vailed, and 40 of his sol- 
who afforded an 
with great exactness on the in of 
spite of the zeal of Mathew Paris, 
and also of the illuminations, 
is such, that the authenticity of this record has long 
meee The arto 
2 12. The art ofheraldry, in truth, like every thing else 
of nature or of art, did not all at once spring up to per~ 
fection. Its beginning long preceded its universal prac- 
tice, and its scientific arrangement. The ancient figures 
on shields, and military ensigns, were the first dawn- 
ings of the art. It may be said to have made its first 
a ce in the world at the times of the 
perfoctiat‘s che period inmmedintly following. hess 
i iod immediately followi ese 
military exercises. The name of Blazon which} has al- 
been given to amet the ti of Sp am 
, the metals, the princi vi- 
Fa Saude tn mantles, 
ire to prove the 
practice of the art took 
were announced by the sounding of the horn. The 
heralds, after having ascertained the nobility of those 
who offered themselves, blew the trumpet, in order’ to 
warn the marshals and their assistants, and then bla- 
zoned the arms of the aspirants; that is to say, that, 
after sounding the tye 2 they proclaimed with a 
loud voice the bearings of their shields. The Rimes du 
tournay de Chavency, (which took place in the year 
1285,) written by Jacques Bretex, furnish an example 
of this usage. 
Les trompeurs si trompoient 
Et les Bachelers amenoient 
'  D’armes si empapillonez 
. Que depuis I’heure que je fu nez 
Ne via mongré, tel mervoilles 
‘Un chevalier d’armes vermoilles 
A cing annets d’or in ecu. 
Vi devant tous qui sans ecu 
Vient a voir la premiere jouste 
Comment qu’il soit ne coi qu’il couste 
Si quier as autres qu’on luy doigne 
“as Lors 6i eerier Chardoigne 
v Et puis Vianne a ces heraux, 
Garcons glatir, huier ribaux 
Chevaux hannir—tambour sonnir, &c. 
* In all the descriptions of jousts which Olivier de 
Ja Marche gives us, and in all those of the old romances, 
it is always en: that “ les trem 
cornerent et furent faits les cris accoutumez.” In de- 
the “ Joustes de larbre d'or,” he says, * si 
_ tost que Mondit Sei Je Duc fut sur les rangs fut 
- opens M. le Prince oo neveu. 
: te d’Armignac, et apres fut querre 
par le geant et par le Nain; fut par le geant presente 
HERALDRY. 
715 
aux dames et le Nain sonna sa trompe.” When the 
tournament was at an end, it was a common thing for 
the knights to hang up their arms and these horns in 
some ch ; and still remain (or at least did 
within a century) to the = altars in the 
~ ree of Wirts , Ratisbonne, Mayence, and Cos 
ogne, 
Charlemagne. 
When any combatant had once made his appearance 
at these tournaments, which seem to have been origi- 
nally held every three or four years in Germany, it was 
no longer for him to make any proof of his 
nobility, this having been already sufficiently recogni. 
sed, and blazoned ; that is to say, announced by sound 
Sonia heralds of the lists. The persons 
who attained this distinction commonly carried two 
trumpets by way of crest, in order to mark that they 
were gent y i and blazoned; and thus 
when the bearings of shields began to be more fixed 
than before, many families retained these crests of 
trum Helmets adorned in this manner are called 
by D ius and Simon Askolski Galea Hastiludiales, 
_ thatis, helmetsoftournament. (See Plate CCXCI. Fig. 1.) 
Many authors, indeed, explain these trumpet _— to 
be the trunks of elephants. But if there could remain 
any doubt on the subject, it would be removed by 
observing that those who still retain these crests, are 
the very families whose names occur in the ancient 
tournaments, as those of Bavaria, Saxony, Branden- 
burgb, Lutzelstein, Mecklenburgh, Swartzenberg, Die 
Lobl, Noppen, Talheim, Reakhshelany &e. 
To blazon, by a ual transition, came among 
the French, who —— borrowed it ‘aa oe - 
signify every sort of description. us es 
Foul oux, it his book on hunting, which new 
to Charles IX. makes in four lines what he calls the 
« Blason du lievre.” 
Lievre je suis de petite stature, &c. 
Favin uses it as synonymous with “ to praise,” 
439. “ Les estltaiak dibuae pour blasonner leur Pie 
&c.” But we elsewhere meet with it taken in malam 
, as in the Chronicle of Louis the first Duke of 
, where he is said, in conferring the order of the 
crown onhis knights, to have ordered them to honour the 
ladies, and not to it any one to ill of them— 
** blasonner et ire.” ‘The word has the same signi- 
fications among the i lato os ae 
farther glory itself; as in igo Mendez Sylva Pod- 
lacion, page ‘7. “ Sivra sobre de Blazon, aver pro- 
creado al memorable cavallero Quinonez.” Nothing 
can be more simple than the analogy by which all these 
‘meanings are derived from the primitive blasen. Nor is 
it at all to be wondered at, that the French should have 
borrowed this term of art from Germany, since it was 
in that country that the first ar tournaments were 
held by order of Henry the Fowler, who was either 
the original institutor, or at least the restorer of these 
and many other exercises for the young nobility of his 
empire. 
* It is proper to mention, that many are of opinion that the word blazon is of Oriental origin; and in the Arabie Dictionary of 
Gieuharis, we certainly find the word Bladson with two significations, Ist, ‘Gens, famille, maison ;” 2d, “ Insignia, armoiries, sym- 
Jes d’une ‘maison.”—But we cannot help looking on this as merely a casual coincidence, and imagine few will deny that the German 
root offers so very natural a derivation, that it is ridiculous to Jook farther, : 
1 
PLATE 
CCOXCL 
Fig. 1. 
