[ANSTHRLD] Is the gore a peripheral or central ordinary?

[Tim McDaniel]

On Wed, 10 Oct 2012, Doug Bell <magnus77840 at yahoo.com> wrote:
77;10102;0c> The SCA Glossary has:

CoA Glossary.  (To be even more precise,

     GLOSSARY OF TERMS

     As Used By The College of Arms of the Society for Creative
     Anachronism, Inc.

A title that long would be glorious if surrounded by borders and
putti, and with more words like

     Including Certain Tables Appertaining to
     the Properties of a Number of Commonly Used Charges

     And an Appendix to Clarify Terms
     That Occasion Misuse from Time to Time

     As Fully Updated and Revised in Anno Societatis the Thirty-Eighth
     in the First Tenure as Laurel King of Arms of Da'ud ibn Auda
     Now al-Jamal Herald in the Aforesaid College of Arms
     And Who Otherwise Bears the Appelation of David Appleton in the
     Modern World

     "Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus." -- Horace

But I digress.).  http://heraldry.sca.org/coagloss.html

> Peripheral Charge Group.
> Gores and gussets are not peripheral charges (because they extend so
> far into the center of the field).
>
> So if a gore isn't a peripheral ordinary, is it a central ordinary?

My reflex is to reply "The easy way out is to call it a subordinary."
But that would be a smart alec response because I dislike the entire
fuzzy concept of "subordinary" (which I am astonished does not even
have its own headword in Parker).

> [February 2011 LoAR, R-Trimaris]
> Hala bint Yuhanna.  Device. Barry Or and sable, a gore argent.
> This device is returned for conflict with the arms of Gonzaga
> (important non-SCA arms), Barry Or and sable. There is a single CD
> for the addition of the gore, which is a secondary charge.
>
> So the gore is not a peripheral charge but a secondary charge that
> extends far into the center of the field

So it appears.

> which is the definition of a central ordinary or central charge
> which is a primary charge group.

I'd say that the main definition is "The most important group of
charges in a piece of armory."  The full text:

Primary Charge Group.
     The most important group of charges in a piece of armory. In
     blazons, the primary charge group is usually mentioned immediately
     after the field (though a strewn charge group is not primary when
     it is blazoned before a central charge group). If there is a
     central ordinary lying entirely on the field, it is the primary
     charge. If there is no such central ordinary, then the primary
     charge group is the set of charges of the same size that lie in
     the center of the design and directly on the field. An overall
     charge can never be the primary charge. In any piece of armory
     with charges there will always be a primary charge group, unless
     the only charges are peripheral. There cannot be more than one
     primary charge group in any given design. In Gules, a pale between
     two mullets argent, the pale is the primary charge. In Or, a
     maunche between three roundels azure the maunche is the primary
     charge. In Per chevron argent and sable, two roses and a
     fleur-de-lys counterchanged and on a chief purpure three hearts
     argent, the roses and fleur-de-lys are the primary charge group,
     because they are all of about the same size and in a standard
     arrangement. In Azure semy of mullets and a chief argent the
     strewn mullets are the primary charge group; in Azure semy of
     mullets, an eagle and a chief argent the eagle is the primary
     charge. In Sable, a lion Or, overall a bend argent, the lion is
     the primary charge. In Azure, a chief Or there is no primary
     charge group. See also Overall Charge Group, Peripheral Charge
     Group, Secondary Charge Group, Semy, Tertiary Charge Group.

I don't think that "[[sub]ordinaries that] extend so far into the
center of the field" makes it a "central ordinary", or that it makes
it "the most important group of charges in a piece of armory".

Danyll de Lyncoln
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com