[Ansteorra] honor and animals

[Jennifer Smith]

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 3:34 PM, Hugh & Belinda Niewoehner
<burgborrendohl at valornet.com> wrote:
> Thank you both Daniel and Emma.  You have answered some of my questions
> about heraldry of which I am sadly very ignorant.  Before 1394 and the
> accepted authority of the "king of arms" how were arms assigned/chosen?
>  What are the earliest records?

That's somewhat difficult to answer exactly. Heraldy rather evolved
from the battlefield, and didn't become a more precise science until
sometime in the thirteenth century, when they started becoming
hereditary. That's really when the lawyers and heralds (who themselves
evolved from essentially army staff officers) got involved in actually
designing, assigning, and verifying inheritance.

> Also since the bestiaries were consulted by the early heralds I assume that
> they did try to assign 'meanings' to charges in the beginning?  Or am I
> misunderstanding again?

They did, but mostly to the tinctures (planets, jewels, even days of
the week!)  But as Daniel pointed out, they didn't agree at all on
many points. For example, _De Insigniis et Armis_ of Bartolo di Sasso
Ferrato was written in Perugia (Italy) around 1354. It lists the
tinctures from most noble to least noble as gold, red, blue, white,
black. But then John de Bado Aureo writes in his _Tractatus de Armis_
in 1395 in England, that the noblest color is white, then black, then
blue, gold, red, green. Later texts go into much greater detail in
explaining allegories and whatnot, but again, they don't agree.

It also seems quite likely that the recipients of arms probably didn't
understand any allusions being made, unless they were particularly
well-read.

I suppose, therefore, that the best answer is yes -- if you want to
have a certain meaning to a charge or tincture on your arms, if you
look hard enough you can probably find that meaning in one of the many
period heraldic treatises, somewhere. :)

-Emma