ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2968 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2968 ************************************ From: "C. L. Ward" 17 Dec 2004 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for our opinion of as a late 13th century to early 14th century German name, as well as the arms 'Argent, a German panther rampant vert, armed and issuing flames from the mouth gules, within a bordure compony or and vert'. Here is what we found. As you noted, the personal name appeared in documents up to ca. 1300 [1]. However, this spelling does not reflect 13th and 14th century forms of the name. During your period, the normalized Middle High German (MHG) spelling would be . Examples of this name include in 1395, in 1397, and in 1414 [2, 3]. The quote mark is used here to represent an umlaut over the preceding letter. If this name were encountered in a Latin context, it would likely be represented as [4]. The first official mention of the Austrian town of Matrei, in East Tyrol, is as the Latin in 1280; the town was in existence earlier than this date, but was apparently raised to market status in that year [5]. We would expect the spoken form of a locative name based on the name of this town to be , with a documentary Latin form of . In your period, the place-name was pronounced roughly \MAH-tray\. Based on this information, we recommend as the vernacular (spoken) form of your name appropriate around 1300. In a formal document, this name might have been Latinized as . The arms you asked about may be blazoned 'Argent, a German panther vert armed and incensed gules within a bordure compony or and vert'. A panther is a fine choice for your period. The Zurich Roll of Arms (ca. 1340) includes 'Vert, a panther argent' as the arms of the Duchy of Steiermark; now the Steiermark province of Austria [6, 7]. The arms of Ingolstadt, Bavaria, 'Argent, a panther azure,' appear to have been in use since 1340 [8]. The historical Counts of Matrei used the panther in their arms as well [9]. Bordures are also found in 14th century German heraldry; the Zurich Roll includes at least seven examples of arms with bordures [10]. All of these are solid bordures in a color differing from those used in the rest of the device, primarily red bordures on white fields and yellow bordures on black fields. Only one example differs, a bordure 'compony or and sable' (gold and black). Vert (green) is quite rare in medieval heraldry. In a large survey of arms of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, vert is found as a field or charge tincture in only 1% of the arms from southern Germany and Switzerland [11]. The Zurich Roll does provide examples of five coats of arms with white fields and green charges, as well as two with yellow fields and green charges. However, in all of these instances the charges are leaves, trees, or leafy branches [12]. Your proposed design has two uncommon features: a green charge and a compony bordure. The coat is certainly compatible with 14th century German heraldic style, but it is not particularly typical of that style. 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 Walraven van Nijmegen, Arval Benicoeur, Mor inghean Chathail, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, and Kolozsvari Arpadne Julia. For the Academy, Gunnvor Silfraharr 17 December 2004 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] Talan Gwynek. "Late Period German Masculine Given Names: Names from 14th Century Plauen". (WWW: Academy of St. Gabriel). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/germmasc/plauen14.html [2] Schwarz, Ernst, _Sudetendeutsche Familiennamen aus vorhussitischer Zeit_ (Koeln: Blehlau Verlag, 1957). s.n. [3] In these examples and the other variants of that name are bynames of patronymic origin. We have no way to tell, however, whether they name the bearer's father or a male ancestor several generations back. They are nonetheless evidence of contemporary spelling. [4] Talan Gwynek. "Medieval German Given Names from Silesia". (WWW: Academy of St. Gabriel, 2004). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/bahlow/bahlow.html [5] "Matrei in Osttirol". (WWW: Wikipedia Deutsch). http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrei_in_Osttirol [6] Bigalski, Gerrit. "The Zurich Roll of Arms: Die Wappenrolle von Zu"rich". (WWW: Privately published, 1996). http://ladyivanor.knownworldweb.com/zroaen0.htm See: Strip II front page 2, #31. Popoff, Michel, _Le Ro^le d'Armes de Zurich_, Documents d'He/raldique Me/die/vale 9 (Paris: E/ditions du Le/opard d'Or, 1986). Here the represents an o-circumflex, while represents an with an acute accent. [7] Velde, Franc,ois. "Arms of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy: The Austrian Crown Lands". (WWW: Heraldica.org, 1999). http://www.heraldica.org/topics/national/austria.htm This site has the arms of the Duchy of Steiermark as 'Vert a panther argent, horned and fire issuing from the mouth gules'. An image of these arms may be found at http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.data.image.s/s798165a.jpg [8] Hartemink, Ralf. "German Civic Heraldry: Ingolstadt, Bayern". (WWW: International Civic Heraldy, 1996). http://www.ngw.nl/int/dld/i/ingolsta.htm [9] Hartemink, Ralf. "Austrian Civic Heraldry: Stuhlfelden, Salzburg". (WWW: International Civic Heraldy, 1998). http://www.ngw.nl/int/oos/s/stuhlfel.htm The arms of Stuhlfelden in the state of Salzburg are given as 'Per fess azure and or, a panther rampant gules'; the panther charge is 'taken from the arms of the Counts of Matrei-Lechsgemu"nd, who were the oldest rulers of the village, from the end of the 10th century until 1228'. [10] Bigalski, op. cit. See: Bordures Strip II front page 6, #65 Quarterly argent and sable, a bordure gules. Strip II front page 13, #143 Argent, a sheep statant sable atop a mount issuant from base vert within a bordure gules Strip II back page 3, #200 Sable, three fusils conjoined in fess argent within a bordure or. Strip II back page 5, #211 Sable, a bordure or. Strip II back page 5, #215 Argent, three escutcheons gules within a bordure compony or and sable. Strip III back page 1, #381 Argent, a lion sable within a bordure gules. Strip III back page 2, #385 Gules, a pale sable within a bordure or. [11] Pastoureau, Michel, _Traite/ d'He/raldique_, 2nd ed. (Paris: grands manuels Picard, 1993), p. 117. [12] Bigalski, op. cit. See: Argent field, Vert charge(s) Strip II back page 1, #167 Argent, a linden leaf inverted vert. Strip II back page 2, #173 Argent, three linden leaves inverted vert. Strip II back page 3, #201 Argent, on a linden leaf issuant from base vert a point pointed gules. Strip II back page 4, #208 Argent, in fess a linden leaf bendwise and another bendwise sinister stems conjoined and issuant from base vert and in chief a lion passant gules crowned or. Strip II back page 13, #294 Argent, three leafy branches fesswise vert. Other field, Vert charge(s) Strip II front page 3, #52 Or, an oak tree issuant from base vert. Strip III front page 3, #337 Or, six stemless linden leaves inverted vert within a bordure gules. --