French blazons translation requested

 
arriano
 
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arriano
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02 August 2006 17:23
 

My high school French is great for ordering from a menu or getting my face slapped, but pretty useless when it comes to heraldic blazons. And Bablefish’s versions seemed to mangle them pretty badly. So I’m hoping there is someone here who can assist. Here are the blazons for two Cordey arms:

Cordey

D’azur à trois coeurs d’argent, appointés en pairle renversé, le coeur en haut couronne aussi d’argent; le tout brochant sur deux flèches du même, passées en saut. SOURCE: Rietstap

 

Cordey

D’azur à trois flèches, empoignées, brochant sur le tout trois coeurs appointés en pairles renversées le premier coeur sommé d’une couronne à trois fleurons, le tout d’argent. SOURCE: “Dictionary of the Families of French-Speaking Switzerland”

 
Sunil Saigal
 
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Sunil Saigal
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04 August 2006 13:18
 

I am currently traveling and therefore far from my French heraldic dictionaries, but I think the following should work:


arriano wrote:

Cordey

D’azur à trois coeurs d’argent, appointés en pairle renversé, le coeur en haut couronne aussi d’argent; le tout brochant sur deux flèches du même, passées en saut. SOURCE: Rietstap


Azure three hearts argent, placed in pairle reversed [i.e. one, two], the uppermost heart also crowned argent, all placed on two arrows of the same in saltire (i.e. in proper English blazon:  two arrows etc… overall three hearts etc.).


arriano wrote:

Cordey

D’azur à trois flèches, empoignées, brochant sur le tout trois coeurs appointés en pairles renversées le premier coeur sommé d’une couronne à trois fleurons, le tout d’argent. SOURCE: “Dictionary of the Families of French-Speaking Switzerland”


Azure three arrows in a cluster resting overall on three hearts in pairle reversed, the first heart surmounted of a crown of three leaves all argent (i.e. three hearts etc. ... overall two arrows etc.).

 

Another possibility - depending on the punctuation - is: Azure three arrows in a cluster, overall three hearts ...

 

"Brochant sur le tout" corresponds roughly to the English "overall" (brocher: to broach; sur le tout: on the whole, overall), but in blazons appears normally to be placed after the charge it describes rather than before. I would therefore tend to think that the first translation of the second blazon is the correct (but I of course stand to be corrected in turn).

 

Note that the order of which set of charges is placed on the other (hearts-on-arrows or arrows-on-hearts) is reversed between the two blazons.  I am not sure that it matters in the end, since it seems that the arrows could almost be placed between the hearts, but this would of course depend on the artist’s interpretation.

 

Hope this is helpful.

 
arriano
 
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arriano
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04 August 2006 16:24
 

That’s VERY helpful. Thank you very much for taking the time to assist.

 
Iain Boyd
 
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Iain Boyd
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04 August 2006 17:43
 

I have just checked the first volume of Rolland’s illustrations to Rietstap’s Armorial General.

My blazon from the drawing is -

 

"Azure, two arrows in saltire points upward with overall three hearts disposed in pairle reversed the upper heart crowned argent."

 

The illustration shows the upper heart between the shafts of the two arrows and the lower two hearts superimposed on the arrow shafts as though pierced by the arrows.

 

Regards,

 

Iain Boyd

 
arriano
 
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arriano
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04 August 2006 19:21
 

Thanks Iain. I’ll make the necessary change.

 
Iain Boyd
 
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Iain Boyd
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05 August 2006 04:09
 

While out walking this afternoon it occured to me that I might not have provided a full description of the illustration in ‘Rolland’.

I have just checked and confirmed that the illustration shows the hearts oriented with the ‘points’ of all three hearts towards the centre.

 

Thus, my (not too concise and not too correct) blazon becomes -

 

"Azure, two arrows in saltire points upward with overall three hearts disposed in pairle reversed the base of each heart towards the centre and the upper heart crowned argent."

 

I certainly would not have emblazoned the arms this way from the original blazon in ‘Rietstap’. However, I suppose that ‘disposed in pairle reversed’ implies that the three charges are oriented towards the middle and the orientation does not have to be stated specifically.

 

Regards,

 

Iain Boyd