take a rubbe or twentie at the suspition of insufficiencie The Contents 1. This part peeced to the beginning with repetitions concerning Armes and Gentlemen 2. Blazon 3. The two first considerations 4. The Continent of Armories 5. The Triangular or SAMNITE shield ours 6. The ancient vsuall stuffe of shields 7. The black Princes honorarie Targat at CANTERBVRIE 8. FROISARD cited 9. A zealous digressiō to our Prince 10. IOHN of GAVNTS honorarie Shield in Saint PAVLES 11. The like in antiquitie 10. Blazon makes nothing to the present purpose CHAP. 11. EVSTACE I Forget not what you deliuered in the beginning and thinke it worth the labour to approue my memory vnto you therein by repetition ARMS speaking in the vulgar and aequiuocall extension of the word were you said certaine painted hereditable and Armoriall markes of honor by which Gentlemen were distinguisht first from the vulgar and then one from the other and GENTLEMEN simply and for the present only for it is to bee supposed that you would giue a more exquisie Idaea did you depourtray him vnto vs in his perfection were the bearers of such markes or tokens To these if you thinke good to adde for mee the knowledge of what BLAZON is before you proceed any farther I shall seeme to haue the whole praeparatorie generalities of matter to ensue A. BLAZON is the description of Armes and their appurtenances by the receiued termes or other apt expression of things by words E. To blaze then is in Armory the same which in other faculties is to describe and BLAZON and description are vniuocall A. So I suppose though some Maisters teach that wee must not before a soueraigne Prince vse the terme blaze but descriue so as then an Armorist shall not bee said to blaze but to descriue a coate E. What things are first now in the name of GOD to bee considered A. Two The Continent and the Content E. Are there any such terms in Armory or do you only borrow them to expresse your selfe A. Borrow them onely as I shall perhaps bee enforced to do many others Which all men that write either new things or newly of old matters will not onely pardon but approue E. What do you call the Continent in Armories A. The very same which the word importeth and no other that is the shield or contayning part of it selfe considered without any mixture or marke E. What forme hath the shield A. It hath as many as Caruers or Painters please but this triangular is become most vsuall and in a sort the proper for that the shield in generall beeing inuented for defence of the body of man and applied therevnto carries a three-cornerd or triquet-figure the body of man decreasing as it were in latitude from the shoulders downeward And as the chiefe of ROMANE historians SALLVST writes that his nation borrowed their armes and militarie weapons from the SAMNITES so was this the peculiar figure of the SAMNITE sheild as the noble Author TITVS LIVIVS PATAVINVS describes it and giues the reason of that shaping to bee Mobilitatis causâ The ROMANS digrest notwithstanding from this paterne rather vsing Oual Imbricate and other figures Heere I could create a new Worke did I take occasion to dilate of the figures of Sheilds which were scarse the same in any two nations POLYBIVS and other famous writers make it cleare that the hides of beasts were the common couerings of sheilds the ordinarie stuffe vnderneath beeing some tough wood or other as Sallow and some-time for the more lightnesse twiggs wouen for so I vnderstand that of LVCAN nudâ iam crate fluëntes Inuadunt clypeos Our SAXON ancestors vsed shields of skin among whom for that the Artificer put sheep-fells to that purpose the great ATHELSTANE King of ENGLAND vtterly forbad by a lawe such deceit as in the printed booke of SAXON lawes is extant to bee seene With this vsage of agglewing or fastning hard tanned hides for defense agrees their Etymologie who deriue Scutum the LATIN of a shield from the GREEKE word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a skinne The Triangular or SAMNIT was vniuersallie among vs the antient fashion of shields for men of Armes but not the onely For assurance whereof I will delight you with two diuerse proportions the one of an honorary belonging to the most renowned EDVVARD Prince of WALES the other an honorarie also appertaining to his third brother King of CASTILE and LeON Duke of LANCASTER The sayd victorious Princes toombe is in the goodly Cathedral Church erected to the honor of CHRIST in CANTERBVRIE There beside his quilted coat-armour with halfe-sleeues Taberd-fashion and his Triangular sheild both of them painted with the royall Armories of our Kings and differenced with siluer labels hangs this kinde of Pauis or Targat curiously for those times embost and painted the Scucheon in the bosse beeing worne out and the Armes which it seemes were the same with his coate-armour and not any peculiar deuise defaced and is altogether of the same kinde with that vpon which FROISARD reports the dead body of the Lord ROBERT of DVRAS and nephew to the Cardinall of PIERREGOVRT was laid and sent vnto that Cardinall from the battell of POICTIERS where the Blacke Prince obtained a victorie the renowne whereof is immortall I can hardly here containe my selfe from offring vp a duty of praise to the remembrance of this matchlesse Gentleman Lambe in peace Lion in warre and of all the world in his time the most martiall Worthy and most fortunate Generall Aspire right excellent HENRIE ô let it need no expiation that thy great Fathers most lowely subiect should thus presume by his example to whose Title and Principalitie thou art lineall successor to things greater then the example That as thou art the proper blossome of all the royall HENRIES and EDVVARDS of this thy Fathers inheritance so wee may in thee acknowledge the summe of all their CHRISTIAN vertues proouing thy selfe thereby a greater Thing then to bee the Monarch not onely of all great BRITAINE but of all the World The other honorarie shield is in the most magnificent Temple dedicated to the memorie of the glorious Apostle Saint PAVL in LONDON where it hangs at the sayd Dukes Moniment and is farre different from the first In the curious neere view and handling whereof as I tooke singular delight so was it worthy no lesse diligence and therefore I will heere showe you both the Figure and Fabrick It is very conuex toward the bearer whether by warping through age or as made of purpose It hath in dimension more then three quarters of a yeard of length aboue halfe a yeard in breadth next to the body is a canuas glew'd to a boord vpon that thin board are broad thin axicles slices or plates of horne naild fast and againe ouer them twenty and sixe thicke peeces of the like all meeting or centring about a round plate of the same in the nauell of the sheild and ouer all is a leather
The INGVA'S Kings of PERV their Armes 4. Of ACAMAPIXTLI first king of MEXICO 5. The MEXICAINS once NAVATALCAS were not from EVROP 6. Pengwin an AMERICAN bird with a WELSH name 7. Whole books of the MEXICAIN Armories 9. The ensigne of their Cittie and the cause why it was borne 10. The ARTICK and ANTARTIC worldes 11. A strange kinde of Inlayes and embossements on sheildes 12. The Suruey ends CHAP. 7. EVSTACE EEVROPE AFRICK and ASIA being thus with great pleasure glanced ouer we may now almost ferrie into AMERICA A. Those therefore of PERV and MEXICO had very Armories as IOSEPHVS ACOSTA diligently notes and as in sundry other bookes is most apparent One or two of a multitude I will spare you for the rarity and at which you may iustly maruayle INGVA was the hereditary name of the PERV Kings and the gentilitial armes of the INGVAS were a rain-bow with two snakes extended Here we will take leaue of AMERICA and returne For to make farther demonstration of the vniuersality of ensignements to conuince the naturalnesse of the notion out of those icie worldes which lye vnder eyther pole it is meete wee stay till they bee discouered but as little as yet they are knowne they will not faile to concurre So confident I am that no people which had any forme of common-weale and that did but worship any thing what-soeuer were it but SLATA BABA the Idol of the goldeÌ„ witch with the Hords of hors-fed TARTAS or a square red cloath for the Sunne with the furr'd Sauages neare to the icie and Hyperborean Sea eyther did or could be destitute of the notion of ensignement and externall variation And neyther they nor other barbarous hauing sheildes but are likely both to vse EMBLEMS taking the word with LVCILIVS for Inlayes or Marquetry and embossments also that you may not bee ignorant of their Elegancies For they who know not how to draw lines or temper colours can beat grains of gold or other glittering stuffe into them or fixe the heades or pawes of conquerd beasts vppon them Thus hauing in a lesse time then DRAKE or CANDISH compast the whole terrestriall Globe we are returned The contents 1. An externall signe set vpon man almost before mankinde 2. The rainbow after the Floud 3. Sir EVSTACE summes the suruey 4. The lesse proued in the more 5. Praeoccupation of some foreseen reproofes 6. VITELLIVS his new MINERVA'S sheild and PLAVTVS his epistles fitt Armes and study-books for whom 7. Some principall common places of discourse belonging to the present briefly touched 8. The valew of heroical literature depends not vpon opinion 9. Satisfaction tendred for refusall to expatiate farther 10. Syr EVSTACE confesseth his former doubtes cleared but maintaines their causes were iust 11. The Maisters short conclusion of the praemisâ—es and Simile of painting 12. What of Armes remaines with art and vse 13. Elephantine births 14. Indentment for a familiar method renew'd CHAP. 10. EVSTACE YOu haue super-abounded Syr AMIAS in your performances hauing brought the whole world as it were out of the gloom of Antiquity to witnesse with you not only for the vniuersal practise of rude Ensignments but some-what also for Armories A. Yet haue I not put you in mind of one instance of personall outward Marks euen before NOAAHS floud nay almost before mankind E. May it be A. God him selfe set a marke vpon CAIN But you perhaps will say that was Stigma and not Digma a brand not an ornament Whether it were or no it valews alike much for our purpose according to the rule of contraries And that whose examples are drawn from God the author of nature is much the more in nature The rainebow set in the clowds immediately after the Deluge from which some deriue an authority wherwith to grace Impreses and heroical Deuises was indeed a signe but of a far differeÌ„t kind from these of ours therfore not at al to be screw'd into our discourse for farther countenance or confirmatioÌ„ E. It were absolutely needlesse For what can be more apparent after so many most lightful demoÌ„strations then that the notion of Ensignment is vniuersall and consequently natural Giue mee leaue now as well for setling my memory as for crowning your assertion summarely to binde vp into a garland the principall of those cul'd flowers which out of the Paradises of Antiquity you haue strew'd the threshold or porch of honor with To this purpose the names of the barbarous answring the Analogie of nature in their significations and the brands of the VIRGINIANS pointed vnto by you suting the practise of the ROMANS are very pertinent In EVROP I see the azure targats of the BRITANS and allow your well-grounded diuinations that they had other and those lineamentall or figured distinctions Much the rather for that you haue inuincibly confirm'd vnto me that the GALLS and GERMANS had The rest of proofes which troup-vp close to their quarter and which you produce out of the shrines of EVROPEAN moniments who can but embrace The famous CARTHAGENIANS rise with honour and allowance there-vnto Nor are the most ancient MIZRAIM or AEGYPTIANS second to any and PROTEVS cannot there so disguise and transfigure himselfe as to escape the vse you put him to all AFRICANS subscribing In spatious ASIA where your piety tooke occasion to expresse it self the BABILONIANS sundry great Princes and other ASIATICK nations make a strong squadron for your party not meanely flankred by the rare example out of CHINA As for AMERICA it exceedes all expectation in her INGVAS and MEXICAINS and I most willingly allow your coniecture of barbarous Elegancies touching Inlaies Embossements The whole summe being sealed-vp with the most authentike antiquity of the marks of CAIN In all which this is worthily to bee accounted rare that no example there is so young as a thousand yeares excepting those of the new worlds in whose nouelty we do not only see Antiquities of a thousand yeares but Antiquity it selfe A. Your memory deales truly with you in your rehersal But whereas our intended matter is of the Elements of armories that is to say of such ensignements as now are in vse and the maine difficulty lying betweene your sight and their originall beeing onely the doubt of the vniuersality of ensignement in generall for bailing you from that doubt I needed not so as I haue don to haue made my demonstrations so much wider then the last as to haue giuen you theÌ„ out of examples which are in a sort of the same kind with perfect Armories Yet I hope I shal not stand accused of excesse or fayling in the point it being most true that the lesse to weet those rude first draughts natural essayes and ouertures of true Armories which you not improperly called elementarie to our elements is fully proued in the more that is to say in shewing honorable marks vpoÌ„ sheilds they being amoÌ„g the most perfect bodies that are made according to Symbolical doctrine Neuerthelesse that I may
bee recapitulated 4. Complemental passages betweene the two Knights 5. The Maister findes fault and supplies the wants 6. The soft-wax table of memory 7. The necessary vse of certaine markes vpon the Slate with sundry methodicall considerations alike necessarie CHAP. 23. EVSTACE THe matter of Lines is now it should seeme at an end A. The intended mater that is to show how they are elementary to the lineal part of the facultie is at an end But these Lines of which hitherto wee haue entreated are onely some of the maine for examples sake brought hither and which the SPANISH Herald very often blazeth by the name of Perfill as is said or as wee say Purfle Or Argent Sable or so forth E. Then belike there are more Lines of al sorts in Armories A. There are more those not comprehensible within these rules For neyther can Lyon nor Eagle nor Tree nor Flowers nor any other distinct representation be exprest in Armories without Lines eyther drawne or conceaued according to that which wee haue heere-tofore deliuered E. Shall I nowe recapitulate the poyntes of this as it were Geometricall Element of Armories A. Very willingly and as you go make demonstrations vpon this Slate E. First therefore it is plaine that Lines are a principal Element of Armories in which they are eyther straight or crooked The straight are direct or oblique and againe the oblique are eyther straight or crooked A. Thus far your memory can sustaine no reproach E. Crooked are manifold as thus and thus and thus A. Hetherto the mute Slate shall witnesse with you against forgetfulnesse E. Lines by a second diuision of yours are one or more then one in an Armes A. Show how E. O Syr AMIAS did you not adiourne the demonstration of that part to another time and I am but your spring-water which naturally can mount no higher then the head from whence it came A. You haue too great a memory not to bee dangerous E. For all that you will not me thinks forbear to speak things worthy of table-table-books and the next mornings meditation A. Mean-while for I acknowledge no such happinesse runne ouer the rest of the lecture of lines if you please E. As ambitiously assure your selfe as if the Chair became my skill Lines therfore you farther said were eyther Pertransient in the nature of diameters and of those Pertransients you remembred no greater a number then foure or else Pertingent as thus and thus You also toucht some speciall properties of them all handling by the way some other things and concluding that Lines in composition which part you did also put ouer as more proper to bee taught in another place were eyther parallel intersecant or neutral A. Here like a young Courser that hath no certaine pace you shuffle If therfore you will render your selfe sufficient for the vnderstanding of moniments Armorial it would behoue you to spell and conne them throughly and often and that you may do it with the more effect my selfe will not faile to giue you my best furtherance As for the present I will once more view the Slate wherevpon you haue cyphred your remembred parts of the lecture and therein supply what is wanting that you may haue all the passed examples together and in sight at once vpon one Plane and by them as by so many places of artificiall memory both call them to your minde the better and hold the depending doctrines the surer E. It is a singular good course and a sure for the soft-wax table of memory retaines not without sealing and nothing is worth attention which is not worth remembring But why haue you noted some with Asterisks or Starrulets some with hands pointing and others with trefoils slipt A. Euery Starrulet showes a passing or transition from one different matter to another according to our discourse it selfe where were sundry branches exceptions and theorems The marginall hands show that at the Escucheon to which they seuerally point begins a generall comprehension of all the particulars of one nature which follow betweene that hand and the next and is a more light then in the handling was giuen For of those Elementary Lines and primely Elementall are none but the single which we haue exemplified the first sort are Elementall and considerable in regard of their forme as straight crooked Those of the second degree are Lines considerable in this Element in regard of their position or manner of placing in Escucheons as direct and oblique or as in the more or lesse length of their ducture The third and last are lines considerable in regard of their pluralitie and therefore worthely adiourned to bee discourse for the Fabrick or compositiue part of Armes or Armories in which they mixe and concurre to the enshaping of proportions and figures vpon Shields E. Wherefore serue the Trefoils A. To signifie such examples as are occasional and come in but vpon the by As partie per pale embatteled for so much therein as concernes the formes or affections of lines is comprehended within the Angular and is not a sort of it selfe So the two Escucheons which do immediatly follow the two Pertingents of the second sort that is to say parts of Pertingents are to show as before they did show how they become Pertransient Yet the former diuisions hold For all betweene hand and hand are in one praedicament of Armory and euery Starrulet is the signe of a different matter The exceptions and incidencies beforesaid being most aptly notwithstanding comprehensible vnder their seuerall heads E. The Element of lines thus happily finished the most beautifull Element of colours doth next present it selfe to handling The Contents 1. Admired PLATO vouched for entrance into the Element of colours 2. Why colours are elementall to Armories 3. Armoriall colours two-fold 4. The vulgar error of bearing in proper 5. Seauen chiefe Armoriall colours 6. The Maister doubtfull how to marshall them 7. Antiquities for the honor of White colour out of PLATO and SVETONIVS 8. Rare scorne of humane pride out of colours one very late of ABDELA the Morisco Emperour 9. National as well as personall respects in the vse of colours 10. Two considerations in the marshalling of Armorial colours 11. IVLIVS SCALIGER bowld with ARISTOTLE 12. The Armes of Doctor BARTOLVS one of the first gowne-men which bare any 13. Certaine scales of colours 14. The differences betweene two Authors cited in those scales and the reason 15. Concerning the place of Gules and Azure CHAP. 24. AMIAS WHite saith PLATO is the fittest colour for GOD. Hauing heere but named PLATO it seemes to me that I haue withall let in a great deale of light and gracefulnesse and therfore gladly vse that sentence of his as a garland to adorne the entrance of this part of our discourse concerning Armorial colours E. You haue done well and I rise vp in honour of his memory A. The beautifull and vitall Element of colour is in hand But before eyther with PLATO or
furre For Sir IOHN FERNE out of CASSANAEVS saith that they are called Hermines aspirating the word of Hermae which worthily admired PLATO in his HIPPARCHVS doth say were erected by PISISTRATVS the sonne of PHILEDONICVS in euery three-way-leet and Tribe of ATHENS and engrauen with morall verses of most excellent sense MARSILIVS FICINVS vpon this place saith that these Hermae were certain squared stones in manner of a statue without an head set in publick wayes and dedicated to MERCVRIE But they as some more probably report did resemble MERCVRIES head and were of HERMES another name of his called Hermae as Hermathenae had their names from the heads of MERCVRIE and MINERVA ioyned as their names are ioyned in the word ATHENE signifying the same that MINERVA as HERMES doth MERCVRIE and these Hermae were vsed as well in the adorning of libraries as sepulchers So as in this hardy deriuation euery spotte of Ermin in an Armes should stand for a seuerall Herm or shadow therof turning thereby a painted Targat into a ROMAN Atrium which containd the Images of Ancestors Very pretty was that conceit which my friend Maister SEGAR GARTER principall King of Armes related to mee as Doctor RED-SMITHS concerning Ermin For said he seeing colours are resembled to planets Ermin ought to bee Hermoys of HERMES for Quick-siluer being so appropriated to MERCVRIE as it beares his very name breakes into droppes resembling Hermin in Armories But wee that are no schollers must not least wee should cum ratione insanire sore so high into learning for a thing before our eyes and palpable GERARD LEIGH holds that the Ermin is a ltttle beast in the land of ARMONIE so he soundes it is from thence denominated so Ermin should according to him be Armin of ARMENIA certainly as I cannot controule this Etymologie so among the RVSSES it is not the word as it seemes for they If I mis-vnderstand not the booke of the RVSSE common-weal cal them Gurnstais so as Ermin is plainly a word of another roote E. It should seeme that the propinquity of the words Ermin Hermae Hermes Armenia gaue occasion of those other opinions Therfore I maruaile that none haue added that Ermin were called Heremins of woods desert places as Heremites are A. You must not Sir EVSTACE play the Censor so soon PYTHAGORAS would haue set a fine on your head and made you expiate for it to his goddesse Silence The conicctures of Maisters are to be reuerenced of beginners And yet I hold your conceit not the most absurd the word now vsed in Armorie is Ermin and as I thinke of the beast it selfe so called CORNELIVS TACITVS shewes them to vs among the old GERMANS His wordes are these Eligunt feras detracta velamina spargunt maculis pellibusque belluarum quas exterior Oceanus ignotum mare gignit By them it is plaine that the choyce skinnes onely were by those GERMANES pouldred with spots They cull or choose saith the most profoundly prudent Historiograper and powder with spots and not onely with spots but with skins so as they pouldred those choyce skinnes with other skinnes And this I take to be our Ermin The place seemes also to point out their natiue soile for by Exterior Oceanus ignotum mare he meanes such countries as lye betweene GERMANIE the Northermost sea that is to say the huge vast Prouinces of MOSCOVIA RVSSIA and the rest of that icie world whence all our excellent furres come from euen as farre as PERMIA which bordereth on that Exterior Ocean and vncouth Sea Thus farre haue you trainde mee forth to hunt the Ermin whose skinne is not often found in ancient Armories but in Cantons or other additions of honor and rewards of seruice E. The Element of colours is then at an end and wee are now to bee acquainted with Number the next of foure But before you passe the Musiue or pleasant Mosaick worke of colours as you haue beene very satisfactorie in furre and royall Ermin as in all the other so helpe me I pray out of a speciall scruple You said that metall was the vegetous soule of Armes Haue Armes any other soule then vegetatiue as either sensitiue or rationall A. It hath a rationall soule in a borrowed and alluding sense for as metall quickneth an Armes to the eye so the reason meaning proportion and apt correspondence of parts is to Armes as a reasonable soule is to man And now once more I must become a suter to you that you would forbeare to draw mee into digressions as in the last question which is meerely a part of Symbolicall Philosophie and I am now content to bee thought not vnwilling to draw toward my port The Contents 1. Number an Element 2. Demonstrated in a Pertransient 3. A diuision of Armoriall Elements 4 Position or Place another of the Elements 5. Demonstrated in the remooue of the same Pertransient 6. The rare effect of Position CHAP. 31. EVSTACE NVmber and Position are the two remaining Elements now that Lines and Colours are discust but why or how come Number and Position to bee of the Quorum in this discourse A. As no Armories can bee without lines and colours the first of which Armoriall Elements giues circumscription the other conspicuitie so neither can they want Number and Position For example In a Coat-armour where there is but one Pertransient which is the plainest purest and most primitiue bearing as in partie per fesse this line beeing a Pertransient and not two or more but single causeth a partition and two colours to bee in the Coate which otherwise should bee no Armories at all wherein Number is most euidently Elementall yet so as that Lines and Colours may bee said to bee primarily such but Number and Position secundarily for that Lines Coulours are as it were of the mater of Armories but Number and Place are of order and disposition E. It is vndeniable A. And as for Position or the necessitie thereof the onely drawing of the single Pertransient beforesaid ouer the field in trauerse and not in bias is the very cause why it is partie per fesse which line being once remooued either vpon or from her center begets another nature and blazon to the Coate So much it concerneth to obserue how many things for their number and in what manner for their position they are or ought to bee in Armes E. What meane you by remoouing it vpon the Center A. I meane the middle-most point of the Eschucheon from which if you lift it higher mutation of the place as here makes that which was a Partition to be a Chiefe the Pertransient being turn'd by such a remooue to a Pertingent so great power there is in position as to the purpose of Armes which can no more Subsist or be at all without Position then without lines colours or number The Contents 1. A question mooued about Number and Numeration 2. Cyphers in Armories as well as Letters 3.
be blazed But the vnlike rule takes place where without a principall Charge of another kind as in MORTIMER'S Armories beforesaid thinges are seminated ouer the field and neyther set nor blazed to be set in Orl or other certaine order For there no regard is taken of their number and they are altogether left to the will of Art to scatter them so in painting as may best become the superficies of Sheilds Now as Indefinite is in Powlders or Gerattings so is it sometime also in those Charges which represent no liuing creature or naturall thing as in the diminutiues of honorable ordinaries whose pieces when they are not counted as in this the antient Armories of the HODLESTONES and the like neither are they termed semi but sans number The famous Armories of AIMERIE de Valence antiently Earle of Pembroke is thought also to bee of this kinde in the pieces of it which without declaring their number the Sages in blazon vsed to terme Burruleè I wil demonstrate to you both the kindes of Indefinites semi and sans number in one Coate borne by the name of THORNTON and quartred as I remember by the Lord LVMLEY An Armories very faire and goodly showing to you semi in the cinquefoils sans number in the frets The Contents 1. Of Position or Place 2. Demonstrated in a little moueable Instrument 3. Round bodies cannot bee reuerst 4. Vse of the Armoriall Mill The rare effects of Position 6. Sir AMIAS pitcheth down one of his Columnes CHAP. 35. EVSTACE LInes Colour Number thus prosperously ouer-come there onely remaines the Element Position last of foure A. Concerning Position it shall suffice insteed of all other demonstrations to giue you the vse and admirable effects thereof in a little mooueable instrument of mine owne deuise E. How doth this Mill show the vse of Position or why haue you chosen to set round bodies therein rather then any other of the Armoriall A. Round bodies cannot be reuerst therefore in the turning no deformity can follow The vse is briefly this Open or display the Instrument one way and it produceth fiue Cinque foiles in Crosse. Open or display it another way and they present fiue cinque foils in Saltoir Mooue them clozed and without displaying if toward the fesse-point they tender to you three cinquefoils in fesse Shift their station from thence vpward into the dexter obliquity they are three cinquefoils in Bend. Bring it about to a perpendicular position they are in pale And yet a little farther into the sinister point wee are lastly afforded three cinquefoils in bend sinister Thus much for Position the last Element of the foure And heere by your good fauour I will pitch-vp one of my Columns Deo gratias A Short Table of some hard words and phrases with a few briefe notes I Haue so nearly as I could and euen as much as TIBERIVS CAESAR himselfe who would not endure the word Monopoly because it was not LATIN auoided all endenization of words which hath mooued me in most places of my Booke to adde other more cleare to interpret by them such as may seeme to thee obscure as thou may'st euery-where obserue for albeit as in my Epistle I wish such a Reader as need not an Interpreter yet I must not neglect such as I haue Though there are scarce any words of mine howsoeuer they may perhaps seeme strange which other writers in our language haue not formerly made familiar and those few which are not altogether so for the which also I haue more then once askt pardon in my Booke it selfe I haue heere for thy vses collected and by conference with the learned so farre onely interpreted as is necessary to vnderstand my meaning in the places where I vse them for to interprete them at large and in all their senses were to take SCAPVLA'S or THOMASIVS offices out of their hands My care is chiefly to haue thee know mine FARE-WELL A. APOSTROPHE An abrupt or sodaine turning of our speech from one matter or person to another Poets and Orators are full of that vehement kinde of figure and Strophe and Antistrophe in the GREEKE Lyricks doe signifie other turnings or changes of speech and station as wee are taught GR. ANALOGIE The iust proportion correspondence and measure which the obiect or subiect holds with the true reason required therein An agreement harmonie or apt answering of the Thing to the considerations proper therevnto GR. ANALYSIS A resoluing or distribution of the whole into the parts GR. ANTITHESIS A contrary position or an opposition GR. AVTOMS The word imports artificiall bodies made by DAEDALVS or by any other of like skill which moue alone or houer of themselues in the ayre without the support of any other thing Such were not the Horti pensiles or Hanging gardens of SEMIRAMIS for they stood vpon pillars Nor the ICARVS in OVID or in SVETONIVS for the one was but as the fable of PHAETON a picture of vnfortunate ambition the other the true story of the break-neck fall of SIMON MAGVS the Sorcerer vnder the name of ICARVS at ROME Nor MAHOMET'S yron coffin at MECCA for that as the fame or fable is it hangs in the Temple by reason of certaine proportionable quantities of Load-stone which hold it vp by equall attractions The perpetuall motion when it is found is such ATOMIE As Anatomie is a resection or such a cutting-vp as Surgeons vse in humane bodyes at their Hall so Atomies are those things of which by reason of their inexplicable smallnesse there cannot bee any section The LATINS call it Indiuiduum and LVCRETIVS semen rerum Indiuiduum because it was so little as it could not bee parted or diuided and semen rerum seed of things for that they were according to the conceit of EPICVRVS the common mater of all things ARTICK That which is of or appertaineth to the Northern signe of the Caelestial Beare So the ARCTICK Circle is the bound of the Cold Zone vpon Earth and of the Northern constellations in Heauen The whole North is denominated of that imagined figure The fable of that Beare is famous among Poets So the Arctick Hemisphear is that halfe of the world which is betweene the North-pole and the Aequinoctiall Line GRE. * ANTARCTICK * Contrary or opposite to Arctick Southern GR. ARGO The name of the Ship or Argose in which IASON sail'd to CHOLCHIS for conquest of the golden Fleece and which by the power of Poesie is turnd to an Asterism or a Caelestiall figure of Starres in the South-sky The Armorists ARGO is in my meaning no more but the businesse of Armorie which is in handling and in which Sir AMIAS is shipt or embarked ARRAS Cloath of Arras Tapistrie or hangings wrought at the Cittie of ARRAS in ARTOIS one of the seuenteene Prouinces and at this present is vnder the ARCHDVKES ALBERTVS and his wife ISABELLA B. BASIS A word in Architecture The bottom-part of a Columne or Pillar and figuratiuely the supporture stay ground-worke or
foundation of any thing BEVIL Euery Carpenter can tell you what it is Beeing a Squire or Square of two equall pieces and moouing vpon a ioynt or pinne from the Angle wherein they are ioyned C. CHAOS OVID calls the rude and vndigested first heape of naturall Elements Chaos In the Impresse Symbol or Deuise vpon the front of my Booke I haue followed the common placing of the foure common Simples and Elements about the which in so many Scucheons are set the seauen chiefe Armoriall Colours which men may obserue in the naturall Elements In fire yellow redde and Purple In aër white In water blew In earth greene and sable The sentence is is out of some the first verses in the Metamorphosis where it is said Vnus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe Quem dixere CHAOS The sense of the whole Imprese is plain COCKET A certificate from the customer of a Port that the parcels comprehended in that Certificate or Bill haue bene customed or haue paid custome The word is dearly wel-knowne to Marchant-venturers CONVEX Conuexity is the out-side of an hollow body as concauity the inside In a painted Globe of the world the descriptions are vppon the conuexitie therof and that face is conuex the rest is bellie or concaue CORYPHAE The Chief or principal in any kinde GR. D DIALLELS As Parallels are lines running one by the other without meeting so Diallels are lines which runne one through the other that is do crosse intersecate or cutt G.R. DIAGONAL Is a line which passeth from one corner or one angle of a Geometrical body to another corner or angle of the same GR. DEIPNOSOPHISTS ATHENAEVS his great learned books carry that title importing a conference discourse or Inter-speach among wise-men at a supper DIAMETER EVCLYD who best knewe defineth it thus The diameter of a circle is a certain straight line drawne through the center and of both sides bounded in the compasse of the circle which cutts or deuides the circle into two portions E. EQVIVOCAL An Equiuocal word is that which conteyneth more significations then one or that which in the sense or meaning thereof doth equally extend it selfe as wel to one as to another As the word Armes in our vulgar vse therof doth equally signifie those parts of our body so called or weapons or tokens of honour and with an aspiration which is an ELENCK or deceit in the Accent Harms EMPYREAN Fierie It is among the old Diuines taken for the Sphaere of the blessed or the Heauen of the triumphant F FOLKMOTE A meeting of the people which the LATINS called Concio and in a more spacious word Comitia For Concio was any auditory before or vnto whome a speach was vsed aswell as the speach it selfe both which Concio signified but Comitia did import a generall assembly of the people of ROME to make lawes c. Or FOLKMOTE may be either G GEMINELS Twins Pairs Matches or Likes GOVRMONS Great eaters Gluttons Norman Gourmon is a speach I heare by which the Normans are taxed for great feeding and gourmondize GRAMMAR Who knowes not that this word signifies the Art of letters and speach Yet it is meere GREEK in the originall but now so familiar in our tongue euen in the most vplandish countries as it need no Interpreter Those who will perswade vs to turne backe to our old language for auoyding the loan of words and phrases may from hence learn that vse makes all things familiar Friuolous it is to wish when thinges are dayly new to dreame of a certaine state of words or speach that is That the number of ENGLISH wordes should be definite and certaine And what shall wee say of reuiuing old and forgotten words That cannot auoyd obscurity but will induce it rather our helps being fewer to vnderstand them then the GREEK LATIN or other famous languages It is our sloath which suffers so many of our owne wordes to liue onely among the Arts and Mysteries where they are commonly knowne like DVTCH coynes which are not current out of their owne Citties or Territories Industry and Wisedome would that wee should not borrow till our owne store were empty or worne bare which is to our selues vnknowne for want of obseruation Therefore I could wish there were a Tribunal and Magistrate for wordes that it might not be in euery witts-will donare ciuitate ANGLIANA to make wordes phrase-free of ENGLAND H HIEROGLIPHICKS Hallowed Engrauements or sacred Sculptures as Hieraticall figures are sacred figures and Hierogramms sacred letters or writings In all which words the mysticall cyphers or records of the AEGIPTIAN rites and Philosophie were signified to be comprised HYPERBOREANS Septentrional Due North Vnder the North-pole HORD A TARTARIAN word and as I thinke doth import a Clan Race or Familie vnder some one Chiefe or other which conducts the troup after their barbarous vsage from county to country HONORARY HORD is the whole company of so many TARTARS flitting vp and downe where they can find new feedings That which is made for honour more then for vse I IMBRICATE Square and bent like to a Roofe-tile which the LATINS cal Imbrex INLAYES At S t. OLAVES in SOVTHVVARK you shall learn among the Ioyners what Inlayes and Marquetrie meane Inlay as the word imports is a laying of colour'd wood in their Wainscoat works Bed-steds Cupbords Chayres and the like L LANDSKEP The same that Parergon which in one word I call By-work wherein though I render the GREEK Parergon fully and truly yet for that it is not receiued in such a sense among vs it doth not shew the thing All that which in a picture is not of the body or argument thereof is LANDSKEP Parergon or By-work As in the table of our Sauiours passion The picture of CHRIST vpon the Rood which is the proper ENGLISH word for Crosse the two Theeues the blessed Virgin MARIE and Saint IOHN are the argument But the Cittie JERVSALEM the country about the Clowdes and the like are By-work LAVREATED LETTERS Leters bound about with laurell which the ROMAN Generals sent to the Senat when their contents were victory and conquest newly by them obtained LABARVM EVSEBIVS PAMPHILVS in his first booke of the life of great CONSTANTINE describes this peculiar Standard very curiously The common forme thou maist behold in the 163. page of my Elements In the LABARVM these things are more First the Banner was of Purple where the pictures of the Emperour and his Children were wrought in gold and stone of wonderfull value and beauty aboue the crosse-beam or trauerse-staffe of the banner stood those two first GREEKE Capitals of CHRISTE'S name which you may see in my Elements and on the point or toppe of the Launce or Staffe imperiall was aduanced a crowne of gold set with pretious stone All in honor of his miraculous conuersion vpon the apparition of the CROSSE Which as it consisted of shining light and was seene abooue the Sunne it beeing now past Noone so there was very
THE ELEMENTS OF ARMORIES AT LONDON Printed by GEORGE ELD 1610. C. SALLVSTIVS CRISPVS Verumenimuerò is demùm mihi viuere et frui animâ videtur qui aliquo negotio intentus praeclari facinoris aut ARTIS BONAE famam quaerit TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE HENRIE EARLE OF NORTHAMPTON BARON HOWARD OF MARNHILL LORD PRIVIE SEALT LORD WARDEN OF THE CINQVE FORTS ONE OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS FOR THE EARLE-MARSHALSHIP OF ENGLAND KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER VVORTHIE OF ALL THE HONORS DVE TO HIGH VVISDOME VIRTVE AND LEARNING HIS MOST HONORED GOOD LORD E. B. VVILLINGLIE HVMBLIE AND DESERVEDLIE DEDICATETH THESE HIS ELEMENTS OF ARMORIES The Opinions and Offices of sundry choyce and quallified Gentlemen friendes to the Author touching these his ELEMENTS of ARMORIES A Letter to the Author from the worthy WILLIAM SEGAR Esquire GARTER principall King of Armes SYR I haue viewed your Elementary Booke of Armories and in my poore iudgment doe approue the same no lesse singular for the deuice then generall for the matter and absolutely the best of any in that kind Your labours deserue encouragements by how much they are written freely and ingeniously and may be called as well the ALIMENTS as the ELEMENTS of ARMORIES for that they nourish the mind of the Reader with a profitable and pleasing satiety of excellent matter Finis coronat opus Your good Wine needs no Garland Yet because it was your pleasure I should deliuer you mine opinion thereof I haue aduentured to say thus much And with the same recommend my loue vnto you 14. April 1610. Your louing friend WILLIAM SEGAR GARTER A Letter to the Author from the excellently learned in our Antiquities and in all other humane literature WILLIAM CAMDEN Esquire CLARENCEVX King of Armes SYR whereas your desire is that I should deliuer my full opinion of your Booke which you lately sent and submitted to my censure I assure you if my iudgement be any which I acknowledge to bee very little you haue with that iudicious learning insight handled ARMORIE the subiect of my profession that I cannot but approue it as both learnedly and diligently discouered from his first cradle And could not but allow it if I were Censor librorum publicâ authoritate constitutus as you know I am not Pardon me that I am so breefe for neyther my head nor my hand can as yet performe that which they should and would vntill the Almighty shall restore me to former health to whose protection I commend you and yours resting 11. Iune 1609. Your louing friend WILLIAM CAMDEN CLARENCEVX A LETTER TO THE AVTHOR FROM HIS LATE DEARE FRIEND the Graue and Courtly THOMAS BEDINGFIELD Esquire late Maister of his Maiesties Tents and Toilz c. deceased SYR your ELEMENTS of ARMORIES I haue seene but censure them I dare not Blinde eyes can iudge no colours and ignorance may not meddle with excellent conceit This only I will admire your Work wish you to proceed If you permit these discourses to wander abroad they shall meet with more men to maruail then vnderstand them That is the worst I returned them in haste fearing to foule the paper or iniury the Inck. From Clerckenwel 27. Mar. 1609. Your very louing friend THOMAS BEDINGFIELD Postscr SYR if you adde or write more I pray you make me a partaker I say with PETRARK Stanco non satio mai A LETTER TO THE AVTHOR from the learned young Gentleman I. B. of Grace-dieu in the County of LEICESTER Esquier SYR I haue here with many thanks returned to you your profound discourse of the ELEMENTS of ARMORIES which I haue read ouer with great profit delight for I confesse that till now I neuer saw any thing in this kind worthy the entertainment of a studious mind wherin you haue most commendably shewed your skill finding out rare and vnknowne beauties in an Art whose highest perfection the meanest wits if they could blazon and repeat Pedigrees durst heretofore but shall not now challenge Our sight which of all senses wee hold y e dearest you haue made more precious vnto vs by teaching vs the excellent proportions of our visible obiects In performance wherof as you haue followed none so haue you left it at a rash and desperate aduenture for any to follow you For he that only considers your choice copie of matter without forcing will find it an hard talk to equall your Inuention not to speake of your iudiciall Method wherin you haue made your Workmanship excell your Subiect though it bee most worthy of all ingenuous industry Beleeue me SYR in a word I cannot but highly admire your attempt so wel performed and among many others will be an earnest furtherer of that benefit which this dull age of ours in this our country carelesse of al but gainful Arts claimeth at your hands In which hope I rest 29. Nouemb. 1609. Your most louing friend IOHN BEAVMONT H. C. To the Gentleman Reader IF thou desire to knowe the reason why Thou doo'st in Sheild the Armes of honour bear This Booke will say that they by nature were The HIEROGLYPHICKS of Nobility It shewes beside how Art doth beautifie What Nature doth inspire and how each-where All Arts conion'd in this Art do appeare By structure of a choyce Phylosophie GEOMETRIE giues Lines in ordred Place Numbers ARITHMETICK and thou may'st see How all in OPTICK Colours honour thee But since that Virtue which adorn'd the race From whence thou did'st descend was ground of al Haue care to follow it or all will fall M r. HVGH HOLLAND To his learned friend M r. E. B. the Author vpon his ELEMENTS of ARMORIE'S MY maister CAMDEN sacred King of Armes Who bounds with heau'n aswell as sea our soile So prosed and so praised hath thy toyle As here no need is of my sorry charmes To boast it though my braines APOLLO warmes Where like in IOVE'S MINERVA keeps a coile Yet I a Drone shall but thy Hony spoile Thou art the Maister BE of all the swarmes Deepe is his iudgement spatious is his witte And high his fame that can in Armes enfold VVhat eyther Sea or Land or Heauen hold Philosophers are in a greeuous fitte To see whil'st Enuy doth with Reason Storme New ELEMENTS new MATTER and new FORM. Another of the same by Apostrophe to PHOEBVS finishing in a symbolicall allusion to the most noble Earle of NORTHHAMPTON ON bolt on PHOEBVS spend thy golden Shafts And guild these Papers with thy glorious rayes Crown euery leaf with leaues of flowring Bayes And crown the Author with thy laurell grafts They treat the mystical'st of generous Crafts That shewes what Arms were born in Antique daies By whom where why and how many wayes On Sheilds and blades not set in dugeon haftes Thou MINERVA grace them in the sight Of that great Lord whose iudgment they rely on For as no Eye dare face thy glorious light VVhen as Thou reignest in the golden Lion So dare no Curre
against them ope his Iaw Once seis'd into the SILVER LION'S Pawe The Author To the generous and learned READER IN foure bookes it seem'd to mee that the matter of Armo'ries neuer as yet deliuer'd in the better and remoter parts thereof but euen vntill this day for ought that euer I could gather to the contrary remaining altogether vntoucht was aptly as in a PANDECT or DIGEST comprehensible And those Foure as I conceiued might bee these Their 1. ELEMENTS 2. FABRICK 3. MYSTERIES 4. VINDEX 1. The ELEMENTS teaching the simple abstract pure and remote materials and causes of Armo'ries of which as words of letters they consist 2. The FABRICK teaching the putting-together of those Elements and how they constitute Armorial bodies with other speculations proper to the compositiue part 3. The MYSTERIES teaching what those Armoriall bodies so constituted do purport meane or signifie all cleared with Rules and Examples 4. The VINDEX Assertor or Champion teaching how this PHILOSOPHIE may bee freed from contempt and who is truly Noble and worthy to bee honored with Armories But generous and learned Reader for to such onely doth this part of humane letters appertaine of those foure in proiect through manifold Inter-turbations there is only and scarce performed vnto thee the first The Elements of Armories which here thou hast My farther scope and counsels thou shalt bee priuie vnto if thou make the tenth Chapter of the Booke worthy thy thorough-view whether I transmit thee Onely I must not here forget that without respect to my priuate I haue vpon occasion in all the course of my present youth spent much time and coyne to view in person the chiefe places of ENGLAND and IRELAND to conuerse the better with our Antiquities in that kind aswell to perfect thereby mine owne speculations as that I might wheÌ„ opportunity would deliuer vnto thee things certain pure without abuse or innouatioÌ„ Other things briefly to praemonish thee of are these 1. That a competent Reader cannot lack so much language as may serue to interpret betweene him-selfe and some few harder words or places in the Booke 2. That language onely or common diligence can make no Armorist without Genius and a Maister 3. That the way to learne excellently is to beleeue excellently for a meane conceit of a profession begets but a small proficience 4. That in the deliuery of Elementarie matter I haue for thy cause rather vsed interlocution then set or continuous speech as more apt to enter a Learner for whose cause also at the end of the Booke are annexed sundry Tables 5. That at the first reading to lay them downe or away either as too hard or as now too stale doth argue alike vanitie the one of too much abiection the other of too little stedfastnesse 6. That if thou wilt vse the pleasant obiects and condimentall parts thereof to relish and draw-on the rest the better thou holdest the right Rule of profiting thy selfe 7. That all is properly meant and written herein to them that are filij Artis and willing to coöperate with the fauour of the Armoriall Muse. How thou my READER doo'st in present thinke of Armories and what minde thou bringest with thee as I know not so howsoeuer I may yet say a little in this place notwithstanding that which is spoken throughout my whole Booke to the same purpose considering the generall state of opinions touching them that thou mai'st the rather be induced to thinke thy diligence in perusall of the whole not ill-emploid or I in thy riper and sounder iudgment stand the more iustified or at leastwise the lesse condemned for hauing taken so much paine to pleasure thee Armories therefore occurring euery-where in seales in frontes of buildings in vtensils in all things Monarcks vsing them mighty Peeres and in briefe all the noble tà m maiorum quà m minorum gentium from Caesar to the simplest Gentleman yet all of them for the more part most vnknowingly very few euen of the most studious do sildome goe any farther then to fill vp a wide Wardrobe with particular Coates whose zeale notwithstanding is worthy to know the better things thereof that other beeing no more the thing then bookes not vnderstood are learning For in them I may without racking the value affirme are all the Thems and Theorems of generous knowledges from whence doth breath so sweet an aër of humanity as thy manners cannot but take and mix thereby with true gentility and noblesse The outward parts of her palace are beautifide with infinit obiects full of all variety comlinesse the walks mazes which she vseth are those enwrapped circles of ingenuous sciences which the learned do entitle CYCLOPAEDIE her Presence and most inward retirements haue all the most CHRISTIAN Haeroick and Cardinall virtues for Handmaides excellent affections without which the arguments externall testimonies of noblesse are nothing worth Hee that in the trust of any auditories ignorance or basenesse shall say All this is vaine must be answered that this is no otherwise vaine then as Omnia vanitas In any other good or honorable sense thou canst not I thinke but confesse that Armorie is a Maiesty worthy thy seruice wherevnto if names of men rather then things themselues can perswade thou canst not bee vnknowing how many of our late and presently both greatest and wisest haue heretofore and now in present doe honor it Neither doth She want her part also in our CoÌ„mon-wealâ—â— and they who sit chiefe in the primum mobile of state be thinke themselues how to enlighten BRITAIN with the beams of restored Honor. To praeöcupate more satisfaction till thy minde bee farther knowne were meerely for me to diuine of obiections but when thou expoundest thy selfe vnto Mee thou shalt be most assured of my farthest diligence to keepe thee Mine FARE-WELL THE ELEMENTS OF ARMO'RIES The Contents 1. The conference betweene two Knights Sir EVSTACE and Sir AMIAS begun by Apostrophe 2. The motiues thereof 3. Single coates and their Elements the matter 4. VLYSSES taxation of his Antagonist proper to our ignorant Gentlemen 5. The Maisters high perswasion of the studie 6. Wisdome in it 7. Marbles coynes characterismes Hieroglyphicks and the like not so worthy of obseruation 8. The Maister giues his lawes of hearing and is endented-with for a familiar method CHAP. 1. EVSTACE BVt Sir the happy confederacie of fit time and place with my desires hauing brought you into those straits out of which there is no euasion saue onely by the abrupt of discourtesie I must briefly presse you concerning the ELEMENTS of ARMOIRIES A. I perceiue you are loth good Sir EVSTACE to be any longer ignorant E. How can I choose but bee very loth hauing accidentally the other day seene at your hands a sample of the ware and since found it full of rich metall and not to bee base Marckasite or stuffe vnworthy the garnish of honor as also no lesse for that now I can neuer close vp a letter but my