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Impresa [pl. imprese; It.: ‘badge’, ‘emblem’; ‘undertaking’, ‘enterprise’, ‘miltary campaign’].
Personal or familial badge or device comprising a design accompanied by an apt word or brief motto suggesting in veiled terms its significance. Imprese were especially fashionable in European court circles from the 16th century to the 18th and were closely related to emblems (see EMBLEM BOOK); but the latter, enigmatic inscriptions that only later acquired a pictorial element, were used mostly in devotional literature, and the impresa is distinguishable by its personal character and absence of explanatory inscription.
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- imprese
- Emblem book, §1: Sources and distinctions
- Emblem book, §2: History
- Genealogical and heraldic manuscripts, §2: Heraldic manuscripts
- Heraldry, §I: Introduction
- Heraldry, §II, 2(ii)(c): Western armory: Crests, crowns and other insignia
- Heraldry, §II, 4(i)(b): Western heraldry in art: Jewellery and plate
- Heraldry, §II, 4(ix): Western heraldry in art: Embroidery and other arts
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