ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1427 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1427 ************************************ 14 Dec 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked a couple questions about armory. This letter is a brief answer to your question. Please note that the Academy focuses on historical usage, not on Society practice. We will occasionally discuss Society rules or customs in our letters, but our primary goal is to foster more authentic re-creation of period names and arms. You asked if there is a heraldic posture called for a falcon, and you describe this posture as wings displayed, head facing down so that the beak is seen against the breast, and claws extended. There is a posture called , but we're not sure if it is what you have in mind. is very similar to , which is the posture of the eagle on the US Postal Service insignia, i.e. the body seen in profile, ready to leap into the air. The only difference between and is that the bird has its claw extended rather than standing on them, and its head is bent down toward its prey rather than elevated and looking upward. A bird usually has its wings rather than , but is not unheard of. Similarly, a bird could be , but its body would be in profile. We have seen this posture once in a period German roll of arms, but we have unfortunately been unable to find the reference. It is certainly not a common posture in period armory. Given your description, we thought you might intend the bird's body to be vertical, just as if it were , but with the head and claws arranged differently. We have never seen that posture, which we might call , and we think it is a poor choice since it will probably be indistinguishable from and the bird's head will be difficult to recognize against its breast. You also asked for a name for a charge consisting of a roundel surrounded by eight lozenges radiating from the center. There is a period charge which fits this description in general terms. The or varied in form. One version is a very small roundel surrounded by a set of elongated lozenges, usually six in number, that don't quite touch the central disk. The lozenges are slightly kite-shaped, with their longest points toward the center. The proportions make it look much more like a variant of a than like a heraldic . The charge was peculiar to the heraldry of Normandy, and we found examples ranging from the 12th to the 15th century [1]. We cannot find any support for a large central disk surrounded by small lozenge-shaped rays. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Teceangl Bach, Lindorm Eriksson, Zenobia Naphtali, Rouland Carre, and Walraven van Nijmegen. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 14 Dec 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Brault, Gerard J., _Early Blazon: Heraldic Terminology in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries with Special Reference to Arthurian Heraldry_, 2nd ed. (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1997), under angemme and angegnies en l'escu.