[According to Ashworth P. Burke, "a right to bear arms is the true criterion of nobility, and thus heraldry is an indispensable auxiliary to the genealogist." Only a small fraction of the huge number of books written about heraldry are included here, with emphasis on the best basic sources, the most inclusive and exhaustive compilations, the most accurate and useful ready-reference tools, the best-produced visual works, . . . and a few titles on odd subtopics which I never can resist recommending to inquirers.]

Boutell, Charles. Boutell's Heraldry. Revised by J.P. Brooke-Little. New York: Frederick Warner, 1983. [originally published 1891]

Probably the most popular general text on the subject, and with good reason. From the first appearance of Boutell's Manual of Heraldry in 1863, through the dozen or more revisions and complete rewrites that followed, its purpose always has been to provide clearly written, up-to-date information on (primarily) the British system of heraldry for the general reader. Relatively nontechnical, considering the subject, and there is a sampling of many subordinate topics: the history of heraldry, definitions and specialized terminology, the visual art of armory, differencing and cadency, the crest and motto, royal heraldry and orders of knighthood, and "recent trends and developments." Well-illustrated, too, with numerous color plates.

Burke, John Bernard. The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales: Comprising a Registry of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time. London: Burke's Peerage, 1884 edition (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1967).

The 1884 edition (the last one) includes more than 60,000 blazons of English, Scots, Welsh, and Irish arms. There are no illustrations, except for the royal family and incidental examples in the glossary of heraldic terminology. The Armory is a straightforward reference work which assumes the reader's ability to convert standardized text into a mental image, but this could not otherwise have been squeezed into only 1,185 double-column pages! The perfect companion to Burke's Peerage and Burke's Landed Gentry. Not cheap, but still a bargain.

Dennys, Rodney. The Heraldic Imagination. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1975.

A well-produced, lavishly illustrated, and yet very informative volume on the artistic aspects of heraldry and how European styles and symbolisms affected British armory. Especially interesting are the discussion of "attributed" arms, such as those of Christ and King Arthur; apparently, it was unthinkable to medieval heralds that gentlemen of such significance and rank should not be assigned official arms.

Elvin, Charles N. Elvin's Handbook of Mottoes. 2d edition. Revised with Supplement and Index by R. Pinches. London: Heraldry Today, 1971. [originally published 1860]

Since a motto is not usually an integral part of a Grant of Arms, it can be adopted or changed at will –– nor need one even possess arms to adopt a motto. These were collected not only from peerages and county histories, but from bookplates, the doors of carriages, plaques in churches, and other sources. One of my favorites is Latet anguis in herba, "The snake lurks in the grass," adopted by the Anguish family.

Fairbairn, James. Fairbairn's Crests of the Families of Great Britain & Ireland. 2v. Revised edition. New York: Heraldic Publishing Co, 1911 (New York: Bonanza Books, 1986, in 1v.). [originally published 1800]

Volume 1 is an alphabetical index by family name to the crests illustrated in Volume 2. The crest which appears above the shield in most arms often tells its own story about events in the family's history and is worth paying attention to. Also useful is the extensive list of mottoes, with translations (but see Elvin, above).

Hasler, Charles. The Royal Arms, Its Graphic and Decorative Development. London: Jupiter Books, 1980.

To quote from the Introduction, this book "is not primarily concerned with heraldry were that so, two dozen illustrations would have sufficed. But to do full justice in terms of graphics, two thousand might not be too many . . . to demonstrate the infinite variety of treatments which are possible still. . . ." The royal achievement, throughout its evolution from the three lions (or are they leopards?) of Richard I, has been painted on shields and on vellum, inscribed in brass and cast in iron, carved in giant marble blocks and on hanging pub signs, woven into tapestries and worked in petit-point, incised in glass and printed on stationery, and, most recently, stamped out in nearly abstract form on polystyrene containers by those holding Royal Appointments. The exquisite and sometimes radical interpretations of many artists may be found here. The royal arms and supporters have been rendered in humorous but friendly style and they have been lampooned and caricatured in decidedly unfriendly fashion. A truly beautiful and enlightening art book, of which only one serious complaint may be made: It includes not a single illustration in color!

Humphrey-Smith, Cecil. Anglo-Norman Armory. Canterbury: Family History, 1973.

Beginning as a lecture on the "Heralds' Roll" or "Fitzwilliam Roll," an armorial which dates from the 13th century, this became a book-length combination genealogy and armory of several hundred of the most prominent Norman families who settled in England, with arms for about 700 individuals. A technical but very informative study, with many photographs of the original document.

Le Févre, Jean. A European Armorial: An Armorial of Knights of the Golden Fleece and 15th Century Europe. (Edited by Rosemary Pinches and Anthony Wood) London: Heraldry Today, 1971.

The 15th century armorial reproduced here (not in color, unfortunately) comprises a series of 53 striking equestrian figures in full tournament heraldic dress. The boldly drawn figures, most of them sovereigns and great nobles, are highly stylized, to emphasize the herald's art. Heraldry was still evolving at this time, and works of this kind were creating the precedents still followed today.

Louda, Jiri. Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1981.

A great book for armchair browsing and background reading. The information in the charts is unexceptional, but they are accompanied by full-color blazons.

Palliser, Bury (Mrs.). Historic Devices, Badges, and War-Cries. London: Sampson Low, 1870 (Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1971). [available in a microform edition]

In addition to formal heraldry, many noble families and individuals through history have adopted informal, personal visual emblems and symbolic phrases and mottoes. Ferdinand "the Catholic" of Spain employed the Gordian Knot cleft with a sword to symbolize his conquest of Moorish Granada and the motto Tanto mounta ("Tantamount") to indicate his assumed equality with his queen, Isabella (a notion which the Castilians never admitted). The book brims with addictive miscellanea and minutiae of history at the personal level. Feuds, jealousy, and ambition from all corners of Europe are represented . . . and more than a few puzzles, such as the unknown symbolism behind the device of "an elephant looking at the moon in adoration."

Parker, James. A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry. New edition. Oxford: James Parker & Co., 1894 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1970).

If you don't know the difference between "masculy" and "lozengy," or if you can't envision a "gilly-flower," this is the book for you. Besides the more than 600 pages of alphabetical, often illustrated listings, Parker includes a complete synoptical table of principal terms, logically and systematically arranged. It's also easy to become absorbed in the longer articles on heraldic oddities like the "Collar of SS" and the putative arms of Prester John.

Paul, James Balfour. An Ordinary of Arms Contained in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland. 2d edition Edinburgh: W. Green & Sons, 1903.

If you have an illustration or text description of Scottish arms and no idea to whom they belong, this is an excellent place to start. Graphic features chevron, fess, greyhound, Maltese cross, mullet are arranged alphabetically, with more than 5,500 separate contexts described and pertinent individuals noted. And there's a complete name and rank index.

Pinches, J. H. & R. V. The Royal Heraldry of England. London: Heraldry Today, 1974.

The sovereign arms of dominion have long ceased to be "personal" arms, and this is, surprisingly, the first comprehensive book on the subject. Whether you're interested in Queen Victoria of in the blazons of the sons of John of Gaunt, all are covered in detail and most are illustrated, some in color. Three dozen genealogical charts help the reader follow the circuitous succession and the changes in dynasties which caused graphic changes in the royal arms. A great weekend read, as well as a very useful reference tool.

Rietstap, Johannes B. Armorial General. 2v. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1904-26 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1967).

Rolland, V. & H. V. Supplement to Rietstap's Armorial General. 2d edition. 9v. London: Heraldry Today, 1969.

Rolland, V. & H. V. Illustrations to the Armorial General. 6v. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1903-26.

Rietstap's intention was to compile the blazons of every armorial family in Europe, from Brittany and Dorset to Utrecht and Transylvania, and he made an excellent start before his death, though he ventured the opinion that the labor involved would be too great to complete it. Many, many names appear in his work that previously were collected nowhere else.

The father-and-son team of the Rollands took twenty-three years to complete the monumental work (the Supplement), which eventually included more than 100,000 distinct blazons. The six volumes of illustrations were intended to make life easier for those to whom formal heraldic language was as foreign as the French in which Rietstap wrote his descriptions. For uncommon names, and especially for non-English names, Rietstap and all the supplementary volumes to his original work often can provide a jumping-off point the discovery that, somewhere in the past, a family in which you're interested was important enough to be entitled to coat-armor.

Siebmacher, Johann J. Siebmacher's Grosses und Allgemeines Wappenbuch . . .Vermehrten Auglage. . . . 137v. (total). Nürnberg: Von Bauer & Raspe, 1890-1901. [available in a microform edition]

Imagine a treasure trove hidden somewhere in a huge hedge-maze and you may begin to appreciate the forbidding but enticing vastness of Siebmacher's "Great and Universal" work. First, there's the "Alte Siebmacher," covering the period 1605-1806 in 37 volumes; then there's the "Neue Siebmacher," for the period 1854-1961, in 100 volumes. Arrangement by series and volume is geographical, but the "General-Index" usually will get you to the right place, as well as providing a detailed explanation and plan of the multiple, overlapping series within the two main divisions.

Nearly 15,000 families are included, in relatively short series, from the earliest reliably documented history (around the 10th or 11th century for most of the German states) to the present. Cross-references are numerous and one can build up quite a network of interconnected influential families. About half of each volume is text, with heavy reliance on standard abbreviations; the second half is a complete armorial of the families described. A difficult source to use, but with perseverance and a modest command of genealogical German, one may discover the details of relationships, titles and offices held, military activities, and political and familial alliances from a time many centuries earlier than one would have thought possible.

Wagner, Anthony. Heralds of England: A History of the Office and College of Arms. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1967.

Wagner, late Garter Principal King-of-Arms, was unarguably the most knowledgeable man in his profession in this century. This very detailed history of the origins and duties of the medieval herald, the court of chivalry, the often eccentric personalities of the later heralds and their effects on the orders of knighthood (Knights of the Garter very nearly became hereditary in the 18th century, for instance), and the problematic role of the herald in the 20th century, is a surprisingly engrossing social history of Britain from a peculiar viewpoint. Wagner also was noted for a certain drollery in his narrative that may catch the reader off-guard.

[NOTE: For broader coverage of the same and related topics, see Wagner's Heralds and Heraldry in the Middle Ages: An Inquiry into the Growth of the Armorial Function of Heralds (London: Oxford University Press, 1939).]

Wagner, Anthony. Historic Heraldry of Britain. London: Oxford University Press, 1939 (London: Phillimore & Co., 1972).

The College of Arms commissioned a series of 142 modeled and painted panels and shields in connection with the New York World's Fair of 1939, which were presented to the United States at the outbreak of the war. Most eventually went into storage at the Smithsonian until their resurrection in this volume on heraldic art. All are illustrated, described, and put into historical context, and they range in time from Simon de Montfort and Richard, earl of Pembroke ("Strongbow"), through Cromwell and John Milton, to Cecil Rhodes and Ernest Rutherford.

Williamson, David. Debrett's Guide to Heraldry and Regalia. London: Headline Book Publishing, 1992.

This very attractive volume, suitable for a small coffee table, is a happy combination of very informative text and lush color plates. The first third of the book is a concise history of the origins and rules of heraldry and blazoning, together with a useful discussion of the College of Arms and of notable heralds and kings of arms of the past (including a glossary of terminology). The second section comprises a detailed description of royal regalia in England and Scotland, and on the Continent, noting artistic traditions and the whereabouts of surviving crowns and scepters (including a list of the dates and places of all English coronations). Much of this information may be conveniently found nowhere else. A fascinating work.

Woodcock, Thomas & John Martin Robinson. The Oxford Guide to Heraldry. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

An excellent introduction to the subject by the Somerset Herald. Chapters cover the origins and evolution of the herald's art, the marshalling of arms, the technical aspects of blazoning, and even the proper decorative use of heraldry. The emphasis, naturally, is on Britain, but Europe and the United States are included as well. Very nicely illustrated, too, with a thick section of color plates. Another nice gift book.

Please direct comments and inquiries to: Michael K. Smith
©1997-2001 Michael K. Smith / Updated: 4/01/2001