A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

IN MEMORIES.
These, not counting the last two, are the. common received forms of /;'/,
armories, and are called the accidents or attributes of armorial figures, which they
form, and if any other be in painting or sculptures, not agreeable to those abo\c.
as being uncouth and irregular, they are called by the best French heralds clattc.
The knowledge and use of these forms of lines are necessary in this science, to
distinguish and difference many armorial bearings, who have the same partitions
and figures, which would be all one bearing, if they were not distinguished and
differenced by these attributes and accidents of lines ; as will more eminently ap-
pear in the following chapters.
A SHIELD
CHAP. VH.
OF THE PARTITION AND REPARTITION LINES IN ARMORIES.
of one of the armorial tinctures is not a complete armorial bear-
ing, as I said before, except there be more tinctures than one ;
for then a
figure will appear, though but the termination of two tinctures or more meetingtogether,
which represents a line or lines.
Lines then, which divide the shield, or field, into parts, are of two sorts. And,
First, These which divide the shield into equal parts, and cut the centre, are called
the
principal partition lines ; by some pertransient lines: Of them there are four,
parted per pale, per fesse, per bend, dexter, and sinister, called by the French,
parti, coupe, tranche, taille.
Secondly, Repartition lines, by which I understand
these which divide the shield into unequal parts> as
parti mi-coupe, and coupe
mi-
parti: But before I proceed to treat of them separately, and illustrate them by
examples, I shall give the opinion of the learnedest heralds, of their rise and use
in armories. Murk Vulson de la Columbier, in his Science Heroique, will have the
rise of the partition lines, from the strokes and cuts of swords, which military men
received in time of battle upon their shields ; and, to recompense the dangers
wherein they were known to have been by these cuts, heralds did represent these
cuts upon their shields by lines ; but for my part, L cannot conceive how these
strokes or cuts, given at random, could give rise to the regular partition lines in
armories, which are very mathematical, and regular in the shield ; and from, them
all the proper figures in heraldry have their forms and denominations ; whence
also the positions, dispositions, and situations of natural figures, have their terms in
blazons ; yea, the science depends upon the knowledge of them.
I am rather of the opinion, that the partition lines have their rise from the same
tountain with the tinctures and furrs, viz. from the habits of princes and military
men, who, of old, were clothed in the war with garments of diverse colours, parti,
'/.Y/ic% bendie barrc, &tc. Of these party-coloured garments, Favin observes, in IiN
Theatre of Honour, were the jackets, cassocks, and arming coats of the ancient
Gauls, for which he cites these words of Virgil, " Virgatis lucent sagulis." And Eri-
therus, in his Notes upon this place ot" Virgil, says, " Quasi hae quidem in Virgarum
" modum deducts?, quibus vestibus milites utuntur vulgo, striati et divisati inde
"' livria in militaribus vestibus dicta." And Mr Frecheus, in his Origin of the
Palatinate from the Boii, says, the Dukes of Bavaria have anciently borne their
KQa,patii4,bendt, argent, azure, for that they resemble the party-coloured cassocks of
the ancient Boii, who were these Gauls that attempted the surprise of Rome, and
that their party-coloured garments were white and blue, by which they were discovered
in the night-time. The Guelph. and Gibeline factions distinguished
themselves by party-coloured garments ; the first had them parted per fesse, of
two different colours, and the ether parted per pale and ; the same partitions were
in their shields of arms. Menestrier in his treatise of the Origin of Arms, is of the
opinion, that the rise of the partitions, in armories, was from those in the habits of
grout men, and of which he gives several instances a few of ; which I shall here
mention, as the ancient robes of the Consuls of Grenoble, were parti, or, and
azure ; and the garments of the officers of the city of Cambray, part;, gules and
argent ; and from these come the same partitions in their arms. The town of
Metz carries for arms parti, argent, and sable ; and Bergamo, a town in Lombardy,
carries also parti, azure, and or; the ancient habits of their magistrates be-