Subject: ^ That.
Author:
Posted on: 2022-01-07 08:58:26 UTC

I've managed to track down a specific link on books in heraldry, here, which talks about the Oxford University coat of arms. Combining the two, I think an open book proper is brown leather with argent pages, while an open book bound proper would mean a brown cover and require you to specify the pages. Writing is placed as a tertiary charge 'on' or 'upon' the book.

These examples show that books proper tend to be placed on argent, so yes, a bend (or maybe a pale) argent would work well for that. A good example of this sort of thing is the arms of Imperial College, London, which suggests the neatest blazon would be:

Sable, on a bend argent an open book proper inscribed with the words [whatever].

One last one: if you want to add gold leaf, Sheffield university suggests 'edged Or'.

Classically, heraldic devices were intended to be as simple as possible - the classic court case was over who could use Azure, a bend Or - any they do tend to look better when not overloaded with charges; but as far as I can tell there's no strict rule about that.

hS

Reply Return to messages