Presentation

Roman people of the Italian Peninsula, the Italians possess a rich heritage of municipal and regional vexilla, still very much alive alongside the national tricolor.

The Italian flag is attested at the end of the 18th century. Tricolors of all kinds were popular throughout the 19th century. The combination of green, red, and white can be traced on the uniforms of the Milan urban militia. The first official adoption of a flag with these colors occurred in 1797 in the Cispadane Republic. On May 11, 1798, the tricolor with vertical bands was adopted by the Cisalpine Republic. It was chosen as the flag of the Italian state in 1861.

It is noteworthy that the three colors of Italy reprise those of the three factions of the Roman Circus — the Albati, Russati, and Virides — which originally represented the three functional groups of Latin society. From these mythic and ritual trifunctional conceptions to the popular symbol, there is a long-term continuity.

The five-pointed star has been used as an Italian symbol since the 19th century. It appeared as a crest on the arms of the Kingdom of Italy from 1870 to 1890. Known as the Stellone d’Italia, it is the great protective star, stemming from an ancient tradition: in the 6th century BC, the poet Stesichorus evoked the coming of Aeneas to Italy, guided by the star Venus. This would become the Caesaris Astrum — the star of Caesar — and the sign of the West, or Hesperia, recurring throughout the Italian tradition.

As early as 1603, the star joined the ancient and medieval allegory of Italy, depicted as a woman whose head is adorned with a mural crown, as noted by Cesare Ripa in his Iconologia o vero Descrittione dell’imagini universali. This is Italia turrita (N. Bazzano, Donna Italia. L’allegoria della Penisola dall’antichità ai giorni nostri, Costabissara, 2011).

The graphic symbol of the Italians shown here combines the star and the mural crown.