Graphic symbolism in the handwritten signature of the kings of Aragon: notes on the "L Coronada de Valencia"

In the diplomatistic analysis of royal documents issued by the Catalan-Aragonese Royal Chancellery from the second half of the reign of Peter IV the Ceremonious, a distinctive graphic sign repeatedly draws attention: a crown placed above the letter L in the toponym Valencie, within the intitulatio regia. This sign appears systematically whenever the sovereign personally subscribes the document.The origin of this symbolic feature lies in Peter IV’s deliberate use of graphic-textual elements to support his political and institutional actions. By placing the crown near his own hand at the time of signing, the king intended to commemorate the heroic loyalty shown by the city of Valencia during two sieges suffered in the war against the Castilian king Pedro I the Cruel.The aim of this paper is to contribute to the field of diplomatic semiotics by examining this phenomenon in detail, clarifying its executional modalities, establishing its chronological limits, and discussing its diplomatic and legal implications, based on the analysis of original documents preserved primarily in the archives of the former Kingdom of Sardinia and in other repositories of the Crown of Aragon.