ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 972 http://www.s-gabriel.org/972 *********************************** ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports * * contain errors that we haven't yet * * corrected. Please use it with caution. * * * ************************************************* 18 May 1998 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for advice on choosing an Italian name appropriate around 1500, using as your given name. You also asked our opinion of your arms. Here is what we have found. Your research was correct: Leonora, the daughter of the king of Naples, married Ercole d'Este, duke of Ferrara and Modena, in 1473 [1, 2]. However, we find no other example of in period Italy. This king of Naples was Aragonese (Spanish), and was a common name in late-period Spain [3], a Spanish form of , also spelled [4]. It is entirely plausible that children in the kingdom of Naples or in Ferrara or Modena may have been named after the duchess, but we think it is unlikely that the name was used in other parts of Italy in your period. If you want to set your persona in another region, you might want to consider as an alternative; we found that name in use in renaissance Florence [5]. The two most common types of last name in 15th century Italy were patronymics (names based on your father's name) or locatives (names based on the name of the place where you live). The most common way to form a patronymic in Italian was followed by your father's name. For example, if your father's name were , you could call yourself . (There were many other styles of patronymic in use in renaissance Italy; if you'd like more possibilities, please write us again.) The most common way to form a locative was followed by a place name or followed by a generic description of a place. or would be fine choices, but you probably not have named yourself for a city unless you had moved away from that city. Living within the city, you might have named yourself for a smaller locale like a parish or village, a hill, or the nearest church or city gate. "Leonora of the Valley" would be a fine choice. Since many places in Italy were named for saints, a simple solution is to use some saint's name for your byname, e.g. or "Leonora of [St] John's Mount" [6]. Since you want to use a sun in your arms, you might want to consider a family name that begins with the syllable . It was quite common in our period for a family's arms to contain a charge whose name sounded similar to their own family name. This practice was called "canting". Some possibilities in Italian, all based on the names of towns, are , , . Some names based on personal nicknames (inherited by subsequent generations) are (from "soldier") and (from "sultan", probably originally used sarcastically for a pompous man) [6]. Your proposed arms, "Azure semy of stars argent, in sinister chief a sun in splendour Or," are not really typical of the style of heraldry found in medieval Italy. The single sun in sinister chief is very unusual. We find designs with a single charge in _dexter_ chief, but we could not find any period arms with the single charge in the sinister corner. The combination of an off-center charge with a semy also seemed unusual to us. Again, we were unable to find period examples of that combination. We feel it would be more appropriate for the semy to surround a centered charge or group of charges. Unfortunately, the sun-and-stars motif is also problematic. In period armory, "a sun" was often drawn very much like a star with many rays, and it is quite unusual to find period arms which contain the two sizes of what is essentially the same charge. Several of the possible alternative designs that we might have suggested would be too similar to the Society arms of Wendryn Townsend "Azure, a sun in glory Or". In fact, gold suns are among the more common charges in Society armory, so designing unique arms with a single gold sun may be difficult. You might want to consider reversing the colors of your design: A blue sun is quite unusual and distinctive. A design like "Or, three suns azure" would be very elegant. As you consider designs for your arms, you may want to take the opportunity to look at examples of Italian arms from your period. If you find a good book of renaissance portraiture, you will find that many paintings include the subjects' arms. Look at the individual quarters of quartered arms, and you can see the kinds of designs that were common in your period. 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, Talan Gwynek, Jaelle de Armida, Zenobia Naphtali, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Elsbeth Anne Roth, and Lindorm Eriksson. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 18 May 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Este, HOUSE OF" Britannica Online. [Accessed 21 April 1998]. http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/197/0.html [2] Royal Genealogies: Information on Leonora of Naples. [Accessed 21 April 1998]. http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal12319 [3] Elsbeth Anne Roth, _16th-century Spanish Women's Names_ (WWW: Self-published, 1998) http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kvs/fnames.html. [4] Arana de Love, Francisca, _Nombres Proprios Espan~oles_ (Barcelona: Editorial Vosgos, 1982), s.n. Leonor. [5] Rhian Lyth, "Italian Renaissance Women's Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1996). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/italian.html. [6] De Felice, Emidio, Dizionario dei Cognomi Italiani (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978), passim. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -