The Maltese cross is a cross symbol, consisting of four "V" or arrowhead shaped concave quadrilaterals converging at a central vertex at right angles, two tips pointing outward symmetrically.
Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson with senior knights, wearing the "Rhodian cross" on their habits. Dedicatory miniature in Gestorum Rhodie obsidionis commentarii (account of the Siege of Rhodes of 1480), BNF Lat 6067 fol. 3v, dated 1483/4.
Johann Loesel, grand prior of the langue of Germany, shown with the eight-pointed cross on a flag and his habit in his role as mediator in the Old Zürich War in February 1446 (illustration of Gerold Edlibach's chronicle, c. 1500)
Emblem of the Military Order of Malta on the façade of San Giovannino dei Cavalieri, Florence (1699).
Fresco on the ceiling of the main corridor in the Grandmaster's Palace in Valletta (Nicolau Nasoni 1724)
A number of cross symbols were developed for the purpose of the emerging system of heraldry, which appeared in Western Europe in about 1200. This tradition is partly in the use of the Christian cross an emblem from the 11th century, and increasingly during the age of the Crusades. Many cross variants were developed in the classical tradition of heraldry during the late medieval and early modern periods. Heraldic crosses are inherited in modern iconographic traditions and are used in numerous national flags.
9th-century Byzantine seal showing a patriarchal cross (seal of Niketas, commander of the Byzantine imperial fleet)
Seal of Bouchard de Marly (attested 1225), a cross, quarterly four alerions
Seal of Amadeus V, Count of Savoy (1249–1323), showing a knight on horseback displaying the Savoy cross on his shield, ailets (shoulder-pads) and caparison (horse covering)
A section of Segar's Roll, a 17th-century copy of a late 13th-century English roll of arms. Crosses are shown on the arms of: the legendary Prester John (attributed arms showing a full crucifix including the figure of Christ), the King of Jerusalem (the Jerusalem cross), the Emperor of Constantinople (the Palaiologos dynasty emblem with the Betas interpreted as crescents), the "King of Greece", and King Edward the Confessor of England (attributed arms showing a cross and five martlets).