TheIllyrian Armorials (Serbian:Ilirski grbovnici) are a group ofarmorials compiled from mainly fictional medieval coats of arms, among which there can be found several actual coats of arms, during the late 16th to mid 18th century. They are all copies based on alleged lost original of theOhmučević Armorial (Ohmučevićev grbovnik), commissioned byPetar Ohmučević (died 1599), a person ofRagusan origin, who went to become an admiral of Spanish court and navy at some point between 1584 and 1594. It is an example of the earliest ("Interconfessional") form ofIllyrism idea and notion of so-called"Illyrian Empire", which formed the ideological basis for both the laterrise of nationalism in the Balkans among itsSouth Slavs, and the idea of unification into one state that in later times took a form ofYugoslavia.

The armorials combine historical (late medieval) with fictional coats of arms to construct the notion of an "Illyrian Empire". This fictional Empire happened to coincide exactly with the sphere of interest of the Spanish Empire in the Balkans at the time, and hence also Petar's own. Petar Ohmučević personal goal was to confirm his own "Illyrian" noble origins, after he rose to the rank of admiral in the Spanish navy, and in order to qualify for the greater chivalric orders of Habsburg Spain at the time, for which was necessary to prove descent from eight noble and purely Catholic great-grandparents. Ohmučević was granted the status of nobleman in 1594, which is taken as theterminus ante quem of the armorial.

Some believe that it is anattributed arms of theSerbian Empire, because the creation itself is often signed as the insignia ofEmperor Dusan (Imperatoris Stephani Stephani Nemagnich Insignia, etc.)

Ohmučević's armorial can thus be considered a personal project in inventing and probing one's origin, or even ahoax, as he invented genealogy in order to defraud a Spanish court and qualify for the coveted title. However, its immense influence in becoming the foundation of South Slavic or "Illyrist" heraldry in general, can't be denied. An important source for Ohmučević's heraldic inventions was theWappenbüchlein byVirgil Solis (1555), which itself contains fictional arms of "foreign kingdoms".

The Illyrian Armorials includes the following armorials, with estimated dates in brackets:

Wikimedia Commons has media related toIllyrian Armorials.

• Pan-Slavism

• Kroll, Walter (1986).Heraldische Dichtung bei den Slaven. Harrassowitz.ISBN 9783447026260.
• Palavestra, Aleksandar (2010).Ilirski grbovnici i drugi heraldički radovi. Belgrade: Dosije studio.
• Rudić, Srđan (2006).Vlastela Ilirskog grbovnika [The Nobility of the Illyric Coat of Arms]. Istorijski institut Beograd.ISBN 978-86-7743-055-9.

• Dragojević, Andreja (2010-12-20)."Konzervatorsko-restauratorski radovi na rodoslovlju obitelji Ohmučević" [Conservation-restoration work on the genealogy of the Ohmučević family].Portal (in Serbo-Croatian).1:109–116.eISSN 1848-6681.
• Prijatelj Pavičić, Ivana (2019). "The so-called Ohmućević Genealogy (Kraljeva Sutjeska Genealogy) in the Light of the Results of Recent Iconographic, Historical, Heraldry, and Restoration Research Papers".Works of Art on Parchment and Paper: Interdisciplinary Approaches.Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani. pp. 65–72.ISBN 978-961-06-0274-3.

• South Slavic history
• Pan-Slavism
• Rolls of arms
• Illyrian movement

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• Short description matches Wikidata
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