#manuel i

Portugal, Manuel I (1495-1521)

Portugues of 10 Cruzados, Lisbon

Royal birthdays for today, May 31st:

Manuel I, King of Portugal, 1469

Agnes of Hesse, Electress of Saxony, 1527

Feodor I, Tsar of Russia, 1557

John George II, Elector of Saxony, 1613

Michael I, King of Poland, 1640

Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, 1923

The 72 Coats of Arms of Portugal

At the dawn of the sixteenth century, Portugal was a kingdom that sought the Omphalos, the navel of the world, the sacred centre where Heaven and Earth could converge. The old Knights Templar, reborn as the Order of Christ in Portuguese territory, had exchanged the horse for the caravel, carrying the Cross across the seas in pursuit of that hidden axis, the legendary Kingdom of Prester John. Navigation was a form of pilgrimage and an act of metaphysical cartography.

This visionary atmosphere conceived the Hall of Coats of Arms in the National Palace of Sintra. Inspired by the ideal of universal harmony, King Manuel I commissioned the painting of 72 coats of arms on its ceiling, a heraldic firmament representing the principal noble families of Portugal. This act was in itself a symbolic architecture of the cosmos.

The number 72 was not a coincidence. In crowning his hall with seventy-two coats of arms, Manuel I performed a metaphysical act: he placed at Sintra the centre he had once sought beyond the seas. The Solar King enthroned himself within a zodiacal mandala: seventy-two rays of the cosmic wheel, the doubling of the thirty-six Egyptian decans, through which Divine energy descends into the manifested world. This same structure underlies the Shem ha-Mephorash (שֵׁם הַמְּפֹרָשׁ), the “Explicit Name” of God composed of seventy-two triads of Hebrew letters extracted from the Book of Exodus.

More at The Mirror of Sienna.

A nice little cup…

Byzantine Empire

BI Aspron Trachy - 31mm 4.14g

Manuel I 1143-1180 AD

Constantinople Mint

Obverse IC XC

Christ seated front, nimbate, holding Book of Gospels

Reverse MANVHA ΔECΠΟ

Manuel I on left, holding labarum and globus cruciger, being crowned by Mary on right, M above Mary, Θ to right

Video explicativo – Rei de Portugal – D. Manuel I

Video explicativo – Rei de Portugal – D. Manuel I Rei Dom Manuel I – O Venturoso

Foi rei da Segunda Dinastia e o decimo quarto Rei de Portugal. Filho de Dom Fernando, Duque de Viseu e de Dona Beatriz, que nasceu em Alcochete a 31 de Maio de 1469 e morreu em Lisboa a 13 de Dezembro de 1521 e está sepultado em Lisboa, no Mosteiro dos…