As to Frenchmen generally, they seem now to attach little importance to heraldry, and few literary men place arms on their book-plates. In fact, as M. Henri Bouchot observes: “Le blason à fait son temps, il ne se rencontre plus guère que dans les travaux des héraldistes et détonne un peu en ce moment.”
As a simple guide to French heraldic terms may be mentioned: “Traité Complet de la Science du Blason,” par Jouffroy D’Eschavannes. Edouard Rouveyre, rue des Saints Pères, Paris, 1880. This contains an excellent “Dictionnaire des Termes de Blason.”
Heraldically interesting is the ex-libris of the library of the Château du Verdier de Vauprivas, French King of Arms, with the old war-cry of the Bourbons, Mont-Joye St. Denis! and the owner’s motto, “Fear no Evil.”
“Clisson assura sa Majesté du gain de la bataille, le roi lui repondit: Connestable, Dieu le veeulle, nous irons donc avant au nom de Dieu et de Sainct Denis.”—Vulson de la Colombière.
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY EXAMPLES. FROM 1574 TO 1650.
The French shields of this first period are almost invariably square in form, slightly curved at the bottom. As a rule, on early plates the supporters hold the shield upright on a base which rises on each side, or occasionally on a mosaic platform, on the squares of which are emblazoned the principal charges of the shield. This latter decoration, although exceedingly rich in appearance, seems to have fallen rapidly into disuse after 1650. At first the metals and colours are irregularly emblazoned, next they are indicated by the initials of their names, and finally (after 1638) are shown on the present system, although, it must be admitted, that on early plates the tinctures cannot invariably be relied on. French engravers, having the love of beauty more strongly developed than the desire for strict heraldic accuracy, often introduced shading in such a manner as to make it difficult to discriminate between heraldic and non-heraldic lines in their work. Prior to 1638 it was not unusual to “trick” the arms, by placing on them the initials of their metals or colours, as “o.” for or, “ar.” for argent, “g.” for gueules, etc.; whereas soon after the publication of the “Tesseræ gentilitiæ” of Father Sylvestre Petra Sancta, it became the custom to employ dots and lines in conventional forms to indicate colours, metals, and furs in heraldic engravings, in the simple but effective manner which is still employed. Of the early plates, many are of large size, suitable for the folio volumes which then formed the bulk of all libraries. The ex-libris of Lyons are especially notable for their magnitude, as, for example, that of Claude Ruffier.