Heraldica Nova

The collaborative blog Heraldica Nova was founded in 2013 by Torsten Hiltmann as part of the Dilthey Project «The Performance of Coats of Arms», funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation through their initiative «Focus on the Humanities».

Based at the University of Münster, the blog aims to study heraldry from the perspective of cultural history.

Starting point

By the late Middle Ages, coats of arms were everywhere: carved in stone or wood, depicted on textiles or stained glass, and displayed in both public and private spaces.

Coats of arms, which began as arbitrary symbols adopted by knights in the 12th century, evolved into a complex and powerful system of symbolic representation used by men and women from various social classes, as well as by states, kingdoms, regions, institutions, groups, and more, transcending their initial role as mere symbols of identity.

An underused resource

Despite their historical significance, the creators of this blog argue that academic history and historians have not fully utilized the rich potential of heraldic sources to provide insights into families, lineages, relationships, identities, authorities, and hierarchies, nor to explore modes of symbolic and visual representation and communication. This lack of exploration applies to historical periods from the Middle Ages onwards.

Objectives of the blog

Therefore, the primary goal of Heraldica Nova is to highlight the potential of heraldic sources for modern historical science and encourage their use. To achieve this, the blog serves as:

A platform for sharing and discussing ideas, hypotheses, and observations among historians and heraldists, each contributing their respective perspectives.
A resource hub, providing links, databases, information, images, tools, and more. For example, within this area, their list of digitized armorials is particularly noteworthy, including highlights such as: [Urfe; Century XV], [Ingeram, H.; 1459], and the roll of arms of [Edward IV of England; 1461].

My contribution announced on their Twitter

Learn to blazon, first part, Heraldica Nova

Learn to blazon, second part, Heraldica Nova

Categories: Link and Heraldry and heralds.

External resources:

Ownership of blazons and coats of arms

Ownership

Blazons, coats of arms or other heraldic objects shown on Blason.es, or any of its associated heraldry domains, belong to their respective owners, which are always identified on this site together with theses blazons or coat of arms or other heraldic objects. But the copyright and the intellectual property of the creation and/or the artistic rendering of these blazons, coats of arms and other heraldic objects belong to me for being the heraldic artist the specific terms of which may be agreed upon with the person who requested them.

Authorization

Only theses owner or their legal heirs could give you their authorization regarding the copy, use, reproduction, transformation, etc. of these blazons, coats of arms, or heraldic objects.

Libro abierto, hojas de plata, filo de oro, guardas de gules, tapas de sable.

Salmerón Cabañas, A.; 2014b

Antonio Salmerón Cabañas, «The Book of the Coat of Arms of Wolves Sable and Unicorns Argent», Ediciones aContracorriente, first edition, ISBN 978-84-941511-8-7, Madrid, 2014.

The chapters of this book are organized to systematically record all information regarding the creation of a coat of arms and its variants, from its initial conception to its various final interpretations, through intermediate designs, their uses, meanings, registration, communication, and even their different imaginary and artistic recreations.

The chapters are as follows:

On the ideation and creation of a coat of arms, its derived versions, and other complements.
On the ideation and creation of a first ornament and its possible enhancements.
On the ideation and creation of a second and definitive ornament for the coat of arms.
On designing acts of manifestation, documents, and heraldic frames based on the coat of arms.
On the meaning of different elements and the symbolism within the coat of arms.
On the records of the coat of arms and its public communication.
On the certifications of the coat of arms.
An imaginary history about the evolution of the coat of arms over the centuries.
An artistic recreation of the journey back from the future to the past.
Covering various subsequent and prior variations and combinations.
Covering other interpretations of the same blazon made by different heraldic masters.

My intellectual property of the illustrations in this book is registered in [Salmerón Cabañas, A.; 2014a].

Bibliographical reference of century XXI.

The author is Salmerón Cabañas, Antonio.

The following article cites this bibliographic reference:

Salmerón Cabañas, A.; 2014a

Institutions cited by name

~ A ~

Alcantara, Order of

~ C ~

Calatrava, Order of

~ E ~

Emblem of the Society of Heraldic Arts

~ M ~

Montesa, Order of

~ N ~

Norsk Heraldisk Forening

~ R ~

~ S ~

~ T ~

This list of academic or heraldic institutions is closed, because I only include those institutions that I cite.

Sea of the Mediterranean, plain tincture

Party per fess: 1 Sable, three mullets of eight points Argent, 1 and 2; 2 Azure, a ship in full sail Or.

Coat of arms designed by me, in plain tinctures, contoured in Sable, with a semi-circular external shape and with a texturized finish.

Coat of arms of the Sea of the Mediterrean designed and emblazoned by me as imaginary heraldry. This coat of arms is one of my very first heraldic designs.

Blazon keywords: Sable, Argent, Azure, Or, Three, Eight, One, Party per fess, Mullet, Disordered, Ship and Full sail.