Image: Harleian Ms2169 St Mihell arms colorized

Description: Reproduction of heraldic arms attributed to St. Michael (the archangel) in a ca. mid-15th century manuscript of "Aunciant Coates", ms. Harley 2169 from the Harleian collection of the British Library (sometimes also known as "Randle Holme's Book"). The caption at top reads: "Sent Myhell Armys" (i.e. St. Michael's Arms). For the other text in the shield, see article Shield of the Trinity. In the original illustration, the colors were heraldically "tricked" (i.e. white and blue colors were indicated by text labels argent and aswre). In this version of the image the text labels were removed and colors were applied (for an uncolorized version, see Image:Harleian_Ms2169_St_Mihell_arms_tricked_original.gif ). This is blazoned as "Azure, with the device of the Trinity in silver" in article "A Fifteenth Century Book of Arms (Illustrated)", in the journal The Ancestor, issue 3 (October 1902), p. 206. Also, it is blazoned as "Azure, the device of the Trinity argent, inscribed sable" in Two Tudor Books of Arms: Harleian Mss. Nos. 2169 & 6163, with Nine Hundred Illustrations. / A Tudor Book Of Arms: Tricked by Robert Cooke, being Harleian Manuscript No. 2169, Blasoned by Joseph Foster, Hon. M.A. Oxon. See also the discussion on page 95 of The Heraldic Imagination by Rodney Dennys (1975). In the book in Heraldry: Sources, Symbols, and Meaning by Ottfried Neubecker (1976), this coat of arms is incorrectly attributed to a Bishop of York. The Shield of the Trinity diagram on a red shield (rather than blue) was considered to be the coat of arms of God (or of the Trinity) in 15th-century England and France.
Title: Harleian Ms2169 St Mihell arms colorized
Credit: From scan of book Two Tudor books of arms; Harleian Mss. nos. 2169 and 6163 by Joseph Foster (1844-1905) at https://archive.org/details/twotudorbooksofa00fostuoft (specific URL https://archive.org/stream/twotudorbooksofa00fostuoft#page/12/mode/2up ) which is in turn reproduction of 15th-century manuscript illustration.
Author: 15th century scribe, Internet Archive scanner; colorization by AnonMoos
Permission: PD-OLD-100; PD-ART; PD-SELF
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No