Stemma Tornabuoni

[Hugh Tornabene]

In the Metropolitan Museum in New York, is exhibited a beautiful Baptismal Tray, from 1449.
On the "Verso" (the reverse side) is inscribed the Stemma Tornabuoni from this date.
Also, inside a church in Firenze is a memorial to a Tornabuoni Bishop, showing the
Stemma Tornabuoni from about 1479.
On the outside of another church in Firenze, Santo Stefano in Pane, is another old version
of the Stemma Tornabuoni, in Ceramic. The date I do not know.
I have good photographs of all three, in color.
The oldest, the baptismal tray, is very faded and scratched. The Bishop Memorial looks repainted.
The ceramic version is damaged.
However, all three are in substantial agreement as to the design and colors and also follow
fairly faithfully the description formulated when the stemma and the actual name Tornabuoni
were created 19 November 1393:
"Scutum ad quarteria per schisa, ad quarteriem de super, et quarteriem de subtus coloris aurei,
et alia quarteria a lateribus coloris viridis, et cum leone in dicto scuto rampante, capiente omnia
quarteria dicti scuti, et habitente colorem viridem in quarteriis aureis, et colorem aureum in
quarteriis viridis, cum ungulis coloris rubei, cum scuto campi albi ad collum cum croce rubea,
et cum corigia rubea que tenet dictum scutum."

A later design, by the descendants of the Tornabuoni, the Tornabene in Sicilia, has echoes of the
original design and was recorded in 1670:
"Un leone rampante azzurro in campo d'oro, e di sopra due linie, crociata a guisa di Croce di
Sant'Andrea ne vacui collaterali d'azzuro".
It seems to me that the "Croce di Sant'Andrea" echoes the "quarteria per schisa" of the original
which quarteria were in the form of a Croce di Sant'Andrea.
I have, in my personal possession, a rendering of this design from 1899 on the elegant
certificate of appointment of my great grandfather Francesco Tornabene to become a Baron.
It is a family heirloom.
Hugh Tornabene. Maryland, USA. htinusa@aol.com