Sicily Herald and the Blazon of Colours (Renaissance Colour Symbolism I)

‘Sicily Herald and the Blazon of Colours’ brings together the original texts with original English translations of two closely related primary sources on Renaissance colour symbolism. ‘Le Blason de toutes armes et éscutz’ (The blazon of all arms and shields) was completed about 1420 by Jean Courtois (c. 1375-1436), the Sicily Herald, and printed in Paris in 1495. The second, ‘Le Blason des couleurs en armes, livrées, et devises’ (The blazon of colours in arms, liveries and devices), by Gilles Corrozet (1510-68), was published in Paris in 1527. Together they offer the most valuable existing record of the colour symbolism of early Renaissance. They were first two books on colour to be printed in Europe, and are now available in English for the first time in five centuries.