kwaw
DoctorArcanus said:Bishops do not usually wear crowns (Popes do). We recently discussed the case of Prince-Bishops, that wear a coronated-mitre (quite rare in iconography). I am not aware of images of St. Augustine wearing a crown.
Marco
Coronated mitres of prince-bishops can be found, perhaps more commonly (though still comparitively rare), in heraldry and imprese, especially of those warrior prince-bishops of the crusades. The relevance of the mitre in heraldry, and even more so in imprese, is often obscure to the point of being indecipherable [often purposely so, especially in imprese, the joy of decipherment considered being part of their 'charm' or 'allure']. There is one achievement I have seen with a moorish woman, in the lower part carrying a mitre, and at the helm wearing it, with a fleur de lyse on the opposite side [fleur de lyse were quite common in Muslim arms, along with the lion and eagle. They [the moors] called it 'frankish' so probably got it from the French or the merchants of Florence - as it was a symbol of the trinity to Christians it was a symbol of the three people of the book, Muslims, Christian and Jews, to the moors]. Why a 'Moorish' woman should be shown wearing a mitre I don't know. The rosette was also a common emblem of Muslim heraldry, in this case originating from the east, possibly China. {Here the colour and number of petals is significant - gold being superior to silver, 6 petals superior to 5, superior as in signifying higher in rank that is}. But I am beginning to veer off topic so I will stop here.
Kwaw