The Province's coat of arms

Each coat of arms is a graphical symbol intended to represent the institution's dignity, honour, name and personality, as well as a people's identity and history. As a result, each coat of arms with its colours, shape etc is unique and one of a kind.
The history and symbolic interpretations of the Coat of arms and Gonfalons belonging to Italian towns, provinces or regions are contained in a book called "Libro Araldico degli Enti Morali" (Heraldic book of legal entities). Local Governments can use coat of arms, crests, gonfalons and seals only after being granted the permission or recognition by the means of a decree issued by Italy's head of State; this decree shall be registered by the Court of Auditors and, therefore, recorded in the Heraldic book of legal entities.
The Province of Cosenza's coat of arms contains a shield shaped as the ones used by the Samnites that acts as the background to the arms: it is silver, square shaped, with a rounded and pointed end.
Over the background there is a black cross. The central shield is enclosed by cartouches and friezes as in the ancient shape used for Provinces.
At the top of the shield there is a crown symbolizing sovereignty.
It must be pointed out that the Province of Cosenza's coat of arms does not have the usual shape set for the Provinces; as a matter of fact, pursuant to article 95 of the Italian Royal Decree No. 651 dated 7 June 1943, it has a "special concession" so that its Crown does not have the golden gemmed circle with fluorescent oak and laurel branches but instead the typical ducal shape: it features a golden gemmed circle sustaining fleurons and pearls on its edge.
The ducal shape dates back to the division made by the Suevi first and by the Angevines later of the kingdom of Southern Italy, called Ducatus Calabriae.
From a geographical point of view, the Province of Cosenza, according to some historical studies, corresponds to what in the Middle Ages was the Province of Calabria Citeriore (or Latin Calabria), as opposed to Greek Calabria.
Calabria Citeriore was the northern part of Calabria. The province was bounded in the North by Basilicata, in the East by the Ionian Sea, in the West by the Thyrrenian Sea and in the South by the river Neto; the latter divided its territory from the Greek Calabria and the Decollatura plain.
The Calabrian dialect spoken in Latin Calabria is strikingly different from the "calabrese" spoken in Greek Calabria, mainly because of Latin influence and the presence of a strong Arberesh minority in the Northern part of the region.