It's gonna take a couple of minutes to lay the foundation for the credibility of the Ancient Coats of Arms. Please bear with me, and pay attention to the contents of the introduction.
History of HeraldryHeraldry is the system of visual identification of rank and pedigree which developed in the European High Middle Ages. Heraldic tradition fully developed in the 13th century, and it flourished and developed further during the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Originally limited to nobility, heraldry is adopted by wealthy commoners in the Late Middle Ages. Coats of arms of noble families, often after their extinction, becomes attached to the territories they used to own, giving rise to municipal coats of arms by the 16th century.
As you can see, all of the above "Attributed Arms" sources fall between 1910 and 2003. Essentially, some pseudo-historians provided us with their unsubstantiated opinions on books written up to 550 years before their time. Have you ever wondered why they do not list sources contemporary to the books they provide their opinions on? I think there is only one reason for it:
Below you can see a faceless image of the wonderful gentleman who allegedly authored Le Blason Des Armoiries. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any meaningful English language sources pertaining to de Bara.
In 1579, he stayed in Lyon where he had his heraldic work published on several occasions. Published during the civil war and the monarchical crisis, it is part of the current critical of the nobility which no longer assumes its ideal and leaves the symbolic virtues materialized by the coat of arms abandoned. Bara, in his comments, lamented the irresponsible use of the coat of arms by upstart commoners:
1581 English Translation: Shown the way that the Ancients and Moderns have seen it. Treaty containing several different outlines, for the means of which one can distinguish the others, and erect and forget the Coats of Arms. Reviewed, Corrected, Amplified by the author with an increase in several coats of arms, both ancient and modern.
1628 French Original: Auquel est monstrée la maniere que les Anciens and Modernes ont vsé en icelles.Traité contenant plufieurs esquisser differens, far le moyen desquels on peut discerner les autres , et dresser oublasonner les Armoiries. Liure autant neceíïàire que profitable à tous Seigneurs, Gentils-hommes, et à ceux qui parlent en public, pour sçauoir discourir des Armoiries : comme auíïi à tous Peintres, Sculpteurs, Pourtrayeurs, Vitriers, Graueurs, Orfeures, Tapissiers, et autres, qui trauaillent fur lesdites armes, pour en sçauoir les noms, et mesures des choses qui
s'y appliquent.
1628 English Translation: Shown the way that the Ancients and Moderns have seen it. Treaty containing several different outlines, for the means of which one can distinguish the others, and erect and forget the Coats of Arms. A binding as necessary as it is beneficial to all Lords, Gentiles, and to those who speak in public, to know how to speak of the Coat of Arms: as to all Painters, Sculptors, Portrayers, Glaziers, Engravers, Goldsmiths, Upholsterers, and others, who work through the said Arms, to know the names, and measures of the things which apply to it.
Independent Source
French Original: Hierosme de Bara, Parisien, il est autheur du liure intitulé le Blason des Armoiries,contenant plusieurs esquisser,ou Armoiries differentes auec le blason de chacun d'icelles, imprimé à Lyon pour la premiere fois par Claude Rauot l'an 1579. Et depuis chez Berthelemy Vincent l'an 1581 avec plusieurs additions et augmentations d'Armoiries, qui n'estoient pas en la premiere edition,comme entre autres de celles des chevaliers de la table ronde, et plusieurs autres armes de Royaumes & maisons illustres en la Chrestienté.
English Translation: Hierosme de Bara, Parisian, he is the author of the book entitled the Blason des Armoiries, containing several sketches, or different coats of arms with the coat of arms of each of them, printed in Lyon for the first time by Claude Rauot in the year 1579. And since at Berthelemy Vincent in the year 1581 with several additions and increases of Coats of Arms, which were not in the first edition, as among others those of the Knights of the Round Table, and several other arms of Kingdoms & illustrious houses in Christendom.
Known editions of the Coats of Arms by Hierosme Bara:
He apparently avoided using the title of king, choosing instead that of princeps. Older scholarship is more fond of another title, that of "advocatus of the Holy Sepulchre", a secondary title probably used by Godfrey, which is still also preferred by the Catholic Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and modern historians generally agree that he is unhistorical. The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthur's name also occurs in early poetic sources such as Y Gododdin.
According to the PTB compliant narrative, these three esteemed gentlemen would never be able to hang out together due to either living during different time frames, or due (Arthur's case) to being denied existence. I
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman who played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. Bla-bla-bla... Caesar openly defied the Senate's authority by crossing the Rubicon and marching towards Rome at the head of an army.[2] This began Caesar's civil war, which he won, leaving him in a position of near unchallenged power and influence.
Attila, frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453.
During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (modern France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orléans) before being stopped in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.
He subsequently invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. He planned for further campaigns against the Romans, but died in 453.
Unfortunately, I do not speak French. Google translating this book was not the easiest of tasks. It is my understanding, that the book has coats of arms for many of the King Arthur's knights. Here we have Lancelot, Sir Galahad, Sir Gawain and Sir Tristan.
I think that during my preliminary research of this book I ran into a knight, that was not even on this list: Knights of the Round Table.
According to the mythological Greek Alexander Romance, Queen Thalestris of the Amazons brought 300 women to Alexander the Great, hoping to breed a race of children as strong and intelligent as he. According to the legend, she stayed with the Macedonian king for 13 days and nights in the hope that the great warrior would father a daughter by her.
Ceneus King of ScythiaThe story of the Scythian King Ceneus is even crazier, for at first he was a woman, then became a man. If you look at this transformation from a purely scientific point of view, it's not that far fetched. Of course, our linear history does not allow for any sort of advanced science in the past.
If you have any ideas of the meaning and belonging of this particular coat of arms, please share in the comments section below.
KD: After reading so much about this heraldry thing, I developed an opinion that it was not something to play with. Meaning, creating some fake coats of arms corresponding with the existing ones would have been preposterous, and possibly dangerous. Considering that this particular book was approved by the King, I doubt that we would have real and imaginary coats of arms intermingled. Additionally, Le Blason Des Armoiries does not come across as a fiction book. If anything, it looks like a data catalog of sorts. At least this is my understanding of it.
History of Heraldry
- The oldest surviving heraldic seals are the equestrian seals used by high nobility in the second half of the 12th century.
- Among the oldest examples from the Holy Roman Empire, of what would develop into German heraldry, is the lion (or "leopard") of the Staufer coat of arms, first used before 1146 by Henry "the Lion", and in 1181 on the seal of Frederick VI of Swabia.
- Similar seals are known from England, one of the oldest being the equestrian seal of King Richard Lionheart of the House of Plantagenet, dated 1189, showing a heraldic lion design on the king's shield.
- His second seal, dated 1198, shows the three lions design which would subsequently become the royal coat of arms of England.
- The earliest known colored heraldic representation appears on the funerary enamel of Geoffrey of Anjou (d. 1151), showing a coat of arms that appears to be the same as one later used by some of his descendants.
- Depiction of heraldic shields in manuscript miniatures becomes more common in the early-to-mid 13th century, and dedicated armorials become fashionable in the mid-to-late 13th century.
- History of heraldry
- List of oldest heraldry
Today's Book
- Le Blason Des Armoiries -
What a wonderful book we have here Ladies and Gentlemen. I appreciated it to the point of purchasing a 1975 reproduction of the 1581 edition. In my opinion, it's books like this that now and then throw a wrench in the gears of the PTB. This time the proverbial wrench appears to have been powerful enough for the narrative creators to come up with BS like this:- Le Blason Des Armoiries -
Attributed Heraldry
- aka Attributed Arms -
Attributed arms are Western European coats of arms given retrospectively to persons real or fictitious who died before the start of the age of heraldry in the latter half of the 12th century. Arms were assigned to the knights of the Round Table, and then to biblical figures, to Roman and Greek heroes, and to kings and popes who had not historically borne arms.- aka Attributed Arms -
- Statements like this always make me wonder about the original sources of such information. Wouldn't you wanna know as well? Take a look...
As you can see, all of the above "Attributed Arms" sources fall between 1910 and 2003. Essentially, some pseudo-historians provided us with their unsubstantiated opinions on books written up to 550 years before their time. Have you ever wondered why they do not list sources contemporary to the books they provide their opinions on? I think there is only one reason for it:
- There are no such contemporary sources.
Below you can see a faceless image of the wonderful gentleman who allegedly authored Le Blason Des Armoiries. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any meaningful English language sources pertaining to de Bara.
- Hiérosme de Bara - French Wikipedia
- Hiérosme de Bara - google translated from French.
Hiérosme de Bara
1540 - 1600
- google translation -
Hierosme de Bara was born in Paris around 1540 and possibly died in Geneva around 1600. He was a glass painter, goldsmith and armorist. We know very little about this author and artist who is said to be Parisian, appears only in a few administrative documents and who, with a privilege of the king running over ten years, had several editions of his master book printed: The Coat of Arms, "which shows the manner in which the Ancients and Moderns used them."
1540 - 1600
- google translation -
- This is a work largely devoted to imaginary heraldry.
- KD: Says who? And... where do they say that?
In 1579, he stayed in Lyon where he had his heraldic work published on several occasions. Published during the civil war and the monarchical crisis, it is part of the current critical of the nobility which no longer assumes its ideal and leaves the symbolic virtues materialized by the coat of arms abandoned. Bara, in his comments, lamented the irresponsible use of the coat of arms by upstart commoners:
- And as time has brought a form of ignorance, and to men a will to do according to their desire, who having found no obedience to their will, have together given themselves license, as we see today, to do what they see fit in coats of arms ... What we see in an infinity of coats of arms which are evil, and badly armed of several kinds ...
- He was, among others, one of the legatees of the painter François Du Bois, and a friend of the mathematician Jacques Besson, a former colleague of his father, both refugees in Geneva .
- Two odes in Latin (one by François Béroalde and one by Nicolas le Digne) and three sonnets (including one by Le Digne) are dedicated to him at the beginning of his book and testify that he was a very esteemed artist.
- We know from Geneva documents that he participated in the construction of an Alliance fountain: he traced the gold letters (and probably the city's coat of arms)
- Today pseudo-historians claim that de Bara made up a bunch of "imaginary" Coats of Arms, and mixed them up with the actually existing ones.
- What a convenient way to dismiss all the Coats of Arms contradicting the official, TPTB compliant historical narrative.
Le Blason Des Armoiries
- The Coat of Arms: Title Page -
1581 French Original: Auquel est monstrée la maniere que les Anciens and Modernes ont vsé en icelles.Traité contenant plufieurs esquisser differens, far le moyen desquels on peut discerner les autres , et dresser oublasonner les Armoiries. Reveu, Corrigé, Amplifié par l'auteur avec augmentation de plusieurs armoiries, tant anciennes que modernes. - The Coat of Arms: Title Page -
1581 English Translation: Shown the way that the Ancients and Moderns have seen it. Treaty containing several different outlines, for the means of which one can distinguish the others, and erect and forget the Coats of Arms. Reviewed, Corrected, Amplified by the author with an increase in several coats of arms, both ancient and modern.
1628 French Original: Auquel est monstrée la maniere que les Anciens and Modernes ont vsé en icelles.Traité contenant plufieurs esquisser differens, far le moyen desquels on peut discerner les autres , et dresser oublasonner les Armoiries. Liure autant neceíïàire que profitable à tous Seigneurs, Gentils-hommes, et à ceux qui parlent en public, pour sçauoir discourir des Armoiries : comme auíïi à tous Peintres, Sculpteurs, Pourtrayeurs, Vitriers, Graueurs, Orfeures, Tapissiers, et autres, qui trauaillent fur lesdites armes, pour en sçauoir les noms, et mesures des choses qui
s'y appliquent.
1628 English Translation: Shown the way that the Ancients and Moderns have seen it. Treaty containing several different outlines, for the means of which one can distinguish the others, and erect and forget the Coats of Arms. A binding as necessary as it is beneficial to all Lords, Gentiles, and to those who speak in public, to know how to speak of the Coat of Arms: as to all Painters, Sculptors, Portrayers, Glaziers, Engravers, Goldsmiths, Upholsterers, and others, who work through the said Arms, to know the names, and measures of the things which apply to it.
Independent Source
French Original: Hierosme de Bara, Parisien, il est autheur du liure intitulé le Blason des Armoiries,contenant plusieurs esquisser,ou Armoiries differentes auec le blason de chacun d'icelles, imprimé à Lyon pour la premiere fois par Claude Rauot l'an 1579. Et depuis chez Berthelemy Vincent l'an 1581 avec plusieurs additions et augmentations d'Armoiries, qui n'estoient pas en la premiere edition,comme entre autres de celles des chevaliers de la table ronde, et plusieurs autres armes de Royaumes & maisons illustres en la Chrestienté.
English Translation: Hierosme de Bara, Parisian, he is the author of the book entitled the Blason des Armoiries, containing several sketches, or different coats of arms with the coat of arms of each of them, printed in Lyon for the first time by Claude Rauot in the year 1579. And since at Berthelemy Vincent in the year 1581 with several additions and increases of Coats of Arms, which were not in the first edition, as among others those of the Knights of the Round Table, and several other arms of Kingdoms & illustrious houses in Christendom.
Known editions of the Coats of Arms by Hierosme Bara:
- Geneva, (Unknown Publisher), September 8, 1572.
- Lyon, (Claude Ravot), March 10, 1579 (and 1580)
- Lyon, (Barthélemy Vincent), February 11, 1581 - in color
- Lyon, (I. Gabiano & S. Girard), 1604 - in color
- Paris, (Rolet Boutonné), 1628.
- Paris, (J. de Bonnot), January 20, 1975 (reproduced from 1581).
Interesting Coats of Arms
I called these specific coats of arms interesting, because they are not supposed to exist, but they do. The PTB came up with their own definition for these. I am going to post a selective few, for there are too many of those in the book. I will use the 1604 edition, because it has colored coats of arms (at the time I did not find the 1581 colored edition yet).Godfrey of Bouillon
18 September 1060 – 18 July 1100
I will start off with Godfrey of Bullion, because being the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, he is one of the most prominent figures in the world history. He was a French nobleman and one of the pre-eminent leaders of the First Crusade. The coat of Arms associated with him is not really being questioned, and is present in our heraldry book.18 September 1060 – 18 July 1100
He apparently avoided using the title of king, choosing instead that of princeps. Older scholarship is more fond of another title, that of "advocatus of the Holy Sepulchre", a secondary title probably used by Godfrey, which is still also preferred by the Catholic Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
- KD: Personally, I see nothing weird that the title of princeps is less preferred by the PTB. Here is why.
Charles the Great
2 April 748 – 28 January 814
Charlemagne or Charles the Great numbered Charles I, was the King of the Franks from 768, the King of the Lombards from 774, and the Emperor of the Romans from 800. During the Early Middle Ages, he united the majority of western and central Europe. He was the first recognised emperor to rule from western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire around three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state that Charlemagne founded is called the Carolingian Empire. He was later canonised by Antipope Paschal III.2 April 748 – 28 January 814
King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and modern historians generally agree that he is unhistorical. The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthur's name also occurs in early poetic sources such as Y Gododdin.
According to the PTB compliant narrative, these three esteemed gentlemen would never be able to hang out together due to either living during different time frames, or due (Arthur's case) to being denied existence. I
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman who played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. Bla-bla-bla... Caesar openly defied the Senate's authority by crossing the Rubicon and marching towards Rome at the head of an army.[2] This began Caesar's civil war, which he won, leaving him in a position of near unchallenged power and influence.
Attila, frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453.
During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (modern France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orléans) before being stopped in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.
He subsequently invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. He planned for further campaigns against the Romans, but died in 453.
Unfortunately, I do not speak French. Google translating this book was not the easiest of tasks. It is my understanding, that the book has coats of arms for many of the King Arthur's knights. Here we have Lancelot, Sir Galahad, Sir Gawain and Sir Tristan.
Scythian Coats of Arms
There should be no Scythian Coats of Arms out there. Yet, we do have a few. Some are obvious. Other ones you have to search for, like in the case of Minthia.According to the mythological Greek Alexander Romance, Queen Thalestris of the Amazons brought 300 women to Alexander the Great, hoping to breed a race of children as strong and intelligent as he. According to the legend, she stayed with the Macedonian king for 13 days and nights in the hope that the great warrior would father a daughter by her.
- Minthia aka Monothaea aka Thalestris.
Ceneus King of Scythia
Le Hyrlandois
I do not know what 1576 (or I576) depicted on the below Coat of Arms bell was supposed to mean. I would love to find out though, for the date is barely outside of the print date of the first edition of this book.
KD: After reading so much about this heraldry thing, I developed an opinion that it was not something to play with. Meaning, creating some fake coats of arms corresponding with the existing ones would have been preposterous, and possibly dangerous. Considering that this particular book was approved by the King, I doubt that we would have real and imaginary coats of arms intermingled. Additionally, Le Blason Des Armoiries does not come across as a fiction book. If anything, it looks like a data catalog of sorts. At least this is my understanding of it.
- The book has a few heraldic inconsistencies with some of the available (allegedly) contemporary woodcuts. Those can normally be seen in images depicting 3 or more persons. One of the most notable ones is where Hector and Alexander the Great keep on switching their arms. It appears that the book does have these two backwards.
- In general, I do not expect the contents of this book to exactly match our today's narrative compliant reality.
