IN • PE • RA • TO • RE • BT: The enigmas of the inscription on Skanderbeg's helmet

By: Ylli Sula

Since its public appearance at the end of the 19th century, in the Vienna Museum, Skanderbeg's helmet, like no other surviving element or artifact of him, has become the most powerful object and symbol personifying the Albanian national hero, having a significant impact on shaping the entire iconography built around his figure.

The helmet became the primary distinguishing mark, the central heraldic symbol through which the Renaissance Century - the Arbëresh and then modern Albania - imagined and constructed the portrait of Skanderbeg.

With its special shape and workmanship, crowned by the head of the mythical goat, surrounded by the metal circle with gilded rosettes and the inscription between them, it will become an emblem that encompasses and focuses all national, historical, political, cultural and religious mythology, even the extraordinary personal qualities associated with George the Great - from his inclusion in the narrative of Albanian national identity, the connection with the tradition of ancient heroes, with the pantheon of military strategists, with European rituals of weapons, with the values ​​of chivalry and nobility, to the intervention of the divine in the fate of the hero. The official placement of the helmet on the Albanian state emblem in 1925 is a clear indication of the great symbolic weight it took on in less than 30 years from its appearance, to be enthroned in 1928 as the crown of the Albanian kingdom of King Zog I. It is thus at the same time a material artifact, a heraldic relic, an identity myth, a folk legend, a state symbol and a political metaphor.

But, an additional dimension raised this object to the pedestal of symbolism of a pan-European hero: the enigmatic inscription carved into the bronze rim of the helmet, the acrostic formulation “IN • PE • RA • TO • RE • BT”, which has intrigued many Albanian and foreign scholars.

This is where our story begins: let us retrace the journey so far of the helmet and its inscription, full of mysteries and enigmas, to bring you the latest discoveries of our research and investigations into the most identifying symbol of our national hero.

Faik Konica, Albania and the anonymous fatherland

The sensational news of the first tangible display of Skanderbeg's weapons, precisely in the Vienna Museum, as is widely known, was conveyed to the entire Albanian world by Faik Konica. In issue 8 of the magazine Albania (December 30, 1897), Konica published the article with the discovery so exciting for the Albanians of the time: “Skënderbeg’s Weapons in the Imperial Museum of Vienna”. Konica in this case was only the messenger of the news, since the discovery belongs to a “memedhëtari”, whose letter, sent to Konica, the latter published in the aforementioned issue of AlbaniaSat, specifying only the place and date of writing the letter, “Vienna, 15th of the Second World War 1897”, but not the name of the author, who is transmitted to us marked with “X ***”.

From this letter we have inherited to this day the description of the helmet, the discovery and decipherment in Latin of the letters inscribed around the bronze band around it:

"Ksula is rhumulh, but the face of the ksula is a goat's head, but this one is written in gold. Okolhas balhit is a piece removed from two fingers of ghan, on which these letters are written:

IN • PE • RA • TO • RE • BT •

I would say in Latin:

Jesus of Nazareth •The Emathian Principle • King of Albania •Terror of the Ottomans • Epirus Region •Benedict T.”[1] (Photos 1, 2, 3)

Photos 1, 2 and 3

The first to echo this news were, naturally, the Arbëresh of Italy. A month and a half later, on February 15, 1898, the inscription and its decoding in Latin, as conveyed by Konica, were published in the newspaper The Albanian Nation, founded in Calabria by Anselmo Lorecjo. Very soon after its secularization among Albanians, the helmet and its inscription became a genuine iconographic and heraldic element that seemed to have accompanied the figure of Skanderbeg since his lifetime, despite the fact that this integration was taking place almost 450 years after the hero's death.

This reconfiguration of Skanderbeg iconography and heraldry will not develop as a process, but will be obtained as a given fact through two single acts: one announcing, by Konica, initially addressed to the Albanian world, and the other “canonizing”, addressed mainly to the Italian-Arbëresh and European world, as we will see below. The patriotic, identitarian and idolizing fervor that surrounded the figure of Skanderbeg during the years of the Renaissance and the Albanian National Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries undoubtedly had its part in the thirsty burning of these acts of unfolding and re-proposing Skanderbeg iconography and heraldry, but another element weighed equally in the enthusiastic universal acceptance of both acts in question: the extremely high profile and unquestionable authority of their authors, Faik Konica and… Zef Skiroi.

Zef Skiroi - the academic "canonizer" of the inscription: from the Konica news to the Italian-Arbëresh and European iconography of Skanderbeg

In 1904, Zef Skiroi published his important work in Naples. Gli Albanesi left Questione Balkanica - a patriotic, identitarian, political, historical and cultural treatise, written for the Italian and European audience, with the aim of attracting its attention and support in favor of the Albanian national cause. On the introductory page, after the title page, Skiroi places the portrait of Skanderbeg, accompanied by the full Latin inscription of the helmet, according to the interpretation brought by Konica seven years earlier.[2] (Photo 4)

Photo 4

This page is conceived as a memorial plaque that brings together, according to Skiro's clearly symbolic and message-bearing selection, all the most representative elements of Skanderbeg iconography and heraldry, among which Skiro not only included the helmet inscription, but gave it an essential message-bearing weight. (Photo 5)

As a poet, university professor and head of the Department of Albanian Language and Literature at the Oriental Institute in Naples, a prominent academic of the time, but also as a committed folklorist and publicist, Skiroi was not only a researcher, but also a producer of the Arbëresh-Albanian cultural identity, an intellectual who clearly felt the need, and therefore tried so hard, to shape the way Europe saw Albania and Albanians. In this effort, it is clear that for Skiroi the figure of Skanderbeg constitutes the major point of reference and the central axis of the Renaissance project of identity affirmation.

Photo 5

From this perspective, the memorial page dedicated to Skanderbeg at the book's introduction serves as a programmatic icon in every one of its iconographic and heraldic elements:

- Portrait of Skanderbeg: presented in medallion form, it comes with clear references to the models of European neo-humanism and the iconographic framework of the 16th-18th centuries, in the wake of the depiction of the hero according to the famous portrayal found in Uffizi Gallery in Florence (mid-16th century), almost identical to the portrait of Skanderbeg in the book Ritratti ed Elogii di Capitani Illustri (1635) or with another portrait - medallion published in the book The Sword of Orion (1680), both publications that treat the figure of Skanderbeg among the most prominent kings, nobles and military leaders in Europe. (Photos 6, 7, 8) In all these portrayals, Skanderbeg appears not as a warrior, but as a neo-humanist prince, civilized in attitude and dress, a natural part of the European political world. This served Skiro's thesis that "the Albanian question is a European question".

Photos 6, 7, 8

- Double-headed eagle: placed immediately below the portrait, the major heraldic symbol of Skanderbeg, now transformed into a national symbol, seems to have been taken from the same Portraits of Illustrious Captains (Photo 7) or from Neapolitan families (where Skiroi lived and worked) claiming to be descendants of Skanderbeg, which, according to researcher Jaho Brahaj,[3] They used exactly this eagle stylization model.

- Helmet acrostic with the full decrypted text: centered and stretched across the entire width of the memorial page, the letters of the acrostic are significantly highlighted by being more than double the size of the decrypted Latin text, making them readable both on their own and as part of the full text.

- Full name of the hero - Giorgio Kastriota Skanderbeg, accompanied by the place and day of birth and death, where it is striking that, despite the tradition consolidated until then in the Italian language of writing the name of the hero and his capital with C (Castriota - Scanderbeg - Croia), Skiroi has chosen in all three cases to use the Albanian K.

- Quatrain epigram: The poem-epitaf in Latin, divided into two columns of two verses, is also the concluding element of the iconographic-heraldic "canons" composed and proposed by Skiroi for the figure of Skanderbeg. In Albanian the translation would be this:

Why continue to boast about Pyrrhus and praise Achilles?
This man was greater than the son of Peleus and Pyrrhus himself.
With his farcical power, he greatly agitated the Getae cohorts.
Keep going! You liberated your homeland with your own hand.

Even in this last element, Skiroi does not invent or create anything new, but only seeks to "canonize" a previous attempt to integrate this four-line epigram-epitaf into the iconography of Skanderbeg, taken from the author of the epigram himself, the French neo-Latin poet, at the same time portraitist and publisher, Jean Jacques Boissard, who in two of his editions Icones diversorum hominum fama et rebus gestis illustrium (1591) and Vitae et Icones Sultanorum Turcicorum, etc. (1597) publishes the portrait of Skanderbeg accompanied by the Latin quatrain he created, which Skiroi reproduces three hundred years later, identical in text and in its division into two blocks of two verses. (Photo 9).

Photo 9

To return more closely to the topic of our article, as is clearly observed, the helmet inscription carries an essential weight in the composition of this new iconographic-heraldic proposal of the figure of Skanderbeg by Skiroi. The detachment that Skiroi makes of the inscription from the context of the helmet expands the semantic scope of the text, displacing the “blessing of Jesus of Nazareth” directly onto Skanderbeg himself and no longer through the helmet or his weapons. Likewise, by placing the acrostic with the full text between the portrait, the double-headed eagle and the full name of the hero, the inscription takes on the value and weight of a list of royal and chivalric titles blessed by a divine will.

The publication and acceptance of the acrostic inscription by two intellectual figures with extremely high authority such as Konica and Skiroi has led to the fact that no one has attempted to research or has failed to go beyond them, in the origins of the identification and interpretation of the acrostic, without thinking that in this way, in fact, everything was being entrusted not to Konica and Skiroi, but simply to the letter of the inquisitive patriot of 1897, whose name is not even known...

Even a profound scholar of the history of Skanderbeg and a good connoisseur of Latin like Father Marin Sirdani in his study Skanderbeg according to legends (1926), does the same thing when describing the “helmet of Skanderbeg”, textually reproducing the inscription according to Konica's publication.

Only in 1932, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of independence, the newspaper Besa in Tirana, while providing detailed information on the place, manner and routes of how the weapons of our national hero were found in Vienna, she expresses for the first time not being very sure about the decipherment of the acrostic. From the writing to Besa (March 3, 1932), we learn that:

“... In room XXV No. 71 (127), of the Vienna Museum of Fine Arts, there is the helmet of 'George Skanderbeg'. It is white in color, with golden surfaces and has on top of it a golden goat's head with two horns. This consists of two parts: one part is copper and the other part above, is a piece of metal, the edges of which are decorated with gold. In the middle of the helmet is placed a copper circle with a length of 65 centimeters and in this circle are written these letters: IN. PE. RA. TO. BE. BT. This writing, which is very difficult to understand what it says, has so far been deciphered as follows: 'Jesus Nazarenus. Principi Emathiae. Regi Albaniae. Terrori Osmanorum. Regi Epiri. Benedicat'. Below the edge of the helmet are placed 9 large pieces and these are connected with a leather strap with gray paint. The weight of the entire helmet is 3000 grams. Although this helmet has oriental elements, it is thought to have been made by a Venetian artist.

According to researchers Fotaq Andrea and Dritan Muka, “these newspaper data Besa are essentially the same as those conveyed to us in the 1930s by the former Austrian consul for Albania, Leo Alexander Freundlich, who relied for his history mainly on the study of Dr. August J. Gross, at that time the conservator of the Vienna Museum. This document - write the two researchers in their triptych published in Albanian Heart - the only one that provides a concise history of Skanderbeg's Weapons in Vienna would gradually become over the years the fundamental act on which all our researchers, who never managed to step outside its framework, would rely." Also valuable for our writing is the fact that in their triptych the two researchers, while announcing that the two swords of Skanderbeg that are in the Vienna Museum do not belong to him, reconfirm without any doubt the authenticity of the helmet and its Kastriota affiliation.[4]

Further, during the years of communism, the inscription on the helmet as a central part of Skanderbeg iconography and heraldry, as proposed by Skiroi, was avoided or almost completely erased from official historiography, which did not suit the hero's connections with the Church and the Papacy of Rome and his identification as the Champion of Christ. Those, like Kristo Frashëri, who mentioned, in the studies of those years on Skanderbeg, the inscription on the helmet were extremely rare. This underestimation or this lack of recognition of this dimension of Skanderbeg's figure - as Aurel Plasari writes - "would take Gjergj Kastrioti and his comrades out of 'their own waters', out of that area that was called Europe ...", and would also remove the "civilizational background" from Skanderbeg's clash with the Ottomans, which inevitably "also wears a religious garb."[5]

But let's return to the history of the inscription and the question that has remained hanging for 128 years: Who and when first transcribed the helmet inscription and deciphered the contents of the acrostic in Latin?

From the comparison of the above evidence, it appears that the anonymous writer of the letter published in Albania from Konica, probably obtained the content of the inscription and its decryption from some description or caption placed next to the helmet when he visited the Vienna museum in 1897 or from some accompanying or explanatory document in its file at the museum or even from some passionate museum guide or guide.

Our research and discovery of several previously unknown publications took us 19 years before Konica, to the origin of the play and the source of the interpretation of the famous inscription, also in Vienna.

Vienna, 1878, “Adler” Exhibition - where the decipherment and interpretation of the inscription was born

The discovery appeared to us unexpectedly, but in a form so convincing, so documented and inviolable in its authenticity, that it makes it quite easy for us to convey it to every compatriot who reads us. A few months ago, in the midst of our research to enrich and complete the collection of publications of Albanological interest and in particular those related to the figure of Skanderbeg, we came across a summary, documentary and descriptive publication, which in modern times would be called a catalog about a heraldic exhibition opened in Vienna, in April 1878. The catalog entitled Bericht über die Heraldische Austellung des Vereines "Adler" (Summary Report on the Heraldic Exhibition of the “Adler” Association) has 218 pages of text, 39 introductory pages and 69 full pages of illustrations, in the format 32.5x24.5 centimeters. (Photos 10,11).

Photo 10, 11

The exhibition in question was inspired by the initiative of Carl Krahl, heraldic painter of the Austro-Hungarian court, who at the end of 1877 temporarily exhibited several heraldic manuscripts from the 16th-17th centuries at the Museum of Arts and Industry.

After the extraordinary success of this small exhibition, the museum, under the direction of Dr. Jakob von Falke, entrusted the organization of a major international exhibition on heraldry, genealogy and sphragistics to the “Adler” association. The “Adler” (Eagle) association, founded in 1870, aimed to revive the auxiliary sciences of history and the art of chivalry. A committee was set up to organize the exhibition composed of historians, heraldists and high aristocrats, such as:

- Count Hugo von Abensperg und Traun, chairman of the committee and president of the “Adler” association;

- Dr. Ernst von Hartmann-Franzenshuld, custodian of the Court's collections;

- Dr. Eduard Gaston von Pöttickh von Pettenegg, genealogist of the Teutonic Order;

- Oskar von Sommaruga, lawyer and treasurer of the exhibition;

- Moritz Maria von Weittenhiller, general secretary of the association

- Carl Krahl, heraldist and illustrator;

- Wendelin Boeheim, imperial and royal custodian of the weapons collection.

The exhibition, solemnly inaugurated in April 1878 under the patronage of Archduke Ludwig Viktor, remained open for three months. In the monumental halls of the Museum of Arts and Industry in the area of ​​the Stubenring Boulevard, over 1500 objects from imperial collections, knightly orders, private collections and European museums were exhibited. It was visited by Emperor Franz Joseph I, Crown Prince Rudolf, Archduke Albrecht, Archduchess Gisele and was described by the press of the time as a “triumph of heraldic art and historical science” (Die Presse, April 18, 1878). For museum art, the “Adler” exhibition was considered the largest event of its kind in Europe.

The aforementioned official catalogue clearly conveys its aesthetic concept: the exhibition should not look like a library or archive, but like an art gallery, where the aesthetics of form would reveal the history of symbols. According to the committee’s report, “on the opening day, between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., the number of visitors reached 3,541, continuing with a daily average of 500, and on Sundays with 2,000 visitors.” The section of armour and helmets was the most visited and most appreciated.

Without a doubt, the Ambras collections, as among the richest and most valuable of the time, would occupy a central place. Among the objects selected for exhibition, as described in our catalog, the curator and custodian of the Imperial Court's weapons collection included the helmet of Skanderbeg, registered in the official inventory with number 243a.

We recall that the creator of these collections, Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, is the first official owner of Skanderbeg's helmet, according to the inventory of his collection, since 1596, but he is also the creator and commissioner of the publication. Augusissimorum Imperatorum, Serenissimorum Regum ... (1601), the most prestigious of all times, with 125 portraits of the most prominent emperors, kings and nobles of the time in military attire and with their weapons, among which, the sixteenth, is the first complete and most famous portrait of Skanderbeg, with sword in hand and helmet at his feet. (Photo 12)

Photo 12

The special value of the presence of Skanderbeg's helmet in the exhibition is also highlighted by other sources of the time with high authority in the field of heraldry, such as Giovanni Batista and Goffredo di Crollalanza, president and secretary of the Italian Heraldic Academy in Pisa, who published, also in 1878, a report on the exhibition in their magazine, Giornale araldico-genealogico-diplomatico, volume VI (1878-1879), who also considers Skanderbeg's helmet as one of the most precious objects of the exhibition, as he writes: "Preziosi inoltre sono ... l'elmo di Scanderberg col cimiero a testa di becco ..." (Precious are also ... Skanderbeg's helmet with a goat's head on top ...).[6]

Wendelin Boeheim: the curator who deciphered the inscription

Wendelin Boeheim (1848-1900), was a historian and curator of the arms collections of the Austrian Imperial and Royal Court and one of the founders of modern hoplology. In Vienna he was considered the absolute authority on knightly arms of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In this role he studied and described over 6,000 objects and weapons from these two periods. In 1890 he published his fundamental work Handbook of Weapons Science (Leipzig), which still remains today a reference manual for hoplological studies in Europe.

As chief curator and member of the Committee of the Exhibition, Boeheim analyzed and then formulated the first scientific interpretation of the inscription on Skanderbeg's helmet. In his report he clearly qualifies it as an acrostic and not an acronym, describing the inscription not as a title or series of titles, but as one: "... Art Waffensegen, dessen Gebrauch ... ziemlich allgemein war", he writes - a type of blessing on weapons, the use of which was very widespread for the time, to attract this blessing and divine protection upon the bearer of the weapon, moreover the title "Athleta Christi", given to Skanderbeg by the Pope of Rome, naturally endowed him with the blessing and protection of Jesus himself.

This practice is widely documented in 14th-15th century Europe, especially among princes, military leaders, and Christian knights, who placed on their weapons, shields, emblems, and clothing formulas such as: INRI (Jesus Nazarene Rex Iudaeorum), ".NDN (In the Name of Our Lord), Christus Vincit, or as in the case of the Constantinian Order of St. George (re)founded by the grandchildren of Pal Engjëlli, bishop of Durrës and Drishti and advisor and chief diplomat of Skanderbeg, who adopted from the legendary heraldry of Constantine the Great the formula IHSVsystem. (In this sign I win. - Under this sign you will triumph.).

This iconographic and devotional tradition of the time appears to have been adopted and assimilated by Skanderbeg himself, through his dedication and self-proclaimed status as "Miles Christi" - soldier or warrior of Christ - a qualifying title that he uses in the well-known letters he wrote.

Thus, while addressing Pope Callistus III, Skanderbeg signs himself with the formula:

Ego Georgius Castriotus, Epirotarum Princeps ac miles Iesu Christi, fidem et obsequium Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae profiteor ...

I, George Kastrioti, Prince of Epirus and soldier of Jesus Christ, declare my allegiance to the Holy Roman Church...[7]

In another later letter, this time addressed to Pope Pius II, where Skanderbeg switches from "I" to "We" in describing himself, again the formula is almost the same:

Nos Georgius Castriotus, vulgo dictus Scanderbeg, Christi miles, pollicemur nos ad tuendam Christianam rempublicam promptos semper fore.

We, Gjergj Kastrioti, commonly called Skanderbeg, soldier of Christ, promise that we will always be ready to defend the Christian state.[8]

Here is finally the first documented source description of Skanderbeg's helmet, along with the decryption of the inscription, as Boeheim wrote in his report (photos 13,14):

Photo 13

Photo 14

Helmet of Gjergj Kastrioti, also known as Skanderbeg, prince of Albania (1403-1466).

This helmet of polished iron is almost in the shape of a cradle, except for the upper part which is more rounded. A thick circle of large spikes is attached around the lower rim, but this seems to be a later addition. About half way up the height of the helmet is a band of copper sheet, decorated with gilded rosettes, in the spaces between which are engraved the letters “in.pe.ra.to.re.bt” in late Gothic small script.

On the top of the helmet is the upper part of a goat's head, in beaten and gilded copper, the workmanship of which speaks of a very skilled hand. It has generally been suggested that the word "Emperor" should not be taken into account when reading the inscription, but this enigma has not yet been solved. It is tempting to believe that we are dealing with an acrostic, but its decipherment is difficult even in this case, because it can be assumed that it is the same text brought in four languages, and we lack many details from the hero's history that could provide clues for the decomposition of this text. The writing, as well as the sound of the letters, suggests a Latin text, a kind of blessing of weapons, the use of which is known to have been quite common in the time of Skanderbeg. The pairing and order of the paired letters raise exclamation points, however, upon closer examination, we arrive at acceptable results. Each pair of letters almost directly indicates the titles of this prince, and so we would read: Jesus of Nazareth¹, Principi Emathiae, Regi Albaniae, Terrori Osmanorum, Regi Epiri BenedicaT (Jesus of Nazareth blesses you, Prince of Emathia, King of Arbëria, Terror of the Ottomans, King of Epirus - our version).

Imperial and Royal Collection of Ambras, Inv. No. 243a, prepared by Wendelin Boeheim - imperial and royal curator of the Second Group of Historical Art Collections of the Imperial House.

In the few letters known from him, Skanderbeg constantly used the title: Warrior of Jesus Christ. (Barleti, C. Paganel, Historia e Skanderbeg.)[9]

Does this discovery of the source and the authoritative name Boeheim also conclude the discussions on the accuracy of the interpretation proposed by him? Most likely, not! Several theses have circulated in our historiography that keep this debate open, from the absence, “in writing”, from Skanderbeg of all the titles that are attributed to him in Boeheim’s interpretation, to the thesis, like that of Skander Anamali, that the inscription was added later by Skanderbeg’s successors or even the very wide interpretative space that unfolds when we find ourselves faced with an acronym without evidence of its commissioner or engraver. Boeheim himself seems to have been aware of the questions that would follow his interpretation. In the descriptive report, in addition to the conclusions reached, he also makes a self-evaluation of the results of his work. Acceptable - he describes these results, acceptable.

Even today, Skanderbeg's helmet continues to be preserved in Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, in the Hofjagd - und Rüstkammer hall, accompanied by the technical description taken from Boeheim's report: Helmet with copper gilt band inscribed IN*PE*RA*TO*RE*BT, decorated with rosettes; Ambras Collection, Inv.-No. 243a.

Even the inventory number has remained the same since Boeheim studied and described it in 1878. /Gazeta "Bookplate"/

________________

Bibliographic reference

[1] Faik Konica, “Skanderbeg's Weapons in the Vienna Museum”, Albania, no. 8, December 30, 1897, pp.122-3.

[2] Giuseppe Schiro, Gli Albanesi left questione Balkanica, Naples, 1904.

[3] Jaho Brahaj, Albanian Emblem, Lezha, 1997, p.73.

[4] Fotaq Andrea, Dritan Muka, “Triptych”, www.zemrashqiptare.net, June-August 2025.

[5] Aurel Plasari, Skanderbeg, A Political History, Tirana, 2010, pp. 13-14, 20.

[6] Goffredo di Crollalanza, "L'Esposizione Araldico-Genealogico-Sfragistica di Vienna", Giornale araldico-genealogico-diplomatico, Pisa, 1879, pp. 10-18.

[7] Thalloczy & Jireček, Illyrisch-albanische Forschungen, II, Vienna, 1908, p. 233.

[8] Giovanni Domenico Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, t. XXXI, Florence, 1759, col. 1041-1044.

[9] Wendelin Boeheim, "Helm des Georg Castriota genannt Scanderbeg, Fürsten von Albanien (1403-1466)", in Übersicht der heraldisch-genealogisch-sphragistischen Ausstellung des Vereines "Adler" in Wien, Vienna, 1878, p.4.