During my recent review of precedents on “independent forms of armorial display” I collected a number of decisions that document how the Society’s College of Arms developed its current rules.
Some of those older precedents are no longer relevant, but I figured I’d post them here for those who are interested in the history of this subject. Continue reading “Precedent Review: May Flags and Sails Be Divided or Charged?”
During my recent review of precedents on “independent forms of armorial display” I collected a number of decisions that document how the Society’s College of Arms developed its current rules.
Some of those older precedents are no longer relevant, but I figured I’d post them here for those who are interested in the history of this subject. Continue reading “Precedent Review: Can Lozenges, Roundels, and Delfs be Escutcheons of Pretense?”
While putting together my recent summary of which charges can be considered an armorial display, I looked at a lot of old decisions that document how the Society’s College of Arms developed the current rules.
Some of those older precedents are no longer relevant, but I figured I’d post them here for those who are interested in the history of this subject. Continue reading “Precedent Review: Can Plain Lozenges and Roundels Be Used as Fieldless Badges?”
The College of Arms has a rule commonly phrased as “we do not register fieldless badges that appear to be independent forms of armorial display.”
Below, I will attempt to explain this sometimes-confusing rule, catalogue which shapes are considered to be “forms of armorial display,” and note features which cause this rule to not apply. Continue reading “Charges Which Can Appear To Be An Armorial Display in a Fieldless Badge”
The Stemmario Trivulziano is a fifteenth-century Italian armorial featuring the Milan’s ruling family the Visconti and many of their allies and neighbors, believed to be painted by Gian Antonio da Tradate somewhere around around 1465. It takes its name from its owner, Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, an independent mercenary commander, who might have made good use of it in identifying military units on the battlefields of Italy.
Unfortunately, for a long time the only way to view the Stemmario Trivulziano has been to either finagle an invitation to the library where it is held inside Milan’s Sforza Castle, or to purchase a lovely bound edition for € 296 (about $350). As those options were both out of the reach of many amateur armorialists, the rest of us had to make do with a few isolated pages which had been scanned and posted online. Continue reading “Downloading the Stemmario Trivulziano”
More than one hundred and thirty new images have been added to the Traceable Heraldic Art collection over the last seven weeks.
Thanks to Ræv Kolfinnsson for contributing forty of those charges, including attractive sets of cats, dogs, foxes, and lions, each drawn in a variety of postures. Thanks also to first-time contributors Elizabeth Turner de Carlisle and Jessimond of Emerickeskepe, and to Iago ab Adam for continuing to dig up unique charges from period armorials.
Among the notable new charges this month, see the Archery Target, Ichthyocentaur, Sledge, Solleret, and Strike, as well as the Curule Chair, Domed Oven, and Thunderbolt. Continue reading “Traceable Art for June and July”
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”
Since last month, I’ve added another ninety images to the Traceable Heraldic Art collection.
Thanks to Iago ab Adam for continuing to send attractive line art adapted from period sources, and to new contributor Zubeydah al-Badawiyyah for filling a gap in the collection of cross variations. Continue reading “May Additions to Traceable Art”
Bruce Draconarius’s “A Grammar of Blazonry” remains the canonical reference for the structure of blazons in the SCA, despite being more than thirty years old.
However, Bruce did make a few minor adjustments to the document recently, and unfortunately those changes have not yet propagated back to the version on the heraldry.sca.org website.
So I was very pleased when Bruce gave me permission to post the updated version here for ease of use in classes; it’s now available here:
