12. The art of heraldry, in truth, like every thing else of nature or of art, did not all at once spring up to perfec tion. Its beginning long preceded its universal practice, and its scientific arrangement. The ancient figures on shields, and military ensigns, were the first dawnings of the art. It may be said to have made its first regular appear ance in the world at the times of the tournaments ; and in all likelihood attained its utmost pet fection in the period immediately following these military exercises. The name of Bla zon which has always been given to this art, the form of the oldest escutcheons, the metals, the principal figures and divisions of the shield, the etests, the wreaths, the mantles, and the mottos of heraldry, all conspire to prove the general position, that the first practice of the art took place on occasion of the tournaments of chivalry, tBla cen is a German word, signifiying to blow the horn ; and the reason why this name has been given to the description of armorial ensigns is, that anciently those who presented themselves aohe lists of the tournament were announced by the sounding of the horn. The heralds, after having ascertained the nobility of those who offered themselves, blew the trumpet, in order to warn the marshals and their assistants, and then blazoned the arms of the aspirants ; that is to say, that, after sounding the trumpet, they proclaimed with a loud voice the bearings of their shields. The Rimes du tournay de Chavency, (which took place in the year 1285,) written by Jacques Bretex, furnish an example of this usage.
Comment qu'il soil ne coi qu'il couste Si (pier as autrcs (peon luy doigne Lams of eerier Chardoigne Et pals Vianne a cc's licraux, Garcons glatir, huicr ribaux Chevaux sonnir, &c.
In all the descriptions of jousts which Olivier de la Marche gives us, and in all those of the old romances, it is always expressly mentioned, that " les trom penes cornerent et furent faits les cris accoutumez." In describing the " Joustes de Parbre d'or," he says, " si tost que Mondit Seigneur le Due fut sur les mugs fut apporte he Blazon de M. le Prince ('Orange neveu de It Comic d'Ar mignac, et apres fut alle guerre par le }scant et par le Nan) ; fut par le geant presente, aux dames et le .Aftain swum sa trompe." When the tournament was at an end, it was a common thing for the knights to hang up their arms and these horns in some church ; and many still remain (or at least did within a century ) attach. ed to the great altars in the churches of Wirtsbeig, Ratis bonne, Mayence, and Cologne, as Nlenestrier informs us, who saw them himself, and says that they were siiewn by ignorant people, who understood nothing of their true na ture, and contented themselves with asserting that they had belonged to Orlando, or come of the other heroes of the court of Charlemagne.
When any combatant had once made his appearance at these tournaments, which seem to have been originally held every three or four years in Germany, it was no long er necessary for him to make any proof of his nobility, this having been already sufficiently recognised, and blazoned ; that is to say', announced by sound of trumpet by the he ralds of the lists. The persons who had attained this dis tniction commonly carried two trumpets by way of crest, in order to mark that they were gentlemen, recognised and blazoned ; and thus when the bearings of shields began to be more fixed than before, many families retained these crests of trumpets. Helmets adorned in this manner are called by Dlugossius and Simon Askols ki Galen Hastiludiales, that is, helmets of tournament. (See Plate CCXCI. Fig. 1.) Many authors, indeed, explain these trumpet figures to be the trunks of elephants. But if there could remain any doubt on the subject, it would be removed by observing that those who still retain these crests, are the very families whose names occur in the an cient .tournaments, as those of Bavaria, Saxony, Branden burgh, Lutzelstein, Mecklenburgh, Swartzenberg, Die.
Lobl, Noppen, Talheim, Romersheim, Ece.
To blazon, by a gradual transition, came among the French who had borrowed it from Germany, to signify every sort of desctiption. Thus Jacques de Fouilloux, in his book on hunting, which he presented to Charles IX. makes in four lines what he calls the" Blason du lievre." Lievre je suis de petite stature, &c.
Favin uses it as synonymous with "to praise," page 439. "Les habitans disent pour blasonner leur ville, Zee." But we elsewhere meet with it taken in 7nalam flartem, as in the Chronicle of Louis the first Duke of Bourbon, where he is said, in conferring the order of the crown on his knights, to have ordered them to honour the ladies, and not to per mit any one to speak ill of them—" blasonner et mesdire." The word has the same significations among the Spaniards, who make it signify still farther glory itself ; as in Rodri go Mendez Sylva Poblacion, page 7. " Sivra sobre todo de Blazon, aver procreado al memorable cavalier° Qui nonez." Nothing can be more simple than the analogy by which all these meanings are derived from the primitive blasen. Nor is it at all to be wondered at, that the French should have borrowed this term of art from Germany, since it was in that country that the first regular tournaments were held by order of henry the Fowler, who was either the original institutor, or at least the restorer, of these and many other exercises for the young nobility of his empire.
13. The form of the ancient escutcheons is a second proof of this origin of armorial ensigns ; for they are always represented as lying on the one side, and tied up by small strings, exactly as the shields of the jousters were attach ed to the lists, or to the neighbouring houses, which they called " fake fenestre." They are so represented in the celebrated " Tournay de la Garthuse," in the National Li brary at Paris. They are also hollowed out on the right side for the reception of the lance, as may be seen in all the old monuments of the churches in Germany and Italy. From the tournaments, in like manner, is derived the cus-' tom of joining the shield and the helmet, to compose the complete armorial bearings; because they were so arranged in some cloister or public place a few days before the jousts, that the ladies might have an opportunity of seeing them. All these observations are verified by the curious treatise of Rene of Anjou, King of Sicily, which is printed in the Miroir de Ia Noblesse, by M. ,Vulson de Ia Colombiere. " All you princes, lords, barons, knights, and esquires, who intend to tilt at this tournament, ye are ordained to lodge yourselves in the city four days before the tournament, to make display of your armories, on pain of not being receiv ed at the said tournament; and your arms shall be thus. The crest shall be placed on a plate of copper large enough to contain the whole summit of the helmet, Wand the said plate shall be covered with a mantle, whereon shall be blazoned the arms of him who shall bear it; and on the said mantle, at the top thereof, shall the crest be placed, and around it shall be a wreath of colours, whatsoever it shall please him." 66 Moreover, when all the helmets are set in order after this fashion, then shall all the ladies come, and the damsels, and the lords, knights, and esquires, who shall visit them in their order, from the beginning to the end. And the judges who shall be there shall lead the ladies three or four turns, to see them well, and to examine the crests ; and the herald shall set forth unto the ladies to whom this ensign pertained], and to whom that ; and if there be any one which belonged) to any reviler of the la dies, the ladies shall touch his crest, and on the morrow it shall be sent away, and he shall have no tilting at this tour nament. Traite de la forme et manier des tournois a Nais ance, &c. Miroir, p. 56.