City Seals as Representational Culture

城市印章是在历史的动态转型中通过对中世纪城市的自我认识而形成的，同时也是文化身份生成的媒介。换句话说，正如涂尔干所定义的那样，城市印章是社会表现的历史材料。与流行的假设相反，这些符号所代表的城市性质往往不表现出世俗特征。相反，它们描绘了基督教肖像学边界内的城市身份，在基督教肖像学中，城市将自己视为一体化的宗教社区。这项研究可以证明，城市印章代表了城市参与的多维权力关系以及城市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.