Orzeł ukoronowany na denarze Bolesława Chrobrego z legendą "PRINCES POLONIE" - analiza motywu

The article treats of a detailed iconographic analysis of an avifaunal representation on the denarius of Boleslaw the Brave and a determination of the species to which the bird belongs, as well as the establishment what actually is crowning its head. On the basis of iconography of zoomorphic representations beginning with an archaic period, through a classical one, the antique Hellenistic and Roman period as well as early mediaeval, the hitherto concepts, defining the bird as a peacock, cock or a pigeon, have been abandoned. Analyzing the portrayals of birds, we acknowledge that on the denarius of Boleslaw the Brave there is a representation of an eagle, which can only be a species of a Golden Eagle or White-tailed Eagle. The examples of royal crowns of that time and the headgear of the bird betoken that the maker of the coin die imagined royal insignia on the eagle's head, the ones in the type of a four-cornered 'corona radiata'. Original article printed with German abstract.