Livro do Armeiro-Mor
The Livro do Armeiro-Mor (Portuguese pronunciation: [li.vɾu du ɐɾˈmɐj.ɾu mɔɾ], Book of the Chief Armourer) is an illuminated manuscript dating back to 1509, during the reign of King Manuel I of Portugal.
The book was commissioned by King Manuel I, as can be read at the beginning of the work: Livro das Armas//que ho muyto alto//...//elrey Dom Manuell//...//mandou a my rey darmas Portuguall//juiz da nobreza que compossese e hordenasse//e nelle asentasse tadallas armas dos reys e princepes cristaãos// e asy udeus mouros e gentijos//domde primeiramente decendeo e começou a nobreza//a asy asentasse e possese todallas armas dos nobres destes reynos e senhorios cada//huuas em seu luguar proprio//...[2] It is therefore an official and normative book, resulting from the attempt of a monarch to regulate the use of heraldic arms in his kingdom: King Manuel I, through a series of fundamental legislative reforms, managed to carry out... what King John I had initiated but had failed to complete.
The Portuguese arms are arranged in descending order of importance, starting with the lineages of the old or immemorial nobility, some dating back to the time of the County of Portugal.
The most important study of the lineages presented in the Livro do Armeiro-Mor remains the work Brasões da Sala de Sintra, in three volumes, by Anselmo Braamcamp Freire.
More recently, José Augusto Sotto Mayor Pizarro published his doctoral thesis, Linhagens Medievais Portuguesas: Genealogies and Strategies 1279-1325, in three volumes, in which we can follow the path of some of these lineages during the reign of King Denis.
In total, ten beautifully illuminated pages, where each shield is presented alongside a figure, although the arms are largely fantastical.
The Empire was divided into hundreds of states of greater or lesser size; the emperor was elected by a select group of princes.
The chapter begins with a written page describing the form of election in the Empire established by the Golden Bull of 1356, which was still in effect at the time the work was executed.
Note that the first two of these four coats of arms are inverted so that the lions of both are bent before the emperor, just like the eagles of Lorraine on the opposite side (see image gallery below).
All eight illuminations in this chapter were heavily inspired by - to the point of being considered mere copies of - a page from the Nuremberg Chronicle, authored by Hartmann Schedel.
In this composition from 1493, which represents an important part of the hierarchy of the Empire, we can see the emperor in the center of his throne with figures practically identical to those of the Book of the Grand Armorial's seven Electors by his side (three on the left, four on the right), and with the same arms of four duchies at his feet, except for Bavaria, whose space is occupied by the lion of the Electorate of the Palatinate, which, like the others, bows before the emperor.
Hartmann Schedel's composition also shows, in the lower parts, twenty-four other figures and the corresponding arms of other nobles of the Empire.
For the Book of the Grand Armorial, João do Cró ignored these other minor figures and chose to represent the seven Electors and the emperor individually, thus being able to dedicate an entire page of the work to each one, without even changing their poses, attire, etc.
In this solemn ceremony, the twelve peers of France - six ecclesiastics and six laymen, six of whom held the rank of duke and six that of count - each had the responsibility to carry, present, or affix certain objects, from the crown and scepter to the royal spurs and belt.
For the relative importance of lineages at court in the 14th and 15th centuries and the fluctuations thereof, reflected in the order in which their arms are presented in the Book of the Grand Armorial, see, for example, the work of Rita Costa Gomes.
These were not, in 1509, great manorial Houses; they were lineages whose sons held minor positions at the court throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, as in the case of the Azambujas, Cogominhos, Portocarreiros, etc.
[11] Other coats of arms are personal and directly related to the Age of Discoveries, such as those of Fernão Gomes da Mina, Diogo Cão, Nicolau Coelho, etc.
