June 2020 – Techniques of Digital Heraldry

A couple of months ago I posted about extracting Vigil Raber’s sixteenth-century Wappenbuch der Arlberg-Bruderschaft from the “click to pan and zoom” web interface in which it is hosted, but as it turns out, this is not the only armorial manuscript created by this brotherhood.

For a bit of context, the Brotherhood of St. Christopher was established in the fourteenth century to shelter and assist travelers who were crossing the Alps using the Arlberg pass between Italy and Austria. For hundreds of years, they recorded the identities of armigerous travelers (and donors to the brotherhood) by painting the arms in a series of manuscript guest books.

In addition to Vigil Raber’s manuscript (circa 1548), several other copies of these books have survived to the present, although it appears that others were lost over the centuries. Continue reading “Downloading the Arlberg “Viennese Manuscript””

Commentary in OSCAR is a valuable and necessary part of the Society’s submission and registration process, but because it all takes place online and is done privately, it can feel slightly opaque for incoming heralds who aren’t sure how to participate or where to begin.

In my role as the East Kingdom heraldic education officer, I have run a number of online commentary sessions over the last year focused on beginner and intermediate heralds who were not yet comfortable commenting in OSCAR, with the goal of providing a bit of training and encouragement, as well helping them to make connections with other members of the community.

In hopes that a similar procedure might be of use to other kingdoms, here are some notes about the process I’ve used. Continue reading “Running an OSCAR Commentary Training Session Online”