What’s up with the slightly larger than hand-sized spherical objects you see kings and other important people holding? I’ve never seen them described: not their name nor their function nor their symbolism.
Usually, they are holding them apparently as a symbol of office whilst sitting on a throne. Sometimes a cross is on top of them, and sometimes the “globe” has two bands that go around it, meeting at the “north” and “south” poles.
I’ve seen them at:
– Tenniel’s Alice illustrations, of the King
– The statues of the Stewards of Gondor in ROTK
– Baby Jesus in someone’s visitation of the Christ
I assume people actually used these in real life? What are they called? What do they symbolize?
They are called “orbs” and they do represent the globe. In this Earth they are used as a symbol of Empire-- the King/Queen’s rule beyond the borders of their own country. So add in the cross and you have a symbol of Christ’s dominion over the earth.
It’s called an orb, a named derived from the Latin word for globe. (By the Renaissance, orbis also meant ‘world’, but I’m not sure whether it meant that in Roman times, before it was well-known that the world is roughly spherical.) There’s some information about the British orb on this page about the Crown Jewels.
I’ve been googling about a bit and it would seem that the religious aspect is actually the dominant one–the sovreign as defender of Christ’s kingdom on earth, or something like that.
When referring to the royal regalia, the phrase you usually see is, “The Orb and Scepter.” In my experience, the one is hardly ever mentioned without the other, and they are, in fact, always held together, the scepter in the right hand and the orb in the left. I suppose the scepter symbolizes the secular administrative duties of the sovreign, while the orb is more about their position as defender of the faith.
Actually, I found my history book, and it was Jan van Eyck’s *Madonna of the Chancellor Rodin*. But your suggestion is better: the orb in my example has a cross far too big for it to fit my conception in the question.
Heh. I’m a recovering Catholic (Italian brand), so whenever I hear “baby Jesus” and “orb” my mind goes instantly to all the statues of slightly creepy visitations and apparitions that old-school Italian Catholics laden every flat surface of their home with.
