A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

12
OF THE SURCOAT, ENSIGN, AND SHIELD.
The Italians, for the most part, have their shields of arms after an oval form,
tig. 6. in imitation, it is thought, of those used by Popes, and other eminent church-
the use
men . '; .imedest writer on heraldry, Sylvester Petra Sancta, regrets
"
of oval shields in Italy, who says, Nunc figura
Scuti ovalis usurpatur, retinetur-
"
que nescio an ex pictorum &- sculptorum imperitia."
Others tell us, that the
oval shield is not so honourable as those we have given before, as not representing
any ancient nobility or descent, nor glory purchased in war, but a burgherly or
citizen fame, and praise
of learning, as Philobertus Camponile, whose words the
anonymous author of Observation?* Eugenealogica:, Lib. II. cap. 5. gives us thus,
"
Ejusmodi scutis rotundis non indicari vetustam. originem, nee partem in bello
"
gloriam,
sed urbanam laudera, solum famam Eruditionis ac Literarum :" And
our anonymous author, in his forecited place, adds, " Qui nullo gaudet Nobilitatis
" Jure, vel qui per Artes Mechanicas aliove modo eo Jure destitutus est, signa si
" qvuehabet, neutiquam in 'scuto aut Clypeo exhibere posse:
sed aut in forma
" rotunda aut ovali, & a seuto distincta ;" /. e . Those who have not the privilege
of nobility, or have had, and lost the privilege, by using mechanical arts, or by
any other means, cannot place their arms on a formal shield, but on round or oval
ones. But though oval shields be not looked upon as honourable in some countries,
and especially
in our author's country, Flanders, yet in Italy, wre find not
only the popes, and churchmen of noble descent, place their arms on oval shields
or cartouches, but even the secular princes in Italy ; which they would not do, if
they looked upon round or oval shields, as any way derogatory from their honour,
but" still retain them, as of the ancientest form used by the Romans.
Women place their paternal arms on lozenges and fusils. The lozenge is a square
figure, with one of its angles upmost, Plate I. fig. 7. ; and the is fusil such another,
but longer than broad, and its upmost and undermost angles sharper than those at
the sides, fig. 8. Plutarch tells, in the life of Theseus, That in the city of Mega-
ra, (in his time), the tomb-stones, under which the bodies of the Amazons lay,
were shaped after the form of a lozenge ; which some conjecture to be the cause .
why women have their arms upon lozenges. Others again, that the fusil signifies
a spindle, and represents one full of yarn, a proper instrument for women. Sylvanus
Morgan, and other English heralds, fancy, that the form of shields used by
men was taken from Adam's spade, and women's from Eve's spindle. The French
have a saying from their pretended Salic law, " Nunquam corona a lancea tran-
" '
sibit ad fusum ;" the crown of France passes not from the lance to the distaff or
t'usil." Sylvester Petra Sancta will have the form of women's shields to represent a
cushion, whereupon they used to sit and spin, or do other housewifery, and calls
"
it, Pulvillum in quo exercent mulieres lintearia opificia." Sir John Feme has
another notion of a woman's shield, to be from that square one, used sometimes by
the Romans, called Tessera, which they finding unfit for war, did afterwards allow
to women, to place their paternal ensigns upon, with one of its angles always up-
as a tessera of their noble descent.
most,
I have given these few forms of shields, generally made use of all Europe over,
and passed over many other forms, which some writers ascribe to the ancients, as
being of no use to this science, nor a part of blazon. I, shall add here the form of
a cartouch, upon the account that some heralds tell us, That they, who have not
right to carry arms on formal shields, may place them on cartouches. Favin, in
Ins Theatre of Honour, and Menestrier, in his Treatise of Exterior Ornaments, and
in his Abrege Methodique des Armories, gives us this form of a cartouch, fig. 9.
'arried by the village of Lyons in France. Others, again, tell us, That cartouches,
i. e. false shields or compartments, are most frequently oval, having a mullet or
ae round it, with flourishes coupe tortile, like to that used by the Popes,
out of
humility as they pretend. Monsieur L'Abbe Danet, in his Dictionary, says, " A
" cartouche, ornamentique d'un fait de sculpture & de peinture qui represente des
" rouleaux des cartes c'oupe'es & tortillees ;" such as these embellishments w7hich
placed at the sides of geographical maps, and frontispieces of books, wherein
.ire commonly placed the names of countries, titles of books, marks and figures of
merchants and tradesmen ; and are like those compartments below achievements
of arms whereon the supporters stand, and in which are placed the names, designations,
&C. belonging to the owners.