No 7H

Location: Northern gallery, northeastern pier, west wall. 

Material: Marble surface, 6th century.

Dimensions: Width 6 cm, height 8 cm; approximately 120 cm above floor level.

Condition: Clearly engraved, interlaced with other graffiti that disfigure it.

Technique: Incised.

Description: Curved mantle; arched upper part with a fess. Gothic shield with a curved upper edge.

Аttribution (Th. Thomov): Ruenstein family (1326), Krüsinger (Switzerland, 1505–1508), Pilsseg (1548), von Sprinfenberg (Germany, 16th c.), Neuberger (Netherlands, 16th c.), Calergi (Venice, 1550–1555), Lasberg or Lasberger (Tyrol, 1548), or Schenk von Neideck (Tyrol, 1480–16th c.).

Attribution (M. Gorra): Indeterminable.

Publications: Gorra, Maurizio. Observations and reflections on some coats of arms graffiti in Santa Sofia in ​ Constantinople, Academia.edu

Commentary: A complex graffito, formally well executed and reinforced with false heraldic hatching, yet of debatable content: probably “bands” in the first section of the mantle and an indeterminate figure in the third section of the chief.
The various proposed attributions may be acceptable, with the exception of the Krüsinger and Calergi arms, which contain charges absent in the drawing (a star and a rose). If the mantle is plausible, the division of the chief into three parts remains unclear.

Date: Uncertain, as is the attribution.