Used to represent love, the heart symbol is universal. Used at all ages and by every person, this symbol has entered our daily lives. But where does the shape so particular of the heart and so different from the organ come from?
The very first modern representation of this symbol dates from 1340 in a French manuscript entitled The Roman of Alexander. Although the heart as an organ has been linked to love since ancient times, there was no specific symbol to describe it. The first sketches were discovered by Marilyn Yalom, a researcher at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, who wrote an article (The Mysterious Origins of the Enduring Heart Symbol) published in The Wall Street Journaltracing the history of this symbol.
Thus, according to the first sketches dating from the 13th century, the heart had a shape of “pine cone, eggplant or pear, with one part with its narrow top pointing upwards, and the wider part held by a human hand”, explains the researcher. The shape of the symbol evolved over the centuries before taking the form we know in the 14th century. In The Roman of Alexandera collection of legends about the exploits of Alexander the Great, we can see:
In the lower left corner of a page, a woman holds a symmetrical heart with two clearly defined lobes. She received it from the man in front of her. She accepts this gift, as it touches her chest, a sign of her origin.
Marilyn Yalom, The Mysterious Origins of the Enduring Heart Symbol
But where does the shape of the heart come from? In reality, autopsies were prohibited in the Middle Ages, in fact, the designers based themselves on an existing model: the ivy leaf. Enormously present on vases and pottery since ancient Greece, ivy represents lasting and solid love. Subsequently, Italian painters offered the color red to the symbol to recall blood.
Did you know the history of this symbol?
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