Heraldica
Links to other heraldry resources
on the World-Wide Web
Disclaimer: what follows are links to many websites, each
possibly containing many pages. I have not personally inspected
every word of every web site listed here, and I neither endorse
nor assume responsibility for their full contents.
Contents
Web rings are voluntary associations of web sites which use a simple mechanism
to provide links with each other. There are several web rings on heraldry
and related subjects.
You can also go to the Webring Homepage to search
for other rings.
3. Heraldry Web Sites
This listing is not comprehensive. For more
links, see James Wolf's Heraldry
on the Internet.
-
Eccleasiastical Heraldry
Araldica Vaticana
Site devoted to heraldry in the Roman Catholic Church (in Italian), by Giovanni Sicari
Belarus
Belgium
Canada
Croatia
Czech Republic
European Union
Finland
-
an article on national and provincial arms
by Maunu Harmo, Master of Pol. Sc., Former President of the Finnish Society
of Heraldry.
France
-
Héraldique,
sigillographie (in French)
heraldry pages of Karolus,
a French site of family history. This growing resource is in part sponsored
by the Conseil Français d'Héraldique. It contains a French
armory and a French dictionary of heraldic terms (both under construction),
as well as bibliographies, articles, etc. An important site.
-
HERATLAS:
Petit atlas d'héraldique en ligne (in French and partially
in English)
by Jean-Marc
Frénéa : wonderful illustrated armory of French
provinces, and a constantly growing, extensive heraldic atlas of various
provinces with maps, illustrations and blasons in French and English. Ultimately,
the site will also include maps of fiefs and genealogies of possessors.
- Arnaud Bunel's
Héraldique européenne (in French)
an excellent an lavishly
illustrated site devoted to European heraldry, with strong focus on France:
royal family, high nobility, provinces, cities, etc (in French).
-
French Civic Heraldry by Brian Timms,
an exhaustive site devoted to the arms of French cities
- La Banque du Blason (in French)
an excellent site
showcasing high quality depictions of coats of arms drawn with Illustrator. Over
1000 arms are available, mostly arms of cities and local authorities, but also individuals,
families, historical figures. Blazons and historical notes are provided. In French.
-
-
ARCHIM (in French)
the image database of the French Archives Nationales (CARAN) at
the Ministère de la Culture, has a collection of pictures of medieval seals
with descriptions (in French). To access it,
in the option selection box marked "Intitulé du dossier" choose "SCEAUX
(DOSSIER 1)", then click on "recherche", the blue button. You will then be
shown 62 impressions of seals, by groups of five.
Recently, a new collection of 72 seals from medieval Burgundy has been added.
- The
Armorial de Lutzenbourg, a 15th century French universal armory with illustrations.
-
EarlyBlazon, a
site on early coat of arms drawn from the Albigensian Crusade
(in French and English).
- Les Blasons de Savoie
by X. Lansade, devoted to the heraldry of the Savoie region.
Germany
Great Britain
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Macedonia
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Serbia
- Rodoslovlje: a site
on genealogy and heraldry in Serbia, in Serbian and English
South Africa
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
There are several heraldic artists out on the Web,
who will paint or engrave coats of arms. Since I have not used their services
I do not wish to appear to endorse them personally, but they may be found
with the usual Web search engines.
c. Of Related Interest
-
genealogy
-
I recommend:
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the
Internet
See also:
Member
of the Internet Genealogical Directory
royal genealogy:
nobiliary genealogy:
Flags
 Flags
of the World (FOTW) has abundant and accurate information and
pictures about all sorts of flags throughout the world. Also, check out
Vexillolinks,
a page of links to vexillological sites (including links to mirror
sites for FOTW, in case the above link is slow).
Royalty, Nobility and Chivalry
Don't miss the
Almanach
de la Cour and its wealth of thorough and detailed articles
on royalty, nobility and orders of chivalry, with many illustrations.
Also, Caltrap's
Corner has a variety of articles on similar topics.
The newsgroup
alt.talk.royalty (ATR) is a place where such
topics are discussed: be sure to visit the excellent
ATR FAQ.
See also the Orders, Decorations and Medals
Webring.
Everything here is real-world heraldry. I have a
good deal of respect for SCA heralds, who foster interest in the subject
in an otherwise hostile or indifferent society such as America. But my
interests are limited to real-world heraldry. For those who don't know
about it, the SCA is a society mainly based in the US in which members
adopt "personas" or characters from the Middle Ages and engage in various
recreation activities. As part of the activities of the Society, many members
adopt SCA arms, and SCA heralds regulate them.
There are resources on Heraldry
in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA).
There are two
relevant newsgroups: rec.org.sca is
for general discussion of matters SCAdian, and alt.heraldry.sca
is a very low-traffic newsgroup devoted specifically to SCA heraldry.
4. Rec.heraldry Newsgroup
The Usenet newsgroup devoted to heraldry is rec.heraldry.
It is a public forum, in existence since September 1992, where heraldry and kindred
topics are discussed by a variety of people. This is a very good place to ask a question
about heraldry, but don't expect answers to any question. Oftentimes, nobody knows the
answer.
First, before posting to the newsgroup, please use the following resources:
-
There is a Most Frequently Asked Question on rec.heraldry: "what are my
arms?"
The answer is in the MFAQ and is also
posted every week.
-
For other common questions, there is a FAQ
for rec.heraldry, which I presently maintain.
The previous maintainer and founder of the FAQ is Gordon
Findlay. It is also posted every month.
-
If you haven't found the answer to your question yet, it may have been
discussed on the newsgroup in the past.
To look for any rec.heraldry post since May 1995,
go to
Google Groups (formerly known as Deja News)
or use the following form:
Search Google Groups
If you still haven't found an answer to your question, by all means bring
it up on the newsgroup. But please familiarize
yourself with Netiquette
first!
To access the newsgroup rec.heraldry, you will need either:
- a news client and access to a news server.
A news client is a piece of
software that allows you to interact with a news server, the same way a mail client
allows you to download your mail from a mail server. There are many news clients,
freeware and commercial. Web browsers such as Netscape or Microsoft's Explorer
include news capabilities.
A news server is a machine that receives, locally stores and delivers to clients the
news articles posted worldwide to the various newsgroups. Whether you have access to
a news server depends on your ISP (internet service provider: the people you pay to
have internet access). Ask them.
- access to public news servers via a Web interface.
All you need is the Web browser you are using now, and point it to one of
those public servers, such as Deja News.
You will need to register (which is currently free) and this will allow
you to read news and also post.
Remarks about the newsgroup
The newsgroup Rec.heraldry was created in September 1992. Part of the readership,
and indeed of the founders, are people associated with the SCA who have
an interest in historical and "real world" heraldry. No SCA topics are
discussed, however, since there is a more appropriate
forum.
The topics discussed on rec.heraldry are mostly related to heraldry.
Traffic is moderate (statistics
are available on newsgroup traffic) and conversations are mostly courteous.
But, like elsewhere, tempers occasionally flare, and flame-wars occur.
Among touchy heraldic topics are the regulation of arms in Great
Britain, the role of the College of Arms, the nobiliary connotations of
heraldry. That doesn't mean they are taboo, but they are likely to generate
heated debate (and not always enlightened debate).
Related but non-heraldic topics are also often discussed, in part because
of extensive cross-posting with alt.talk.royalty
(a.k.a. ATR). Traffic on ATR is much larger, more indiscriminate, and more
heated. Royalty, nobility, orders of knighthood, monarchical systems, peerage,
precedence, genealogy are among the topics which are not necessarily heraldic
but often appear on rec.heraldry. There are many more touchy questions
among those topics.
Because of Great Britain's peculiar history and its position as the
country where official heraldic institutions exist, a lot of the topics
have to do with British heraldry. That does not mean that other topics
cannot be discussed, and they are. The emphasis, however, is more on "traditional"
heraldry (that which developped in Western Europe starting in the 12th
century), although there is no reason not to talk about other symbolic
systems (such as the Japanese mon), and that happens too.
The language is English, as with most newsgroups in the original hierarchies
(comp, soc, rec, sci, etc). If you post in another language, you are less
likely to be read and understood, but you can always try.
As with all repeated interactions between humans, some norms and rules
develop over time. No one enforces rules on the Usenet, but you are well
advised to read about Netiquette (the etiquette of the Net) before posting.
The rec.heraldry newsgroup has adopted (by simple vote) the following
arms: Azure an escutcheon argent within an orle of bezants. No supporters,
crest or motto have been chosen yet. Other
proposals were made.
There is a Roll of
Arms of rec.heraldry readers. Please note: this roll of arms
is not located here and I do not maintain it. Contact Zachary
Kessin for any futher information.
|
|
