ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1979 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1979 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 2 Mar 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a late 15th or early 16th century Portuguese woman, and whether she might have used the arms "Argent, a rosebud azure between two flaunches vert", with the leaves and stem green. This letter is a brief answer to your question. Your name is perfect for your culture. We've found used in Portugal a little before your period, and in the 16th century [1, 2]. The arms you've described can be blazoned "Argent, a rosebud azure slipped and leaved between two flaunches vert". This blazon specifies that the stem and leaves of the flower are green. Unfortunately, this design doesn't fit the culture you're trying to re-create. We have seen no evidence that rosebuds were used in period heraldry. (As a consequence of its own failure to find examples of rosebuds, the SCA College of Arms will not register arms containing a rosebud [3].) One or more heraldic roses is a fine choice for late-period Portuguese heraldry, but we must advise your strongly to avoid rosebuds. We suspect your flaunches are the semi-circular kind found in many heraldry texts. We have seen this charge only in English and French arms in our period, from the early 15th century onward [4, 5]. We have seen nothing similar in Portuguese heraldry. A similar charge appears in some Catalan arms. Blazoned "flanchs" in Catalan and sometimes called "square flaunches" in English, they are a pair of right-angled wedges extending onto the field from each side, not quite meeting in the center [4, 6]. We haven't seen this charge used outside Catalonia, though, so we don't recommend it for Portuguese arms. If you'd like us to suggest some alternate designs more typical of Portuguese heraldry, please write us again. 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 Walraven van Nijmegen, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Pedro de Alcazar, Rouland Carre, Juliana de Luna, Isfael ap Briafael, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 2 Mar 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Juliana de Luna, "Portuguese Names 1350-1450 (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/juliana/portuguese/ [2] Juliana de Luna, "Portuguese Names from the 16th Century" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/juliana/portugal16/ [3] Precedents of Master Da'ud ibn Auda, 2nd Tenure (WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997; accessed 24 Feb 2000). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/precedents/daud2/armory3.html#FLOWER. Laurel's march 1994 cover letter said: "[U]nless there is significant commentary or compelling argument to the contrary, I propose to ban, after the July 1994 Laurel meeting, the further registration of garden roses and rosebuds as charges SCA armory on the grounds that they are not a charge used in period, that the "tea rose" depicted as garden roses in SCA armorial submissions was not a period rose, and that there is an accep le similar charge, the standard heraldic rose, which could be used to similar effect. An additional argument made against garden rosebuds is that we do not register baby fauna; why then should we register baby flora?" You mentioned that you found the rosebud in the picture dictionary of the SCA; we're guessing that you mean Bruce Draconarius and Akagawa Yoshio's "A Pictorial Dictionart of Heraldry as used in the Society for Creative Anachronism." It's important to note that this was a dictionary of charges that have been used in SCA heraldry in the past. It does not guarantee that those charges are still registerable nor that they were ever used in medieval heraldry. [4] Parker, James, _A Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry_ (Charles E. Tuttle, 1982), s.v. Flaunches. [5] De Bara, Hierosme, _Le Blason des Armoiries_ (Paris: Jean de Bonnot, 1975, facsimile of the original Lyon: Barthe/le/my Vincent, 1561), p.29. [6] Riquier, Marti/n de, _Heraldica Catalana des de l'any 1150 al 1550_, Ediciones dels Quederns Crema, Barcelona, 1983, p.384. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Addendum, Arval, 19 Dec 2004 For a later client (to whom we replied directly), we looked up some information about flaunches in German heraldry. We found no period examples. Googling for the German word and the singular form , we found one 18th century example at http://www.bamberg.de/museum/objekte/jan04.htm and a modern coat, http://www.okiwappen.de/BeispieleFamW.htm. The notes on the latter page say that the gear wheel on the sinister flaunch commemorates the bearer's father's occupation of engine fitter. The staff of Mercury stands for the bearer's occupation of businessman or merchant, while the snakes entwined about it are for his wife's occupation as pharmacist's assistant.