Roll of arms

Last updated
Hyghalmen Roll, German, c. 1485. An example of a late medieval roll of arms. College of Arms, London. Hyghalmen Roll Late 1400s.jpg
Hyghalmen Roll , German, c.1485. An example of a late medieval roll of arms. College of Arms, London.
Roll of arms of the knights of the Golden Fleece. Made in the first half of the 16th century. Archive-ugent-be-E9966662-A46F-11E7-97F2-678719B1B84C DS-3 (cropped).jpg
Roll of arms of the knights of the Golden Fleece. Made in the first half of the 16th century.

A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms.

Contents

The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th century, and armorial manuscripts continued to be produced throughout the early modern period. Siebmachers Wappenbuch of 1605 was an early instance of a printed armorial. Medieval armorials usually include a few hundred coats of arms, in the late medieval period sometimes up to some 2,000. In the early modern period, the larger armorials develop into encyclopedic projects, with the Armorial général de France (1696), commissioned by Louis XIV of France, listing more than 125,000 coats of arms. In the modern period, the tradition develops into projects of heraldic dictionaries edited in multiple volumes, such as the Dictionary of British Arms in four volumes (19262009), or J. Siebmacher's großes Wappenbuch in seven volumes (18541967).

Armorials can be "occasional", relating to a specific event such as a tournament; "institutional", associated with foundations, such as that of an order of chivalry, "regional", collecting the arms of the nobility of a given region, "illustrative", in the context of a specific narrative or chronicle, or "general", with the aim of an encyclopedic collection. [2] A roll of arms arranged systematically by design, with coats featuring the same principal elements (geometrical ordinaries and charges) grouped together as a tool to aid identification, is known as an ordinary of arms (or simply as an ordinary).

Notable examples

Medieval

Dering Roll, c. 1270, Dover. Lists knights of Kent & Essex. British Library. Provenance: Sir Edward Dering (1598-1644), Lt. of Dover Castle DeringRoll.jpg
Dering Roll, c.1270, Dover. Lists knights of Kent & Essex. British Library. Provenance: Sir Edward Dering (1598–1644), Lt. of Dover Castle
Segar's Roll, a 17th-century copy of a 13th-century roll. The Segar's Roll.jpg
Segar's Roll, a 17th-century copy of a 13th-century roll.
Left folium 001v and right folium 002r from the Beyeren Armorial, 1402-1405 Wapenboek Beyeren (armorial) - KB79K21 - folios 001v (left) and 002r (right).jpg
Left folium 001v and right folium 002r from the Beyeren Armorial, 1402–1405
Folio 259v. from Wernigerode Wappenbuch, Bavaria, c. 1486-1492 Wernigeroder Wappenbuch 512.jpg
Folio 259v. from Wernigerode Wappenbuch , Bavaria, c.1486–1492

Scottish

  • Balliol Roll is a Scottish roll of arms from the end of the 13th century and was the earliest roll of arms in Scotland. [3]
  • Sir David Lindsay's Armorial is a 16th century scottish Armorial. [4]

English

  • Glover's Roll [5] is an English roll of arms from the 1240s or 1250s, containing 55 coats of arms. [6]
  • The Matthew Paris Shields, not truly a roll but a set of marginal illustrations accompanying the chronicler's illuminated manuscript works, Chronica Majora and Historia Anglorum. These date from c.1244–59, during the reign of Henry III, and contain drawings of shields with Latin annotations. [7]
  • Walford's Roll [8] is an English roll dating from c.1275, containing 185 coats with blazons.
  • The Camden Roll [9] is an English roll dating from c.1280, containing 270 painted coats, 185 with blazons.
  • The Dering Roll , dating from the late 13th century, contains 324 coats of arms, painted on parchment. It is 8+14 inches (210 mm) wide by 8 feet 8 inches (2.64 m) long. It currently resides in the British Library. [10]
  • The Heralds' Roll [11] is an English roll dating from c.1280, containing 697 painted coats. [12]
  • St George's Roll [13] is an English roll dating from c.1285, containing 677 painted coats.
  • Charles' Roll [14] is an English roll dating from c.1285, containing 486 painted coats. Planché however names as "Charles's Roll" a copy of a mid-13th-century roll [British Library, Harley MS 6589] containing nearly 700 coats drawn in pen and ink (i.e. tricked) by Nicholas Charles (d.1613), Lancaster Herald, in 1607. Charles stated that the original had been lent to him by the Norroy King of Arms. [6]
  • The Lord Marshal's Roll [15] is an English roll dating from 1295, containing 565 painted coats.
  • Collins' Roll [16] is a roll dating from 1296, containing 598 painted coats. It currently resides at the College of Arms in London.
  • The Falkirk Roll is an English occasional roll dating from c.1298, containing 115 coats with blazons, listing the knights with King Edward I at Battle of Falkirk in 1298. Various copies exist. The British Library copy [17] was formerly in the Treasury Chamber in Paris in 1576. [18]
  • The Galloway Roll [19] is an English roll dating from 1300, containing 259 coats with blazons.
  • Roll of Caerlaverock or Poem of Caerlaverock [20] is a roll dating from 1300, containing 110 poetical blazons without images. Two other copies exist, made by Glover from a now-lost different original source, one at the College of Arms in London, the other at the Office of the Ulster King of Arms in Dublin. The original was made in 1300 by English heralds during Edward I's siege of Caerlaverock Castle, Scotland. [21]
  • Stirling Roll [22] is an English roll from 1304, containing 102 coats.
  • Stepney Roll [23] is an English occasional roll listing the knights present at Stepney Tournament in 1308.
  • The Great, Parliamentary, or Banneret's Roll,c.1312, [24] is an English roll consisting of 19 vellum leaves (measuring 6" x 8.25"), which include the names and blazons of 1,110 nobles, bishops, knights and deceased lords of the day. It is now part of the British Library manuscript collection - Cotton MS Caligula A, XVIII. [25]
  • Dunstable Roll [26] is an English occasional roll listing knights present at Dunstable Tournament in 1334.
  • Calais Roll is an English roll dating from 1346 to 1347, containing 116 shields in brown ink, tricked to denote tinctures. This roll was probably made in the late 16th century from transcripts of accounts kept by Walter Wetewang, Treasurer of the Household 1346–7, showing wages paid to participants at the Siege of Calais. Extant in the form of about twenty 16th-century manuscripts, this roll was classed as spurious by Wagner (1950), but as "one of the documentary pillars of fourteenth-century military studies" by Ayton (1994). [27]
  • Powell's Roll [28] is an English roll dating from c.1345–1351. [29]
  • Salisbury Roll is an English roll in two similar versions: the "Original Roll" dating from c.1463, [30] in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch, a descendant of the Montagu family; and the later "Copy A", made c.1483–5, [31] in the collection of the British Library, catalogued as Add MS 45133. It contains coats of arms of the Montagu family, Earls of Salisbury. "Copy A" was formerly in the collection of Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter King of Arms 1505–34 and later was owned by William Smith, Rector of Melsonby (d.1735). [32] Parts are now in the British Library in London.

French

  • The Bigot Roll [33] is a French roll dating from 1254, containing 300 coats.
  • The Armorial Wijnbergen is a French roll published in two parts (Part 1, c.1265–1270; Part 2, c.1270–1285), containing 1,312 painted coats. It resided for a while at the Royal Dutch Association of Genealogy & Heraldry, but has been returned; the present owners are not known.
  • The Chifflet-Prinet Roll [34] is a French roll dating from c.1285–1298, containing 147 coats with blazons.
  • Armorial du Hérault Vermandois [35] is a French roll of arms dating from c.1285–1300, containing 1,076 blazons.
  • Armorial Le Breton, with 580 coats of arms (230 of which are not identified), c.1292, with addition of 144 coats of arms in the 15th century, and another 15 added c.1530.
  • Armorial Bellenville [36] by Claes Heinen (1386), 1,738 coats of arms
  • Grand Armorial équestre de la Toison d'or, an armorial of the members of the Order of the Golden Fleece between 1429 and 1461, commissioned by a herald in the Duchy of Burgundy.

Holy Roman Empire

  • Roll of arms of the Drapery Court of Brussels. (1713-1724) Armorial de la Gilde Drapiere Bruxelles 02.jpg
    Roll of arms of the Drapery Court of Brussels. (1713-1724)
    The oldest collections of coats of arms are preserved not in manuscript form, but in the form of heraldic friezes, painted on walls or wooden beams, derived from the earlier practice of hanging guest's heraldic shields on walls on festive occasions. Among the oldest such friezes preserved is the one at Valère Basilica, Valais, dated 1224. [37]
  • The oldest collection of blazons, Latin descriptions of coats of arms, of the Holy Roman Empire is Clipearius Teutonicorum by Conrad of Mure, dated 126064. [37]
  • Turino armorial (1312), descriptions of 119 coats of arms of the attendants of the coronation of Henry VII.
  • The coats of arms shown with the singer portraits in Codex Manesse (although not technically an armorial) are an important source for early 14th century heraldry.
  • The Zürich armorial made in c.1340 presumably in what is now eastern Switzerland (in or nearby of what is now the canton of St Gallen), now in the Swiss National Museum in Zürich.
  • Gelre Armorial is a Dutch roll of arms dating from c.1370–1414, containing about 1,700 coats of arms. It currently resides at the Royal Library of Belgium. It was compiled by Claes Heinenzoon.
  • The Beyeren Armorial is a medieval Dutch manuscript containing 1096 coats of arms, completed between 1402 and 1405, annotated in Middle Dutch. It is currently held by the National Library of the Netherlands. It was compiled by Claes Heinenzoon, who also compiled the Gelre Armorial.
  • Wappenbüchlein E.E. Zunft zu Pfisten in Luzern (1408), 5 foll. with 59 Lucerne guild coats of arms.
  • Hyghalmen Roll is a German roll of arms made around 1447–1455 in Cologne. It currently resides at the College of Arms in London.
  • Hans Ingeram's armorial (1459), 280 pages with c. 1,100 coats of arms.
  • Wappenbuch der österreichischen Herzöge, c. 14451457, 50 foll. with some 170 coats of arms.
  • Wernigerode Armorial is a Bavarian roll of arms from around 1486–1492, containing 524 pages, 477 of which are illustrated with anywhere from one to thirty coats of arms (most of these have four coats of arms each).
  • Stemmario Trivulziano is a Milanese roll of the second half of the 15th century, containing approximately 2,000 coats. [38] It currently resides at Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milan, Italy. Attributed to Gian Antonio da Tradate, it was in the possession of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who served as a Milanese condottiero between 1465 and 1483. It blazons the ducal arms and those of linked families such as Brandolini, Savelli, Colonna, Orsini, Scaligeri, Este and Gonzaga. Also included are the arms of the German merchant-bankers Fugger.
  • Scheiblersches Wappenbuch , c. 14501480, 624 coats of arms.
  • Armorial of Conrad Grünenberg, Constance (1483), some 2,000 coats of arms.
  • St. Gallen armorial, 14661470, 338 pages with some 200 coats of arms
  • Eichstätt armorial, 14741478, 351 pages with some 2,000 coats of arms
  • Palatine armorial, c. 1460, 200 foll. with 1,080 coats of arms.
  • Heroldsbuch des Jülicher Hubertus-Ordens (1480), 130 foll. with some 1,000 coats of arms
  • Leipzig armorial, c. 1450s, 96 foll. with 602 coats of arms
  • Miltenberg armorial, late 15th century, 85 foll. with c. 1,700 coats of arms.
  • Berlin armorial, c. 1470, 254 pages with c. 900 coats of arms
  • Innsbruck armorial, c. 1460s, 157 foll. with 408 coats of arms.
  • Gerold Edlibach's armorial of Zürich, 1490s.

Spanish

  • The Book of Knowledge of All Kingdoms (Libro del Conosçimiento de todos los rregnos) of c.1385 goes beyond the scope of a mere armorial, being a fictional travelogue, giving an account of the geography of the known world, identifying all lands, kings, lords and their armorial devices. The book's main purpose is still that of an armorial, but fashioned in the genre of the travelogue popularized by Marco Polo and John Mandeville.
  • Armorial de la Cofradia di Santiago (Book of the Knights of the Brotherhood of Santiago), continuously updated from the order's foundation in 1338 into the 17th century.

Early Modern

Modern

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heraldry</span> Heraldic achievements design and transmission

Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings, as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch of heraldry, concerns the design and transmission of the heraldic achievement. The achievement, or armorial bearings usually includes a coat of arms on a shield, helmet and crest, together with any accompanying devices, such as supporters, badges, heraldic banners and mottoes.

A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon, surcoat, or tabard. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its whole consists of a shield, supporters, a crest, and a motto. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to the armiger. The term "coat of arms" itself, describing in modern times just the heraldic design, originates from the description of the entire medieval chainmail "surcoat" garment used in combat or preparation for the latter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Star (heraldry)</span> Heraldic symbol

In heraldry, the term star may refer to any star-shaped charge with any number of rays, which may appear straight or wavy, and may or may not be pierced. While there has been much confusion between the two due to their similar shape, a star with straight-sided rays is usually called a mullet in English heraldry while one with wavy rays is usually called an estoile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sas coat of arms</span> European coat of arms

Sas or Szász is a Central European coat of arms. It was borne since the medieval period by several Transylvanian-Saxon Hungarian, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, and Polish-Lithuanian noble families. The house was once a mighty princely and ducal house with origins in Saxony, Transylvania, Hungary and Ruthenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canton (heraldry)</span> Heraldic charge

In heraldry, a canton is a charge placed upon a shield. It is, by default a square in the upper dexter corner, but if in the sinister corner is blazoned a canton sinister. A canton is classed by some heraldic writers as one of the honorable ordinaries; but, strictly speaking, it is a diminutive of the quarter, being two-thirds the area of that ordinary. However, in the armorial roll of Henry III, the quarter appears in several coats which in later rolls are blazoned as cantons. The canton, like the quarter, appears in early arms, and is always shown with straight lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rule of tincture</span> Rule of color composition in heraldic design

The rule of tincture is a design philosophy found in some heraldic traditions that states "metal should not be put on metal, nor colour on colour". Heraldic furs such as ermine and vair, and charges described as "proper", are generally exempt from the rule of tincture.

In British heraldry, vert is the tincture equivalent to green. It is one of the five dark tinctures called colours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish heraldry</span>

Heraldry in Scotland, while broadly similar to that practised in England and elsewhere in western Europe, has its own distinctive features. Its heraldic executive is separate from that of the rest of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lion (heraldry)</span> Element in heraldry

The lion is a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour, because historically the lion has been regarded as the "king of beasts". The lion also carries Judeo-Christian symbolism. The Lion of Judah stands in the coat of arms of Jerusalem. Similar-looking lions can be found elsewhere, such as in the coat of arms of the Swedish royal House of Bjälbo, from there in turn derived into the coat of arms of Finland, formerly belonging to Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Talbot</span> British peerages

Baron Talbot is a title that has been created twice. The title was created first in the Peerage of England. On 5 June 1331, Sir Gilbert Talbot was summoned to Parliament, by which he was held to have become Baron Talbot.

In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb to blazon means to create such a description. The visual depiction of a coat of arms or flag has traditionally had considerable latitude in design, but a verbal blazon specifies the essentially distinctive elements. A coat of arms or flag is therefore primarily defined not by a picture but rather by the wording of its blazon. Blazon is also the specialized language in which a blazon is written, and, as a verb, the act of writing such a description. Blazonry is the art, craft or practice of creating a blazon. The language employed in blazonry has its own vocabulary, grammar and syntax, which becomes essential for comprehension when blazoning a complex coat of arms.

<i>Siebmachers Wappenbuch</i> German armorial

Siebmachers Wappenbuch is a roll of arms first published in 1605 as two heraldic multivolume book series of armorial bearings or coats of arms of the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as coats of arms of city-states and some burgher families. Founded and compiled by Johann Ambrosius Siebmacher, a German heraldic artist, copperplate engraver, etcher and publisher from Nuremberg, these works became an important source of heraldry of the German-speaking regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boars in heraldry</span> Heraldic animal

The wild boar and boar's head are common charges in heraldry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German heraldry</span> Tradition and style of heraldic achievements in Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

German heraldry is the tradition and style of heraldic achievements in Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, including national and civic arms, noble and burgher arms, ecclesiastical heraldry, heraldic displays and heraldic descriptions. German heraldic style is one of the four major broad traditions within European heraldry and stands in contrast to Gallo-British, Latin and Eastern heraldry, and strongly influenced the styles and customs of heraldry in the Nordic countries, which developed comparatively late. Together, German and Nordic heraldry are often referred to as German-Nordic heraldry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crosses in heraldry</span> Cross symbols used in heraldry

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.

<i>Wernigerode Armorial</i> Armorial compiled in southern Germany

The Wernigerode Armorial is an armorial compiled in southern Germany in the late 15th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ordinary of arms</span>

An ordinary of arms is a roll or register of coats of arms arranged systematically by design, with coats featuring the same principal elements grouped together. The purpose of an ordinary is to facilitate the identification of the bearer of a coat of arms from visual evidence alone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hound (heraldry)</span>

The hound is a charge in classical heraldry. In English heraldry, the commonly used variant are the talbot, also blazoned as sleuth-hound, e.g. in the arms of Wolseley of Staffordshire, the greyhound and bloodhound. Rarely seen variants are the ratch-hound, the mastiff, the foxhound, the spaniel and the terrier. The "sea-dog" is a curious charge resembling the talbot but with scales, webbed feet and a broad tail, used in the arms of Stourton barony, presumably originally depicting a beaver . Similar charges include the wolf and the fox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of heraldry</span>

Heraldry is the system of visual identification of rank and pedigree which developed in the European High Middle Ages, closely associated with the courtly culture of chivalry, Latin Christianity, the Crusades, feudal aristocracy, and monarchy of the time. Heraldic tradition fully developed in the 13th century, and it flourished and developed further during the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Originally limited to nobility, heraldry is adopted by wealthy commoners in the Late Middle Ages. Specific traditions of Ecclesiastical heraldry also develop in the late medieval period. Coats of arms of noble families, often after their extinction, becomes attached to the territories they used to own, giving rise to municipal coats of arms by the 16th century.

References

  1. "Wapenrol van de ridders van het Gulden Vlies (fragment)". lib.ugent.be. Retrieved 2020-08-27.
  2. A New Dictionary of Heraldry, 1987
  3. "The Balliol Roll".
  4. Laing, D (1878) pl. 50; Sir David Lindsay's Armorial (n.d.).
  5. British Library Add MS 29796
  6. 1 2 Planché (1873) , p. 31
  7. Rolls of Arms Henry III: The Matthew Paris Shields (c.1244–59); Glover's Roll (c.1253–58) and Walford's Roll (c.1273); Additions and Corrections to A Catalogue of English Mediaeval Rolls of Arms. Edited by Thomas Daniel Tremlett Edited by Hugh Stanford London. Rolls of Arms Henry III. Published in 1958 in series "Aspilogia" by Boydell Press
  8. British Library Harley MS 6589, f.12,12b
  9. British Library, Cotton Roll, 8
  10. "Heraldic Roll ('The Dering Roll')" (digitized manuscript) (in English and Latin). British Library.
  11. FitzWilliam Museum, Cambridge MS297 (15th century copy)
  12. Modern illustration of the Herald's Roll shields by R. S. Nourse (aspilogia.com)
  13. College of Arms, London, MS Vincent 164 ff. 1–21b
  14. Society of Antiquaries, London, MS517 (c.15th-century copy)
  15. Society of Antiquaries, London, MS 664, vol.1, ff. 19–25
  16. Queen's College, Oxford, MS 158, pp. 366–402 (copy c.1640)
  17. Harley MS 6589, f.9–9b
  18. Planché (1873) , p. 32
  19. College of Arms, London, MS M.14, ff. 168–75 (copy by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter King of Arms, d. 1534)
  20. British Library, Cotton MS Caligula A XVIII, ff. 23b–30b (near contemporary vellum copy)
  21. Commentary by Nicolas (1828). See also: The Roll of Caerlaverock on Wikisource; Modern illustration of shields based on Scott-Giles, C.W., The Siege of Caerlaverock, Heraldry Society, 1960; Modern illustration (2001) of shields in period style by Michael Case "Maister Iago ab Adam"
  22. College of Arms, London MS M.14, ff. 269–272 (Copy by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter King of Arms, d.1534)
  23. Published in Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. 4, p. 63
  24. Greenstreet 22; Papworth N
  25. Wagner (1950) , p.  42
  26. Published in Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. 4, p. 389
  27. "First Calais Roll". Textmanuscripts.com. Retrieved 2013-07-15.
  28. MS. Ashmole 804, Bodleian Library, Oxford
  29. "Powell's Roll". Digital Bodleian. Bodleian Library, Oxford University. Retrieved 2013-07-15.
  30. Payne, Ann 'The Salisbury Roll of Arms, c. 1463', published in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by Daniel Williams (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987), pp. 187-98
  31. Crane, Susan, Representations of Courtship and Marriage in the Salisbury Rolls, published in The Coat of Arms: Journal of the Heraldry Society, 3rd series, volume 6, part 1, 2010, pp.1-15
  32. "Manuscript leaf of a copy of the Salisbury Roll". Friends of the National Libraries.
  33. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, fonds français no 18648 fo 32 – 39
  34. Bibliothèque Municipale, Besançon, Collection Chifflet, MS 186, pp. 145–154
  35. Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS.français 2249 (15th century copy)
  36. BNV Fr. 5230
  37. 1 2 Wappen in German , French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland .
  38. "Stemmario Trivulziano". Edizioni Orsini de Marzo: Sankt Moritz Press. Retrieved 2013-07-15.

Roll identification numbers

    Sources