- Jean Courtois
Jean Courtois (†1436) was a French
herald .en: Sicily Herald, fr: le Sicile heraut, it: Sicillo Araldo, la: Siculus
Jean Courtois called Sicily Herald was in the service of the king of the two Sicilies Alfonso V of Aragon. He lived for long in
Mons inHainaut in theNetherlands . At the beginning of his career, he was in the service of Pierre de Luxembourg, the count ofSaint-Pol , and then he acted in theNaples court of Alfonso of Aragon king of Sicily, Valence, Majorca, Corsica, and Sardinia, the count of Barcelona. In his work "Le Blason des Couleurs" (1414) [full title: "Le Blason des Couleurs en armes, livrées, & devises"] , Courtois developed a heraldic system consisting of the tinctures, planets andcarbuncle s, thevirtue s,metal s,month s, thezodiac , and weekdays among others. He claimed, his work was compiled with ”l'Aide de Dieu”,prince s,knight s,squire s and all his brothers, kings of arms andherald s. He was familiar with the "Etymologies" ofIsidore of Seville , and also he gave the names of the tinctures in Greek. However, his main contribution was the development of gemstone-planetaryblazon .Editions
*"Trattato dei colori nelle arme, nelle livre e nelle divise." (
Naples , manuscript in Italian). New edition, Pavia: A. Viani,1593 ).
*A french language translation: "Le blason des couleurs en armes, livres et divises" (H. Cocheris, Paris,1860 )----
Further reading
tricking (heraldry)
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