[MR] RE: heraldry

[Craig Levin]

Alfredo:

> I believe that heralds were plagued by unstable 
> pigments in the Period as well.  Consider this passage from "The book of 
> fayttes of armes and of chyualrye", translated and printed by William
> Caxton in 
> 1489.
> 
> That other coloure of armoyrie is grene that men 
> calle sinople or verte.
> 
> Outside of French heraldry, "sinople" refers to 
> the shade of *red* that you get from the red earth of Sinope in 
> Paphlagonia.

Actually, the sinople question is briefly discussed at
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/vert.htm .

Basically, the writer provides evidence that early French heralds
used vert, like their English colleagues, but switched to sinople
to make things trickier. 

Pedro