City Seals as Representational Culture

城市印章是中世纪城市在动态历史变迁中通过自我认知而形成的，同时也是文化认同产生的媒介。换言之，城市印章是迪尔凯姆所定义的社会再现的历史材料。与普遍的假设相反，这些符号所代表的城市的性质往往不表现出世俗特征。相反，它们在基督教图像的范围内描绘了城市的身份，在这些城市中，城市将自己视为综合的宗教社区。本研究可以证明，城市印章代表了城市参与的多维权力关系及其在这种情况下的自我感知。

City seals, which have taken forms through self recognition of medieval cities in the dynamic transition of history, are at the same time the media through which the cultural identity is generated. In other words, city seals are historical materials of social representation, as defined by Durkheim. Contrary to the prevalent assumption, nature of cities represented in those symbols often does not demonstrate secular characteristics. Rather, they depict the identities of cities within the boundaries of Christian iconography, in which the cities viewed themselves as integrated religious communities. This study can demonstrate that city seals represent the multidimensional power relationships the cities took parts in and their self perceptions in such circumstances.