited Turnovo in the second half of the 14th century (now in the King's Archive of Morocco). The same explanation could be seen on the site of the Bulgarian Heraldry and Vexillology Society. When Pakko started his experiments with the image on 26 August 2008, at first he didn't change the description, but when he decided to change the blazon and to replace three lions passant guardant in gules with three lions passant guardant in sable on 1 September 2008, he simply hid the inconvenient part of the description:

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The image is based on the original miniature from the end of 14th century, depicted by an anonymous Arab traveller.

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The current version of the coat of arms with three lions passant guardant in sable wasn't documented in medieval Bulgaria, but was created outside it in Western Europe several decades after its fall under the Ottoman rule, therefore it is anachronistic and inaccurate. In fact it represents a rework of the "Arms of the Emperor of Bulgaria (Der kaiser von Bulgaryen), Armorial by Conrad Grünenberg, Constance Codex, Folio 27b, 1483", which could be seen on the site of the Bulgarian Heraldry and Vexillology Society, mentioned above, in the section "Bulgaria in the Roll of Arms". This blazon is not only anachronistic and unjustified, but stays out of the domestic Bulgarian heraldic tradition (it was never used or documented within Bulgaria), thus destroying the idea of the continuity between the Bulgarian medieval and modern heraldry, which runs through the so called Illyrian heraldic tradition, which strongly influenced Hristofor Zhefarovich and through his "Stemmatographia" the whole Bulgarian Revival tradition. The final result of this process was legitimized in the Turnovo Constitution, according to which the Bulgarian heraldic colors are or and gules. I think that a new and authentic version of the Coat of Arms of the Bulgarian Empire should be created. It has to contain all the elements of the historical blazon of Tsar Ivan Shishman - or round shield with border in gules, thee lions passant guardant in gules. Greetings, Bulgarian Herald (talk) 11:08, 31 December 2008 (UTC)