The first official tricolore italiano, or Italian tricolour, was adopted on 7 January 1797, when the XIVth Parliament of the Cispadane Republic, on the proposal of deputy Giuseppe Compagnoni of Lugo, decreed "to make universal the ... standard or flag of three colours, green, white, and red ..." This was probably because the Legione Lombarda had carried banners of red, white (from the flag of Milan), and green (from the uniform of the civic guard), and the same colours were later adopted in the banners of the Legione Italiana, which was formed by soldiers coming from Emilia and Romagna. The flag was a horizontal square with red uppermost and, at the heart of the white fess, an emblem composed of a garland of laurel decorated with a trophy of arms and four arrows, representing the four provinces that formed the Republic
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