ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1509 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1509 ************************************ 26 May 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our opinion of as a French masculine given name, and about the arms "Sable, a fret sanguine." Here is what we have found. is the name of a Greek goddess; we have no evidence that it was used as a given name in period. A similar-sounding masculine name, , is found in the New Testament but does not seem to have been used as a given name in period either [1]. We did find the masculine name in France in the 6th and the 9th centuries [2]. It is probably based on , but we have found no evidence that it survived into the later Middle Ages. We're not sure you're interested in a persona as early as the 9th century. If you are, please write again and we'll be happy to offer some advice on names from that period. If not, you may want to look at the list of medieval French names on our medieval names website. The French name lists are available at: http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/romance.html Heraldic arms were invented in northwestern France in the middle of the 12th century. If you choose to set your persona before that time, you obviously would not have used armory. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web 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 Your design for your arms, "Sable a fret sanguine" isn't typical of period heraldry for two reasons. First, sanguine is a very dark color, which has low contrast against a black background. In period France, nearly all arms had a light color (known as a metal) on a dark color (known as a color), or vice versa [4]. This constraint is known as "The Rule of Tinctures". The metals are white/silver and yellow/gold. The main colors are red, black, and blue; green is found less often and purple only very occasionally. To design authentic-style arms, we recommend you place a metal on a color or vice versa. Second, "sanguine", a dark burgundy-red, was not used in arms in period. It is not one of the original heraldic colors, but came to be used later. The SCA College of Arms will not register arms using sanguine. We suggest you use red, which is called 'gules' in heraldry, instead. Frets were first introduced in Tudor England and so might be found in 16th century France [3]. Before that, "fretty" was a common field treatment. A field "fretty" is covered by a series of regularly-spaced, diagonally- interlaced strips, as in garden trellis. Here are some suggestions for arms that include the colors sable (black) and gules (red) along with a metal. Each example uses argent (white), but Or (gold) will work as well. The suggestions below are free from conflict, as far as we can tell, and therefore could be registered by the College of Arms. Sable, two bars argent fretty gules. (a black field with two horizontal stripes that are white with diagonally interlaced strips of red) Argent fretty gules and a canton sable. (a silver field with diagonally interlaced strips of red with a black square in the upper left hand corner) Sable, three bars argent fretty gules. (a black field with three horizontal stripes that are white with diagonally interlaced strips of red) Sable, a fess argent fretty gules. (a black field with a broad horizontal stripe that is white with diagonally interlaced strips of red) Sable, a chief argent fretty gules. (a black field with the top quarter white with diagonally interlaced strips of red) We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. We were assisted in researching and writing this letter by Talan Gwynek, Jehan fitz Gilbert, Walraven van Nijmegen, Teceangl Bach, and Margaret Makafee. For the Academy, Juliana de Luna & Arval Benicoeur 26 May 1999 ------------------------------------------------------- References [1] Titus 3:12 [2] Morlet, Marie-Therese, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Territoire de l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_, three volumes (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1972). Volume II, p. 21b. [3] Wagner, Anthony Richard, ed. Aspilogia II: Rolls of Arms: Henry III (London: The Society of Antiquaries, 1967), p. 93. [4] Pastoureau, Michel, _Traite/ d'He/raldique_, 2nd ed. (Paris: grands manuels Picard, 1993).