Last modified: 2023-07-03 by
Keywords: lozenge | coat of arms | armillary sphere | order of christ | crown (royal) |
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![[Flag of the Kingdom of Brazil (1822)]](../images/b/br_royal.gif)
by Joseph McMillan
Adopted 18 September 1822
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On 18 September 1822, Dom Pedro I signed three decrees that were the first acts of independent Brazil. The third decree created the coat of arms and flag: "...henceforth the arms of this Kingdom of Brazil will be, on a green field, a gold armillary sphere superimposed on a cross of the Order of Christ, the sphere encircled by 19 silver stars on a blue circle; and a royal crown with diamonds set atop the shield, the sides of which will be embraced by two plants of coffee and tobacco, as emblems of its [the Kingdom's] riches, in their proper colors and tied at the bottom with the national bow-knot."
Joseph McMillan, 15 April 2001
The website www.piraque.org.br [no longer on line--Ed.] says that the designer of the flag was the French painter and designer Jean Baptiste Debret, who was a prominent figure in Brazilian cultural life between 1816 and 1831.
Joseph McMillan, 15 April 2001
Until 1 December 1822 [when Pedro I declared himself emperor] the crown in the Brazilian flag was the same as on the old royal flag of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarve with the red bottom.
André Godinho, 8 May 2003
The image above is based on a plate in Clovis Ribeiro's Brazões e bandeiras do Brasil (page 61). The plate is a photograph of the official pattern of the flag sent from Rio to Sao Paulo in December 1822. As Ribeiro notes on page 60, this pattern with the royal crown was widely used throughout Pedro I's reign because the pattern was distributed just after the proclamation of the empire, causing recipients to believe that it was intended to be the imperial design.
Joseph McMillan, 2 September 2003
royal.gif)
by Joseph McMillan