ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1948 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1948 ************************************ From: (Craig Levin) 12 Apr 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked us to help you find evidence for the name , in the border country between Spain and France, and help with your proposed coat of arms. You wanted us to concentrate our research between the tenth century and the middle of the fourteenth century. We found nothing to indicate that your version of the given name, , was used by real people in your chosen era and possible location. The "e/" is an ASCII rendering of an e with an acute accent mark. It looks to be a misspelling of the French version of the name . The name was known to mediaeval Europeans from Virgil and other classical authors who wrote about the Trojan Wars. However, various cultures picked and chose as they liked from the names that classical literature gave them. We were not able to find any evidence that the Spanish form, spelled , was used during your period.(1) We found that the name does appear in Old French and Occitan romances. Some forms were used to refer to the classical character, and others were used as names of other female characters. Occitan is the language spoken in the Middle Ages in southern France, which, for centuries, has been culturally distinct from the north. The various forms are: - for the classical character: , , - for others: (note-no accent mark), , , The commonest forms were and .(2) is grammatically incorrect. In the Romance languages, Sol is masculine, and does not take "la." We found two French bynames, which were probably used in your era, that may interest you: - , from a word meaning "threshing grounds" - , derived from several places in southern France called Le Sol.(3) has been used in Spanish as a byname as well, probably derived from its use as a forename.(4) We have no evidence that any form of was used by real people in the exact era and location that you are interested in, although it was used in England.(5) On the basis of its literary use in Occitan and Old French, and its use by real people in England, we believe it is possible that the name was used in southern France. If so, would be a possible thirteenth century Occitan name. Your proposed coat of arms can be blazoned: "Per bend sinister azure and sable mulletty, a bend sinister and in chief a sun in his splendor Or." Many of us were impressed with the care and diligence you used in making the graphic. As a coat of arms, though, it has some style problems. Day/night themed coats of arms are very popular in the SCA, but they were rare in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Mediaeval and Renaissance people favored symmetry and balance. They would, for example, have either had the entire field covered with the mullets (stars) or have two suns in their splendor on either side of the bend sinister. You can get a good idea of what mediaeval coats of arms look like either by going to the links on this website: or by looking at Joseph Foster's _Feudal Coats of Arms_ (London: Senate, 1995), which contains many engravings of mediaeval English coats of arms. We hope this letter has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you. The following individuals were invaluable in preparing this letter: Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, Alison Macdermot, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl ferch Morgan Glasvryn, Blaise de Cormeilles, Alan Fairfax, Juliana de Luna, and myself, Pedro de Alcazar. For the Academy, Pedro de Alcazar 12 Apr 2000 References: 1. Arana de Love, Francisca, _Nombres propios espan~oles_ (Barcelona: Vosgos, 1982), s.n. Casandra. 2. Flutre, Louis-Fernand. _Table des noms propres avec toutes leurs variantes, figurant dans les romans du Moyen Age e/crits en franc,ais ou en provenc,al et actuellement publie/s ou analyse/s_ (Poitier: Centre d'e/tudes supe/rieures de civilisation me/die/vale, 1962), s.n. Cassandre. 3. Dauzat, Albert. _Dictionnaire E/tymologique des Noms de Famille et Pre/noms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.n. Sol. 4. Juliana de Luna. "Medieval Spanish Jewish Names of the 13th and 14th Centuries," (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/juliana/iberian-jewish/, accessed 4/11/00. 5. Talan Gwynek. "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1997). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/reaney/, accessed 4/11/00.