An Armory of Famous Writers

* Johann-Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832; Saxony, ennobled by the Emperor 1782):
Arms: azure, a star and a border or. 
                         [Rietstap]


* Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805, knighted Sep. 7, 1802):
Arms: per fess, Or a unicorn issuant argent, Azure a fess or.  Crest: a
crown of laurels vert.
                        [Rietstap]


* Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860): Vert a bend between two stars of six points
all argent.
        [Klaus K]

* Pierre Corneille (1606-84, an. 1637): Azure on a fess or between three mullets
argent, three lions' heads gules.
        [Rietstap]


* Jean de La Fontaine (1621-95): Or three frets sable.
        [D'Hozier Soissons, registered to his widow.]

* Jean Racine (1639-99): azure a swan argent beaked and armed sable.
        [Rietstap]


* Bossuet: Azure three wheels or.
	[ANF 1845]

* Brantôme: Or two griffin's paws in pale gules armed azure.
	[ANF 1845]

* Buffon: Argent on a bend gules a mullet or.
	[ANF 1845]

* Fénelon: Or three bends vert.
	[ANF 1845]

* Florian: Or an eagle sable on a chief azure a sun or to which the eagle looks.
	[ANF 1845]

* Malherbe: ermine six roses gules.
	[ANF 1845]

* Scarron: Azure a bend embattled counter embattled or.
	[ANF 1845]

* Vaugelas: Argent a chevron azure between three Moor's heads sable wreathed of the 
first.
	[ANF 1845]

* Charles Perrault (1628-1703): Or on an escutcheon azure an escutcheon argent.
	[ANF 1884]

* François Quinault (1635-88): azure a chevron or between three
"soucis" slipped or.
	[ANF 1884]

* Furetière: Gules three cucumbers argent.
	[ANF 1884]


* Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et, 1689-1755): Azure 
2 escallops or and a crescent argent.  
        [any French 200F bill]


* Voltaire (Arouet, 1694-1778): azure three flames or.
        [D'Hozier Paris, Rietstap]

* Claude-Adrien Helvetius (1715-71), philosopher: Azure two wings or 
  beneath an eye argent.
        [D'Hozier Paris 3:585]

* Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803): Azure two arrows per saltire or shafted argent 
between four flames of the second, on a chief gules 9 billets of the second 5 and 4.
        [Jougla de Morenas. Author of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.]

* Victor Hugo (1802-85): Azure, on a chief argent two martlets sable.
        [Rietstap.]

* Charles-Augustin de Sainte-Beuve (1804-69): Azure three rings argent.
        [D'Hozier Paris 3:593]


* Alfred de Musset (1810-57): Azure a sparrow-hawk (épervier) or,
with hood, leash and perch gules.
        [Rietstap]

* Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616): within a bordure gules
charged with saltires couped or, azure, two stags or. Helm, mantling
and feathers, but no crest.
        [Klaus K]

* Dante Alighieri (1265-1321): per pale or and sable a fess argent.
(Moderns arms of the family: azure a wing argent).
        [Pompeo Litta, Famiglie Celebri Italiane]


* Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527): Argent, a cross angle with four nails azure.
        [Pompeo Litta, Famiglie Celebri Italiane]



* Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533): per fess, or an eagle displayed sabel crowned
or, and pally of 6 azure and argent.
        [Pompeo Litta, Famiglie Celebri Italiane]

* Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540): Azure three bugle-horns argent
stringed gules.
        [Pompeo Litta, Famiglie Celebri Italiane]


* Giacomo Casanova (1725-98): alleged son of Gaetano C., an actor, and Giovanna
Farussi, daughter of a shoemaker, and an actress/dancer herself.  
Casanova was considered by many, including himself, to be the natural
son of Michele Grimani, a Venitian patrician who owned the theater
S. Anselmo where C.'s parents worked and lived.  Grimani had a coat of arms:
pally of eight, Argent and Gules.   
Casanova took the name of chevalier de Seingalt: chevalier because he was
made knight of the Golden Spur, a rather easy-to-obtain Papal order, in
1760.  Seingalt is a pseudonym of unknown origin.

* Geoffrey Chaucer, Esq (ca. 1342-1400):
per pale argent and gules, a bend counter changed.  Crest: a tortoise proper.
        [Rietstap]


* Sir Thomas Malory (fl. 1470):  Quarterly:  1 & 4  Ermine, a chevron 
gules and a border engrailed sable (for Revel);  2 & 3  Or, three lions 
passant sable (for Malory).
        [A. Wagner]

* Sir Thomas More (1478-1535): Quarterly, 1 and 4. argent, a chevron engrailed between 
three moorcocks armed, crested and jelloped gules, all sable; 2 and 3.
argent, on a chevron between three unicorn's heads couped sable, three
bezants or.
        [Rietstap]  (see a 
bibliography)


* Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86):  Or, a pheon azure.


* William Shakespeare (1564-1623): Or, on a bend sable a spear of
the first, pointed argent.  Crest: a falcon rising argent, holding in 
its dexter claw a spear in pale or.  Motto: Non sans droict.



* Ben Jonson 
(1572-1637): Argent, a saltire Sable, on a chief Gules, three cushions Or.

* John Milton (1608-74): Argent, a double-headed eagle displayed gules, 
beaked and legged azure.
        [A. Wagner.  Rietstap]


* Dryden (1631-1700):  Azure, a lion rampant and in chief a sphere between 
two estoiles or.  For cadency, a mullet.
        [A. Wagner]


* Samuel Pepys (1633-1703):   Sable, on a bend or between two horses' heads 
erased argent three fleurs de lys of the field.  For cadency, a crescent.
        [A. Wagner]


* Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Sable, an anchor in pale or, stock azure, 
the stem entwined by a dolphin descending argent.  
        [A. Wagner]


* Henry Fielding (1707-54): Argent, on a fess azure three lozenges or.  For 
cadency, a mullet within an annulet.
        [A. Wagner]

* David Hume (1711-76): vert a lion argent on a bordure gules nine torteaux
        [on his bookplate on a copy of Shaftesbury's Characteristicks, in the National Library
        of Scotland, reproduced in The David Hume Library by Norton and Nortn (1996).
        Motto: true to the end.]

* Laurence Sterne (1713-68): or a chevron between three crosslets flory sable.
Crest: a starling.
	[In his Sentimental Journey (1768; vol. 2, chap. 5), Sterne tells the story of
	a starling he found in an inn of Paris, that had been taught to say "I can't get out!".
	"from that time to this, I have borne this poor starling as the crest to my arms. -- Thus: 

		And let the heralds officers twist his neck about if they dare."]

* Edward Gibbon (1737-94):  (Probably) Sable, a lion rampant argent between 
three escallops or.
        [A. Wagner]

* Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832, Baronet Apr. 22, 1820):
Arms: Quarterly: 1 and 4, Or two five-pointed stars in chief and a crescent 
in base within an orle azure; 2 and 3 Or, on a bend azure three mascles of
the first, in senester chief an oval buckle of the second. 


* Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834):  Argent, on a mount in base vert an 
otter statant proper, on a chief gules a dove close proper between two crosses 
patee fitchee or.  For cadency, an annulet.
        [A. Wagner]

* Jane Austen (1775-1817): Or a chevron gules between three lions' gambs erased.
         [from a bookplate taken from Jane Austen's Letters to her Sister Cassandra and 
Others edited by R. W. Chapman (1952, p. 523), used by a paternal cousin.  
These arms were also used, e.g., by her brother Edward Knight as a quartering.
See Henry Churchyard's Jane Austen Info Page.
A. Wagner has three bezants on the chevron, only on the basis of a 16th c.
Visitation.]

* Lord Byron, George Gordon (1788-1824): argent, three bendlets enhanced gules. 
Crest: a mermaid holding a comb and a mirror proper.  Supporters:
two horses argent. Motto: CREDE BYRON
        [Rietstap]


* Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822): Sable, a fess engrailed between three 
whelk shells or.  For cadency, a label.
        [A. Wagner]


* Lord Macaulay (William Babbington Macaulay, 1800-59, baron 1857): Gules, 
two arrows saltirewise points downward argent surmounted by as many barrulets 
compony or and azure between two buckles in pale of the third, all within a 
bordure engrailed also of the third.  Crest: a spurred boot.  Motto: Dulce 
periculum.
        [A. Wagner, Rietstap]


* Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92): Gules, on a bend nebuly or between three
leopards' faces jessant-de-lis of the last, a wreath of laurel proper.
        [A. Wagner]


* William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63):  Vert, two garbs or, in base an arrow 
argent, on a chief purpure a cherub's head proper between two estoiles of the 
third.  For cadency, a mullet.
        [A. Wagner]

* Anthony Trollope (1815-82): Vert three stags argent attired or within a 
bordure of the second.
        [Burke's; Anthony Trollope was the second great-grandson of 
Sir Thomas Trollope, 4th baronet; eventually his line succeeded to the
title and his descendant is the 16th baronet.]

* John Ruskin (1819-1900): Sable on a chevron between six spearheads argent three crosses
crosslets tichy gules.
        [A. Wagner]