[alfa] Re: alfa-digest V10 #440

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually, I think the human in the serpent's mouth is a woman. I was in 
Italy last month and got to visit the Sforza Castle in Milan where the 
coat-of-arms of the Duke of Milan is repeated over various gates in the 
castle walls. The story is that in 1910, Geometra Merosi the first head 
of the company, gave a young draftsman named Romano Cattaneo the job of 
designing a badge for the then fledgling A.L.F.A. Cattaneo had been to 
the castle and had been struck by a coat of arms that had the serpent 
swallowing a 'person' on the left-hand side of a traditional shield 
shape, and the red cross on a white background on the right. He went to 
work and replaced the shield with a rondelle, and changed the 
juxtaposition of the two symbols to yield the emblem we all know and 
love. Anyway, looking at the very image that inspired Cattaneo almost a 
century ago, it looks as if the person in the serpent's mouth has 
rather prominent female mammalia. I'd welcome other opinions. If you'd 
like for me to send you a photograph of the bit of heraldry in 
question, send me an E-mail.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'
(CA Lic# 'TIPO116')




On Nov 26, 2004, at 10:32 PM, alfa-digest wrote:

> Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 21:58:19 -0600
> From: "B.D. Zelazny" <bdz@domain.elided>
> Subject: [alfa] TX Lic#
>
> "3M ZTA3"
>
> In answer to the much asked question:
>
> Is the serpent swallowing or spitting out the Saracen?
>
> Note: Texas would not issue the plate w/o the "Z". :-)
>
> 83 GTV6 w/420k (s)miles (currently resting in Austin)
> Alpine, TX
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