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IV.—The Ghost or Shadow as a Charge in Heraldry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2011

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Extract

The charge which forms the subject of this paper is blazoned in French ombre and in Latin umbra, and one or other of these terms is used in the few cases in which the charge occurs in English blazon outside the text-books. There can be little doubt but that the word ought to be interpreted as ghost or phantom, but the compiler of The Boke of St. Albans translated it by shadow, and he was followed by Gerard Legh and sundry later writers who apparently took that word in its everyday sense. It was certainly so understood by Cornelius Gailliard, for he paraphrased it by umbrage, and I suspect that it was a like misinterpretation which inspired the de Varennes-Vulson heresy mentioned hereinafter. In the following pages I propose first to review the statements of the various English and continental armorists who mention the ombre and thereafter to consider the charge in actual use.

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Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1949

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