[ANSTHRLD] Heralds Helping Haiti
Alden Drake
alden_drake at sbcglobal.net
Wed Jan 20 05:20:44 PST 2010
Greetings all,
I don't know how many SCA heralds are subscribed to the College of Arms' (of England!) newsletter, but I received the email below and thought it worth sharing. The CoA is donating all future proceeds from "The Armorial of Haiti" to go to relief and recovery efforts in Haiti. Books on heraldry generally have a pretty focused audience, so I thought maybe passing this along in the SCA circle might help advertise to an interested audience. If you are interested, ordering information is given below. Please feel free to cross-post this to other herald lists.
In service,
Alden Drake
Sable Roundel Herald
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: College of Arms <newsletter at college-of-arms.gov.uk>
To: newsletter at college-of-arms.gov.uk
Sent: Wed, January 20, 2010 4:31:47 AM
Subject: THE ARMORIAL OF HAITI: an announcement and appeal from the College of Arms
AN ANNOUNCEMENT AND AN APPEAL FROM THE COLLEGE OF ARMS
ALL FUTURE PROCEEDS FROM THE ARMORIAL OF HAITI TO GO TO EARTHQUAKE RELIEF AND RECOVERY IN HAITI
In May 2007 the College of Arms was delighted to publish The Armorial of Haiti. Symbols of Nobility in the Reign of Henry Christophe, edited by Clive Cheesman, with a historical introduction by Marie-Lucie Vendryes and a preface by Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada. The volume presents a complete edition and reproduction of an extraordinary item from the College’s collections of heraldic manuscripts, with a full commentary and an appendix of supporting historical documents.
Henry Christophe(1767-1820), Haiti’s only king, was one of the most unusual figures in nineteenth-century Caribbean history. Of obscure origins, he served under the famous Toussaint Louverture in the war of independence that turned the French colony of Saint-Domingue into the free nation of Haiti. In 1811 Christophe made himself king of the northern part of the country and created a hereditary nobility from among his leading men – many of them, like him, former slaves. The “Armorial Général du Royaume d’Hayti”, published in its entirety here, is a contemporary manuscript from Haiti recording in colour the arms of the king himself, the queen, the prince royal, their capital city (Cap-Henry, now Cap-Haïtien) and 87 of the nobles.
As stated in the book itself, the turns of fate that took this remarkable manuscript from its place of origin and brought it to London to enrich the College's collections created, we felt, an obligation to disseminate awareness and understanding of it. With the assistance of the many subscribers and benefactors who contributed to publication, we were able to fulfil that obligation, while building links and associations with modern Haiti and those who study it.
The calamitousearthquakethat struck Port-au-Prince and its area on 12 January is a call to go further in marking our awareness of these obligations and associations. Though we can only hope to raise a minuscule sum in respect of what is needed, the College of Arms has agreed as publisher of The Armorial of Haiti that all future proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to the international relief and recovery effort. The generosity of pre-publication subscribers and donors meant that the production costs of the book were met from the outset; therefore, on each sale of the book at its cover price of £45, something very close to that sum will be held for the benefit of a recognised charity working towards the international relief effort. The charity will be selected on the basis of official advice.
· If you do not yet possess this book please consider purchasing a copy.
· If you do possess a copy, please consider buying others for friends.
· If you were one of the pre-publication subscribers or donors, please again accept our thanks, and consider recommending the book to others, with the information that all copies bought will directly benefit the recovery effort in Haiti.
Copies can be bought on-line through the College website at http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Haiti.htm and through www.Amazon.co.uk (searching for 'Haiti armorial'). They can also be acquired in person at the College of Arms in London.
If you decide not to purchase a copy and do not know others who may be interested, please none the less consider giving to the international relief effort through a recognised charity of your choice; for UK donors a suitable portal is that of the Disasters Emergency Committee at http://www.dec.org.uk/donate_now/.
Please help us realise as much as possible for Haiti from this initiative.
* From reviews of The Armorial of Haiti *
The book presented to us and edited by Clive Cheesman, is a powerful document, one that facilitates certain kinds of discourses in Haitian history and historiography, and also in those of Africa and its diaspora, and in the history of Latin America in general… This is a magnificently produced volume!
Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Caribbean Studies 2008.
To be entertained and intellectually challenged by the reading of an armorial is a pleasure and a surprise. This is precisely what Clive Cheesman, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant at the College of Arms in London, has achieved with this book, which is much more than the lavish facsimile edition of a rare manuscript in the library of the College of Arms: it amounts to an important contribution to the early history of the state of Haiti.
François Borne, The Court Historian 2007.
Que demander de plus? On aimerait que les publications d’armoriaux qui se multiplient fussent toutes aussi achevées. Remercions Albion … d’offrir au public, dans une presentation de grande qualité matérielle et scientifique, l’accès à un joyau de la francophonie.
Yvan Loskoutoff, Lettre d’information de la Société française d’héraldique et de sigillographie 2007.
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