Heraldry
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Heraldry. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the art and science of genealogy and of armorial bearings. In military affairs, the herald was an officer sent as a messenger by a sovereign or a general to one in equal authority--a sort of military ambassador. The costume of a herald was emblazoned with the armorial bearings of his master. None other might wear it. He was expected to conduct himself with dignity as befitted the representative of a sovereign. Whatever his message he must be allowed to depart in peace. In the medieval ages the herald was a man of character, an authority on all such questions as genealogy, rank, official precedence, courts of arms, emblems, flags, etc. The science of heraldry included the badges and emblems on shields, helmets, and banners. In England, as early as 1483, the science of heraldry was committed to the Herald's College, or College of Arms, at London. In Scotland the corresponding institution was the Lyon Court. None might display a family crest, device, or figure without permission from the authorities. The marking of the kite-shaped escutcheon or shield with armorial bearings was a matter of gravest concern. The materials were gold or silver. Five colors were in use,--red, blue, black, green, and purple. They were known in heraldry as gules, azure, sable, vert, and purpure. Each had its special significance. The various combinations of lines and points are too numerous to mention, and too intricate for the understanding of other than a specialist. "The knights in the early days of heraldry ransacked the animal, the vegetable, and mineral kingdom, as well as the range of things natural and artificial, for cognizance which would be distinctive and at the same time suggestive of the name and title of the bearer of them." The lion, leopard, bear, boar, bull, and stag in various positions were employed. Of birds, the eagle, the martin, the pelican, the swan, the falcon, the raven, the parrot, and the peacock were adopted. The scallop shell was significant of a pilgrim. The dolphin, the griffin, dragon, unicorn, basilisk, and even the harpy, appeared in coats of arms. Prominent in badges were the sun, moon, and stars. Even prosaic objects, such as helmets, buckles, horseshoes, swords, arrows, staves, spurs, water bags, and trumpets were employed as devices. The rose, tin foil, various leaves, sheaves of corn, trees torn up by the root, and especially the fleur-de-lis, were adopted as family emblems. If the distinction between ermine and vair, bend and bend sinister, St. Andrew's cross and cross maltese, sejant and couchant seem trivial, it may be said in reply that, while such matters belong peculiarly to people of leisure, they are quite as intellectual and much more artistic than the advertising devices on which the present day civilization spends so much time and money. See Tabard
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
properly the knowledge of the whole multifarious duties devolving on a herald; in the more restricted sense it is the science of armorial bearings. The rules of heraldry differ somewhat in different countries, but the general principles are the same. In English heraldry, arms are divisible into three classes: Arms of states, of communities or corporations, and of persons and families. All these classes of arms are displayed on a shield or escutcheon. There is no prescribed form for the shield. The shields of maids and widows are in the form of a lozenge. The face of the shield, on which the arms are blazoned, is technically called the field.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The institutions the 1910 Aiton's entry names are all still in business: the College of Arms in London, founded by royal charter in 1484, and Scotland's Lyon Court, whose Lord Lyon remains a judge with real power to prosecute unauthorised users of arms. English enforcement is another matter — the Court of Chivalry, which polices arms south of the border, sat in 1954 in the Manchester Palace of Varieties case for the first time since 1737, and has not sat since. The main additions are institutional and geographical rather than technical: the Canadian Heraldic Authority was created in 1988, giving a former dominion its own grants of arms, and the lozenge that Collier's assigned to "maids and widows" in 1921 has given way in several jurisdictions to shields for women. The blazon itself — gules, azure, sable, vert, purpure, bend sinister, sejant and couchant — is unchanged, and Aiton's tart comparison with modern advertising devices still lands.
Written for this edition, 2026.