Roll of arms

A roll of arms (or armorial) is a special book filled with pictures of shields. Each shield shows a unique design called a coat of arms, and next to each shield is the name of the person who used that design. These books have been made for many centuries.

The oldest books we still have today that show these shields date back to the middle of the 1200s. People kept making them for many years, even up until modern times. One famous printed book from 1605 is called Siebmachers Wappenbuch. Some of the bigger books from later times tried to list almost every coat of arms they could find. For example, a book made for Louis XIV of France in 1696 listed more than 125,000 different shields!

Rolls of arms can be made for special events, like tournaments, or for groups like orders of chivalry. Some books collect shields from one area, while others try to be like big encyclopedias. When shields are grouped by similar designs, this special kind of book is called an ordinary of arms. These books help people learn about the history and meaning behind these special shield designs.

Notable examples

Medieval

Scottish

• The Balliol Roll is a Scottish roll of arms from the end of the 13th century and was the earliest roll of arms in Scotland.
• Sir David Lindsay's Armorial is a 16th century Scottish Armorial.

English

• Glover's Roll is an English roll of arms from the 1240s or 1250s, containing the symbols of 225 coats of arms.
• The Matthew Paris Shields, not truly a roll but a set of pictures accompanying the chronicler's book works, date from around 1244–59, during the time of Henry III, and contain drawings of shields with notes in Latin.
• Walford's Roll is an English roll dating from around 1275, containing 185 coats with symbols.
• _The Camden Roll is an English roll dating from around 1280, containing 270 painted coats, 185 with symbols.
• _The Dering Roll, dating from the late 13th century, contains 324 coats of arms, painted on paper. It is 8+1⁄4 inches wide by 8 feet 8 inches long. It currently resides in the British Library.
• The Heralds' Roll is an English roll dating from around 1280, containing 697 painted coats.
• St George's Roll is an English roll dating from around 1285, containing 677 painted coats.
• Charles' Roll is an English roll dating from around 1285, containing 486 painted coats.
• The Lord Marshal's Roll is an English roll dating from 1295, containing 565 painted coats.
• Collins' Roll is a roll dating from 1296, containing 598 painted coats. It currently resides at the College of Arms in London.
• The Falkirk Roll is an English roll dating from around 1298, containing 115 coats with symbols, listing the knights with King Edward I at Battle of Falkirk in 1298.
• _The Galloway Roll is an English roll dating from 1300, containing 259 coats with symbols.
• Roll of Caerlaverock or Poem of Caerlaverock is a roll dating from 1300, containing 110 poetical symbols without pictures.
• Stirling Roll is an English roll from 1304, containing 102 coats.
• Stepney Roll is an English roll listing the knights present at Stepney Tournament in 1308.
• The Great, Parliamentary, or Banneret's Roll, around 1312, is an English roll consisting of 19 paper pages, which include the names and symbols of 1,110 nobles, church leaders, knights and lords of the day. It is now part of the British Library manuscript collection.
• Dunstable Roll is an English roll listing knights present at Dunstable Tournament in 1334.
• Calais Roll is an English roll dating from 1346 to 1347, containing 116 shields in brown ink. This roll was probably made in the late 16th century from copies of records kept by Walter Wetewang, Treasurer of the Household 1346–7, showing money paid to participants at the Siege of Calais.
• Powell's Roll is an English roll dating from around 1345–1351.
• Salisbury Roll is an English roll in two similar versions: the "Original Roll" dating from around 1463, in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch, and the later "Copy A", made around 1483–5, in the collection of the British Library.

French

• The Bigot Roll is a French roll dating from 1254, containing 300 coats.
• The Armorial Wijnbergen is a French roll published in two parts (Part 1, around 1265–1270; Part 2, around 1270–1285), containing 1,312 painted coats.
• The Chifflet-Prinet Roll is a French roll dating from around 1285–1298, containing 147 coats with symbols.
• Armorial du Hérault Vermandois is a French roll of arms dating from around 1285–1300, containing 1,076 symbols.
• Armorial Le Breton, with 580 coats of arms (230 of which are not named), around 1292, with addition of 144 coats of arms in the 15th century, and another 15 added around 1530.
• The Armorial of Gilles Le Bouvier, made for the personal use of the Chief Herald of France Gilles Le Bouvier (1386–around 1455).
• Armorial Bellenville by Claes Heinen (1386), 1,738 coats of arms
• Grand Armorial équestre de la Toison d'or, an armorial of the members of the Order of the Golden Fleece between 1429 and 1461, made by a herald in the Duchy of Burgundy.

Holy Roman Empire

• The oldest collections of coats of arms are preserved not in book form, but in the form of pictures painted on walls or wooden beams, from the earlier practice of hanging guests' shields on walls on special occasions. Among the oldest such pictures preserved is the one at Valère Basilica, Valais, dated 1224.
• The oldest collection of symbols, Latin descriptions of coats of arms, of the Holy Roman Empire is Clipearius Teutonicorum by Conrad of Mure, dated 1260–64.
• Turino armorial (1312), descriptions of 119 coats of arms of the attendants of the naming of Henry VII.
• The coats of arms shown with the singer pictures in Codex Manesse (although not technically an armorial) are an important source for early 14th century pictures.
• The Zürich armorial made in around 1340 presumably in what is now eastern Switzerland (in or nearby of what is now the canton of St Gallen), now in the Swiss National Museum in Zürich.
• Gelre Armorial is a Dutch roll of arms dating from around 1370–1414, containing about 1,700 coats of arms. It currently resides at the Royal Library of Belgium. It was made by Claes Heinenzoon.
• The Beyeren Armorial is a medieval Dutch book containing 1096 coats of arms, completed between 1402 and 1405, written in Middle Dutch. It is currently held by the National Library of the Netherlands. It was made by Claes Heinenzoon, who also made the Gelre Armorial.
• Wappenbüchlein E.E. Zunft zu Pfisten in Luzern (1408), 5 pages with 59 Lucerne guild coats of arms.
• Hyghalmen Roll is a German roll of arms made around 1447–1455 in Cologne. It currently resides at the College of Arms in London.
• Hans Ingeram's armorial (1459), 280 pages with around 1,100 coats of arms.
• Wappenbuch der österreichischen Herzöge, around 1445–1457, 50 pages with some 170 coats of arms.
• Wernigerode Armorial is a Bavarian roll of arms from around 1486–1492, containing 524 pages, 477 of which are shown with anywhere from one to thirty coats of arms (most of these have four coats of arms each).
• Stemmario Trivulziano is a Milanese roll of the second half of the 15th century, containing approximately 2,000 coats. It currently resides at Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milan, Italy. It shows the family arms and those of linked families such as Brandolini, Savelli, Colonna, Orsini, Scaligeri, Este and Gonzaga. Also included are the arms of the German merchant-bankers Fugger.
• Scheiblersches Wappenbuch, around 1450–1480, 624 coats of arms.
• Armorial of Conrad Grünenberg, Constance (1483), some 2,000 coats of arms.
• St. Gallen armorial, 1466–1470, 338 pages with some 200 coats of arms
• Eichstätt armorial, 1474–1478, 351 pages with some 2,000 coats of arms
• Palatine armorial, around 1460, 200 pages with 1,080 coats of arms.
• Heroldsbuch des Jülicher Hubertus-Ordens (1480), 130 pages with some 1,000 coats of arms
• Leipzig armorial, around 1450s, 96 pages with 602 coats of arms.
• Miltenberg armorial, late 15th century, 85 pages with around 1,700 coats of arms.
• Berlin armorial, around 1470, 254 pages with around 900 coats of arms
• Innsbruck armorial, around 1460s, 157 pages with 408 coats of arms.
• Gerold Edlibach's armorial of Zürich, 1490s.

Spanish

• The Book of Knowledge of All Kingdoms (Libro del Conosçimiento de todos los rregnos) of around 1385 goes beyond the scope of a mere armorial, being a make-believe travel book, giving an account of the geography of the known world, identifying all lands, kings, lords and their symbols. The book's main purpose is still that of an armorial, but made in the style of the travel books popularised by Marco Polo and John Mandeville.
• Armorial de la Cofradia di Santiago (Book of the Knights of the Brotherhood of Santiago), continuously updated from the order's start in 1338 into the 17th century.

Early Modern

• Livro do Armeiro-Mor is a Portuguese official roll from 1509, made by João do Cró, Portugal King of Arms. It includes almost 400 real and make-believe coats of arms, including those of the Nine Worthies, of the states of Europe, Africa and Asia, of the electors of the Holy Roman Emperor, of the pairs of France, of members of the Portuguese royal family and of the other noble families of Portugal.
• Livro da Nobreza a Perfeiçam das Armas is a Portuguese official roll from around 1521–1541, made by António Godinho, secretary of the King John III of Portugal. It follows the model of the Livro do Armeiro-Mor, being its update, but leaving out the parts on the Nine Worthies, the electors of the Emperor and the pairs of France.
• Virgil Solis' Wappenbüchlein (1555), coats of arms of the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire.
• Fojnica Armorial is an early modern (16th or 17th century) Balkan roll of arms, containing 139 coats of arms.
• Korenić-Neorić Armorial (1595 copy of the slightly older, around 1590, Ohmućević Armorial), an "Illyrianist" armorial of the Balkans; the Belgrade Armorial II is an early 17th-century copy.
• Siebmachers Wappenbuch is a general roll of arms of the Holy Roman Empire, made by Johann Siebmacher around 1605.
• Thesouro da Nobreza is a general Portuguese roll, made by Francisco Coelho, India King of Arms, in 1675. It includes the real and make-believe arms of the 12 tribes of Israel, of the Nine Worthies, of the Romans, of the pairs of France, of the electors of the Empire, of the horse and regular orders of Portugal, of some cities of the overseas parts of Portugal, of the cities and main towns of Portugal, of the Kings and Queens of Portugal, of the dukes and marquises of Portugal, of the counts of Portugal and of the families.
• Armorial général de France, made for Louis XIV of France, by Charles René d'Hozier (1696), with 125,807 coats of arms.
• Tractat d'Armoria (16 to 17th century, not finished), by Jaume Ramon Vila, priest and leader of the church of Barcelona, and picture expert. Four books with Catalan coats of arms, but also history, for example related to the finding of America, with some information that differs from the current history books.
• Stemmatografia is a book containing various coats of arms from Illyria, with their descriptions in poems, made by Pavao Ritter Vitezović, 1701
• The Gore Roll by Boston paint leader John Gore is the earliest known American armorial, 1750s

Modern

Further information: Ordinary of arms § Modern ordinaries

• Burke's General Armory: "The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales; Comprising a Record of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time," by Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms was published in London in 1884. This roll includes a list of all known symbols ever used in the British Isles.
• J. Siebmacher's großes Wappenbuch (continuing the early modern Siebmachers Wappenbuch), edited by Otto Titan v. Hefner, Heyer v. Rosenfeld, A. M. Hildebrandt, G. A. Seyler, M. Gritzner and others, 7 volumes (1854–1967); vol. 1: National coats of arms and national flags, church leaders' arms, work-related coats of arms, university arms; vols. 2–3: nobility of Germany and Prussia; vol. 4: nobility of Austria-Hungary; vol. 5: family coats of arms (Germany and Switzerland); vol. 6: lost nobility of the Holy Roman Empire; vol. 7: extra volume.
• Armorial Général by Jean-Baptiste Rietstap, two volumes (1884, 1887), more than 100,000 coats of arms with pan-European range.
• Roll of Arms by the Committee on Heraldry of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (1914)
• Armorial of Little Russia (Малороссїйскїй гербовникъ, 1914): Ukrainian (Little Russian) family coats of arms within the Russian Empire.
• Georges Dansaert, Nouvel armorial belge, ancien et moderne, précédé de l'art héraldique et ses diverses applications, Brussels : Éditions J. Moorthamers, 1949.
• International Register of Arms, formerly Burke's Peerage & Gentry International Register of Arms_, an international roll of arms on the internet and published in book form sometimes (3 volumes so far).
• Armorial héraldique vivante, in: Le Parchemin, Genealogical and Heraldic Office of Belgium, 2003.
• Jean-Paul Springael, Armoiries de personnes physiques et d'association familiale en communauté française, edited by the office of Patrimoine culturel
• Carnet Mondain
• État présent de la noblesse belge
• Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada: A digital roll of the arms, flags, banners, and other picture designs given by the Canadian Heraldic Authority