ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1282 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1282 ************************************ 14 Oct 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for information about and , which you want to use as names for a Byzantine Greek man living around the year 1100. You also asked for our opinion of your design for your arms. Here is what we have found. Throughout this letter, we'll give Greek words transliterated into the Roman alphabet. We use a transliteration system that represents the Greek letters exactly. If you'd like to know the Greek spelling of any word, please ask. In conversation with one of our members, you wrote that you aren't interested in any more. It's a fine medieval Byzantine name, by the way [1, 2]. is an equally fine name. It is recorded in 1166 [2] and 14 times in the 6th and 7th centuries in the latinized form [1, 3]. It is likely that the name was used throughout this period. Although the name is identical to the Greek adjective "royal", the evidence makes it perfectly acceptable for Society use and registration [6]. Most members of the Byzantine aristocracy in your period were usually known by a given and a family name. In some cases a man might be known by a descriptive epithet, so a name meaning is a reasonable possibility [2, 4]. However, for the best re-creation, you should also choose a family name from your period to use on formal occasions. You can find a list of Byzantine family names in references [1] and [2]. We think that is probably not the best medieval translation of "studious". In classical Greek, it meant something like "praticising diligently." We think a better translation is "fond of learning, eager for knowledge" [5]. The notation represents an eta, rather than an epsilon which we represent . In period, it probably would have been fully latinized if it were written in Roman letters: . A descriptive epithet in your period could have been used in two ways. It could simply have been appended to your full name, e.g. "Basileios Laskaris the Studious"; or it could have been used as a surname by itself, . More famous people seem to have used the latter style [2]. Heraldic arms weren't invented until the late 11th century, and weren't found in Byzantium until somewhat later. Of course, heraldry is part of the culture of the Society, so you might choose to use arms even though your persona would not have done so. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article on our website: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq/nonheraldic.html The design you drew can be blazoned "Per bend sinister rayonny argent and gules, a sun and a lymphad counterchanged." You blazoned the upper charge as "an estoile", but your drawing shows a standard heraldic sun. An estoile has only six or eight wavy rays of equal length. This design is unfortunately not particularly consistent with period heraldic style. "Rayonny" as almost unknown in period arms. When a pair of charges is placed on the field, balanced across a line of division, they are almost always identical. In fact, the basic design "per bend, two charges" is rather unusual in itself. Since we don't know which parts of your design are most important to you, we can't suggest alternate designs. In considering other possibilities, you might find it useful to look at some period arms. You can find a couple collections on the web: Die Wappenrolle von Zu:rich http://people.delphi.com/ivanor/ L'Armorial de Nicolas de Lutzelbourg http://www.nancy2.u-nancy.fr/RECHERCHE/MOYENAGE/lutzsom.htm There's a very good book that you can use, too: Joseph Foster's _The Dictionary of Heraldry_ (New York: Arch Cape Press, 1989). It contains several thousand color drawings of arms found in period English rolls of arms. None of these sources cover period Greek heraldry; unfortunately, we can't recommend a book on that subject. I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Zenobia Naphtali, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Rouland Carre, Talan Gwynek, and Elsbeth Anne Roth. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 15 Oct 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Bardas Xiphias, "Common Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the 6th and 7th Centuries" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/early_byz_names.html [2] Bardas Xiphias, "Personal Names of the Aristocracy in the Roman Empire During the Later Byzantine Era" (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/byzantine/introduction.html [3] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei Nomi Italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan, 1992), s.n. Basilio, says is a latinization of . [4] Cheynet, Jean-Claude, "L'Anthroponymie Aristocratique a\ Byzance" in Bourin, Monique, Jean-Marie-Martin, and Francois Menant, eds., _L'Anthroponymie: Document de l'Histoire Sociale des Mondes Me/diterrane/ens Me/die/vaux_, Collection de l'E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 226 (Rome: E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 1996), pp.267-294. [5] Crane, Gregory, R., ed, _The Perseus Project_, accessed October 1998. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/lexica.html [6] The SCA College of Arms will not generally register a title of rank as a given name. However, according to rule VI.1 of the Rules for Heraldic Submissions, a name documented in use in period is acceptable even if it is derived from a title, provided the full name does not contain any other suggestion of rank or title. The standard example is , which is the Latin word for "queen" but was also a given name. is unacceptable because the entire name appears to mean "Queen of France", but is fine. In your case, the question really doesn't arise at all since is not a title; the actual Greek word for "king" is [7]. [7] Bauer, Walter, _A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature_ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957).