House of Orléans-Braganza

The house of Orléans-Braganza are descendant of princess Isabel, heiress to last Brazilian emperor, and her husband, count of Eu. They are current claimants to the Brazilian (extinct) throne.

The current coat of arms of Orléans-Braganza is that of former Empire of Brazil, with inescutcheon of house of Orléans:


On a previous post, Rodrigo Sales asked me for a remake of this coat of arms. It's the kind of creative exercise I've never done, but nonetheless I'll present two suggestions. I've used "french modern shield", because that's the escutcheon shape historically used by Brazilian nobility.

My first attempt:


It's, basically, a simplification of current coat of arms. I've removed the stars that, apart from being too busy, should be updated every time a new province was created. This design uses the room much better, and diminished the contrast-problematic clash of green and red.

It's better to design a family coat of arms with some usages in mind, like impalement, quartering and lozenge (for ladies).

Impaled	Marshalled	Lozenge

My second attempt is my favorite:


In Brazilian imperial flag, the green represents House of Braganza (emperor Peter I of Brazil), while yellow represents House of Habsburg-Lorraine (empress consort Maria Leopoldina), so it can work as genealogical arms. The inescutcheon of Orléans adds the blue and white, similar to current flag and a homage to Our Lady, patroness of Brazil.

Other usages of coat of arms:

Impaled	Marshalled	Lozenge

That inspired to make this dinastic flag:


Comments are welcome.
This post was a request. Feel free to do your request, too.

Harvard Law School (USA)

Harvard Law School, a college of Harvard University, decided to drop his former coat of arms, because it displayed prominently the family arms of Isaac Royall, the first backers of the college. The issue: Royall was a slaveholder and a slave trader, so the coat of arms was considered "racist".

This is the former coat of arms of the college:


I don't know any replacement proposal, apart from what seems to be a parody and a professor's suggestion to add "Iustitia" ("Justice") below "Veritas" ("Truth"). My proposal is not for total rupture:


I'm defacing Royall's arms with three gouttes de sang ("blood drops"), not forgetting his importance to the school, but denouncing that his wealth was gained in exchange for slave blood.

This way, it gives those black lives the credit for helping build, even though without their will, one of most prestigious law schools in the world.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
I'm an outsider here. Do you think it avoid racist connotations of former coat of arms? Or should Royall's arms be dropped completely?

Freamunde (Oporto, Portugal)

Freamunde is a freguesia of Paços de Ferreira, in Oporto district, Portugal. It's known for its Saint Sebastian and its capão (castrated, giant chicken).

In 1991, it was proposed a flag for Freamunde, containing reference to the popular motto "land of culture, labor and peace": an open book, an engine, a chimney and a peace dove. Since then, it started being flown unofficially.


As you can see, the charges of the coat of arms aren't arranged in a blazonable way, so, therefore, it can't be classified as strictly heraldic.

In 2007, the "land without blazons" gained a new, official coat of arms, that you can see on flag below:


I read reports of people that were used by former, unofficial coat of arms and complained against the new one. So I decided to fix the former to a more heraldic layout, using elements from the latter.

Here is my result:


Firstly, I decided to use the same blue and white gironny pattern from both flags. I put the book and the engine in black backgrounds, like the unofficial coat of arms. The capões are white on red background, inspired by the logo of its capões fair. On white background (the color of peace), the olive branch.

I liked the result, because I think it's a nice compromise between the two coats of arms and has a more functional layout.

Comments are welcome.
Sorry for posting thursday, I'm busy this week.

Brazil [coat of arms]

Months ago, I published, on Flags Forum, a draft for a new coat of arms of Brazil that, different of the current one, follow the heraldic practice. After some corrections and additional research, I present it to you.

The current "coat of arms":


My proposal coat of arms have some additional concepts: it's inspired by the CoA of Guyana, maybe the best in South America; while the dexter (the left side of the viewer) will have elements related strictly to Brazil, the sinister (the right side of the viewer) is related to elements inspired by Brazilian colonial past.>

From this point, I think I can present my proposal:

[click on image to enlarge]

The shield is a composition of the arms of the Kingdom of Brazil (the armillary sphere being later used by other Portuguese colonies, and by Portugal itself) with four white stars in cross, representing the Southern Cross. White stars on blue can represent a large symbology related to Brazil: the naval jack, the current coat of arms, the Order of Southern Cross in its imperial and republican versions, etc.

The coffee and tobacco branches are used in both the imperial and current coat of arms. The red lace can remember the etymology of Brasil: "of flame-color". The supporter of the dexter in a jaguar (Panthera onca), the biggest feline of the American continent (and the third of the world, after the tiger and the lion), present, for example, in the 50 reais banknote, holding a banner made of a simplified version of Brazilian flag. The sinister supporter is a green wyvern, that was used, in Portugal, as a symbol of the house of Braganza. The first emperor of Brazil, himself a member of the cited house, used golden wyverns as supporters of his arms (and in his self-named order). The dragon is holding a banner of the Order of Christ, that's generally regarded as the "first" flag of Brazil (see official timeline, in Portuguese).

The helmet and the wreath are green and yellow, the main national colors of Brazil. The crest is an indigene headdress. I didn't use any motto, because Brazil officially don't have one: the empire used Independência ou Morte ("Independence or Death"), the current flag have the Positivist-inspired writing Ordem e Progresso ("Order and Progress") often considered politically un-neutral, while the current "coat of arms" have a simple República Federativa do Brasil ("Federative Republic of Brazil") as motto.

Although I see a heraldically-correct national coat of arms as a nice idea, I don't see any problem in keeping the current arms as, for example, "presidential insignia" for historical reasons.

This is only a concept, therefore your comments, suggestions, etc. are welcome.
If you're not familiarized with basic heraldic vocabulary, this can be useful.

My personal coat of arms

One year ago, I posted a draft of my personal coat of arms [link to post]. At the time, my personal coat of arms was approximately this way:




















After many tests, I developed a design that passes on test of time, and correct under heraldic rules. It's similar to design above, but with many slight corrections. Here's an emblazonment (depiction) made by myself:

l will explain it by parts (this quick glossary can be very useful):

Escutcheon (shield): Very similar to the draft, but with different chief (superior part). I blazon it this way (other variants are possible):

Per fess Or ermined Azure and Azure, on chief a lion passant guardant Pourpre armed and langued Azure, on base a cross moline Or.

The draft contained a ultra-rare tincture (color) called Amaranth, between the pink and the purple. To avoid it being confused with Gules (red) or Pourpre (purple), I adopted the Pourpre tincture instead.

The escutcheon is round in the bottom, the most used in Iberic Peninsula and Latin America.

The lion is canting or punning ("Leo" is also an abbreviation of "Leonardo") and the lion represents many virtues in most of cultures. The cross moline represents my religion (Christianism) and is also one of the most striking heraldic charges, in my opinion. The ermine spots grants that my design is unique, as they rarely occurs.

Crest: The same lion of the shield, but in a different position, holding the cross moline of the same escutcheon. The owl was removed in name of a more homogene coat of arms. I blazon it as follow:

A demi-lion rampant guardant Pourpre langued and armed Azure, holding between the paws a cross moline Or.

Mantling and wreath (torse): Azure (blue) and Or (yellow), the main dark and light colors of my coat of arms.

Helmet: A gentleman (or commoner) coat of arms, to don't claim honors that I don't possess.

Motto: "Homines Sumus, Non Dei" (translation: We Are Men, Not God). Represents the humility, one of the virtues I value the most, and the sense that we must be strong in all situations.

Standard: A simple banner of arms. The idea is use it in more ceremonial occasions. The ratio of 4:5 seems to a gentleman.

Flag: To be used in less formal occasions. The base of the escutcheon.

I know that a golden cross moline in a blue background was used in other occasions; for example, a Lord Molyneux used it on English Civil War, although the cross had a less modern design. Where ambiguity can occur, the banner of arms can be used.

Comments, suggestions, requests are all welcome with pleasure.
Very special thanks to Paul James and Samuel McKittrick from Flags Forum, of whom without the advices and guidance my coat of arms couldn't reach such quality.

Benedict XVI as pope emeritus

The then pope emeritus Benedict XVI was the first pope to have ever resigned since 1415. A new question was arose: how should be the coat of arms of a pope emeritus?

It's the coat of arms of Benedict XVI while still pope (and possibly still in use):


The external ornaments used are on this coat of arms are:

• the St. Peter's keys, that represents the papacy (a reference to Matthew 16:19);
• the mitre, stylized to be similar to a papal tiara (affirming the fact that the pope is also a bishop);
• the pallium, because the pope is a metropolitan or primate archbishop (in this case, of the Archdiocese of Rome), and to represent the collegiality of all the bishops.

As much of the above ornaments may not be correctly attributed to a pope emeritus, a proposal by cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, the same author of the coat of arms of Benedict XVI as a pope, was saw on the media:
















I'm not particularly keen of the cardinal's design. The pallium is never used by an archbishop emeritus, and naturally shouldn't be used by a pope emeritus. Moreover, I don't think that the red chief integrates well with the rest of the the shield. Here's my proposal.



For the reason cited on previous paragraph, I don't think it's a good element to the coat of arms, with the additional reason that it doesn't combine with a round shield, that was preferred. The mitre can stay, as a consecration lasts all the life; even though the mitre is very similar to a papal tiara, it's still a mitre, and can be used as a special honor.

The papal keys are removed from the background and kept on the chief, as an honor, but, differently of cardinal's proposal, I kept the whole design in a way that could be traditional but still resembling current coat of arms. So I opted by the partition in saltire, that seems a sharp option for a now-quartered shield. The motto that was, for unknown reason, dropped from papal coat of arms can return.

Your comments are always welcome.
As religion is a very sensitive theme, I'd decided to write this post in a technical perspective. Prejudiced comments won't be allowed.
I'd like to put the motto on a scroll, but my artistic abilities didn't allow me to do so.
I like very much to write about heraldry! If this post have a good response, I'll write more about the theme.

Draft: My coat of arms

Coats of arms are a way created to represent somebody's identity, created during Middle Ages (but based in more ancient principles). They're extremely related to flags, because banner of arms, one of first types of flags, are nothing more than a rectangular representation of a coat of arms.

Currently, I'm creating my coat of arms. It's only a draft, so it might change if I like. I'm trying to make it based on heraldic rules. It looks like this, for now:

Now I'll describe my coat of arms. There's a specific language to this purpose, but I'll try to be clearer. I'll explain the elements of my coat of arms detail by detail, to be more didactic. To a fast explanation about the elements of a coat of arms, click here.

Shield: It's divided by horizontal stripes (per fess), being the first in amaranth, and the second in blue (azure).

• In the amaranth division, there's a lion in white (argent) profiled, with four legs in the floor (statant), and blue tongue and nails. I chose the lion for represent my name, Leonardo, being this canting arms.
• In blue (azure) division, a golden (or) moline cross. I chose moline cross because I use this in some web forum and other occasions, and representing my religion.

Mantling: In blue (azure) and gold (or).

Crest: A white (argent) rising owl, with blue beak and legs. I chose the owl because it represents Philosophy, one of my greatest interests.

Motto: "Homines sumus, non Dei". Translated from Latin, "We're men (humans), [we're] not God". I always thought humility is an important virtue, and I liked to set it on my personal motto. Also, my brother helped me to chose it, so it's someway special.

A potential problem I find in it is that amaranth is a rarely used tincture (color), so I might have to change it to red or purple. Basically, I said all I had to say.

Your comment is very important to me. Remember that my coat of arms is under construction, so your opinion can have influence in final result.
A little break to coat of arms... probably, next week I return with flags.