Sarandeses Pérez, F.; 1966

Francisco Sarandeses Pérez, of the Institute of Asturian Studies and of the International Institute of Genealogy and Heraldry, «Heraldry of Asturian Surnames», 408 pages, black and white illustrations, 27 centimeters, includes bibliography and indexes, foreword by H.R.H. The Duke of Calabria, prologue by The Hon. Mr. Julio de Atienza, Baron of Cobos de Belchite, photographs by Mr. Jesús González-Galatea, published by the Asturian Studies Institute of the José María Quadrado Trust, Superior Center for Scientific Research, Provincial Council of Oviedo, printed by Gráficas Europa. Legal Deposit S. 137-1966, Oviedo, 1966.

Cover of the original 1966 edition reproduced in the second facsimile edition of 1994.

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Bibliographical reference of century XX.

Classification: Castilian language and In black and white.

The author is Sarandeses Pérez, Francisco.

The following article cites this bibliographic reference:

• Sarandeses Pérez, F.; 1994

Francisco Sarandeses Pérez, of the Institute of Asturian Studies and of the International Institute of Genealogy and Heraldry, «Heraldry of Asturian Surnames», 408 pages, 89 color plates, black and white illustrations, 27 centimeters, includes bibliography and indexes. prologue to the facsimile edition by Dolores Duque de Estrada Castañeda and Fernando Alós Merry del Val, facsimile edition published by the Royal Institute of Asturian Studies of the José María Quadrado Trust, Superior Center for Scientific Research, printed by Eujoa Artes Gráficas, ISBN 84-87212-26-3, Legal Deposit AS.-1.309/94, Oviedo, 1994.

Reference to the original edition of 1966

The facsimile edition faithfully reproduces the original 1966, [Sarandeses Pérez, F.; 1966], published by the Provincial Council of Oviedo, with a foreword by H.R.H. The Duke of Calabria, prologue by The Hon. Mr. Julio de Atienza, Baron of Cobos de Belchite, and photographs by Mr. Jesús González-Galatea.

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Bibliographical reference of century XX.

Classification: De bibliotheca, Castilian language and Black and white with color plates.

The author is Sarandeses Pérez, Francisco.

Internal resources: A facsimile edition as a physical book on paper.

Azure, a castle triple-towered per pale Argent and Or, masoned Sable, port and windows Azure, between in chief two bars wavy Argent, in base two bars wavy Argent.

Arms designed by me, in plain tinctures, outlined in Sable, with a semi-circular outer contour and with a texturized finishing.

The arms of Kevin Larkin from Ireland and Spain, designed and emblazoned by me. Alternative blazon using the heraldic term gemel: «Azure, a castle triple-towered per pale Argent and Or, masoned Sable, port and windows Azure, between two bars gemel wavy Argent, one in chief and one in base». Note that since there are 2 bars and both are gemel, they total the same 4 as when we describe 2 in chief and 2 in base.

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Blazon keywords: Azure, Argent, Or, One, Two, Castle, Triple-towered, Party per pale, Masoned, Port and windows, Between, In chief, Bar, Wavy, In base and Gemel.

Style keywords: Outlined in sable, Plain tincture and Semi-circular.

Classification: Personal, Created, Boa and Coat of arms.

Bearer: Larkin, Kevin.

Azure, a castle triple-towered per pale Argent and Or, masoned Sable, port and windows Azure, between in chief two bars wavy Argent, in base two bars wavy Argent.

Escudo de azur, un castillo partido de plata y oro, mazonado de sable, aclarado de azur, acompañado en jefe de dos fajas ondadas de plata, y en en punta de dos fajas ondadas de plata.

Coat of arms devised by me, highlighted with lights and shadows, outlined in Sable, with a semi-circular outer contour and with a watercolor finishing.

The arms of Kevin Larkin from Ireland and Spain, designed and emblazoned by me. Blazon in French: «D'azur à la tour partie d'argent et d'or, donjonnée de trois tourelles, maçonnée de sable, ouverte et ajourée du champ, accompagnée en chef et en pointe de deux jumelles ondées d'argent».

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Blazon keywords: Azure, Argent, Or, One, Two, Castle, Triple-towered, Party per pale, Masoned, Port and windows, Between, In chief, Bar, Wavy and In base.

Style keywords: Outlined in sable, Illuminated, Semi-circular and Watercolor.

Classification: Personal, Created, Boa and Coat of arms.

Bearer: Larkin, Kevin.

Azure, a castle triple-towered per pale Argent and Or, masoned Sable, port and windows Azure, between in chief two bars wavy Argent, in base two bars wavy Argent. Motto: «Fortificado por el Sol».

Escudo de azur, un castillo partido de plata y oro, mazonado de sable, aclarado de azur, acompañado en jefe de dos fajas ondadas de plata, y en en punta de dos fajas ondadas de plata. Lema: «Fortificado por el Sol».

Coat of arms devised by me, highlighted with lights and shadows, contoured in Sable, with a semi-circular external shape and with a leather finishing.

The arms of Kevin Larkin from Ireland and Spain, designed and emblazoned by me. In heraldry, the rule of tinctures states «no color on color, no metal on metal». This means a castle metal Argent cannot bear a castel metal Or as a charge. However, in this design, the castle is divided party per pale, vertically, into Argent and Or. This division allows both metals to coexist, as each metal occupies one side of the charge without violating the tincture rule. Similarly, in a party field, both quarters can be of the same type, either color or metal, making this design heraldically correct.

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Blazon keywords: Azure, Argent, Or, One, Two, Castle, Triple-towered, Party per pale, Masoned, Port and windows, Between, In chief, Bar, Wavy, In base and Motto.

Style keywords: Outlined in sable, Illuminated, Semi-circular and Leather.

Classification: Personal, Created, Boa and Coat of arms.

Bearer: Larkin, Kevin.

Azure, a castle triple-towered per pale Argent and Or, masoned Sable, port and windows Azure, between in chief two bars wavy Argent, in base two bars wavy Argent. Motto: «Fortificado por el Sol».

Heraldic device designed by me, illuminated with lights and shadows, contoured in Sable, with a semi-circular external shape and with a sealed finishing.

The arms of Kevin Larkin from Ireland and Spain, designed, emblazoned, and sealed by me.

Design rationale

The creation of these arms has been guided by Kevin Larkin's life journey, connecting Ballinasloe, Dublin, London, and Alicante. Drawing inspiration from the heraldry of Ballinasloe, the armiger's hometown, and Alicante, his current residence, the design reflects significant elements from both places. Ballinasloe's arms feature a triple-towered castle, symbolizing the O Ceallaigh's historic stronghold and the area's legal traditions. Similarly, Alicante's arms prominently display a triple-towered castle, making it a natural unifying element for the design. The wavy lines represent the River Suck and River Shannon in Ireland above, and the Mediterranean Sea below. Adopting a traditional Spanish style for the arms aligns with Mr. Larkin's life in Spain, embracing its rich heraldic heritage and distinctive artistic symbolism.

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Blazon keywords: Azure, Argent, Or, One, Two, Castle, Triple-towered, Party per pale, Masoned, Port and windows, Between, In chief, Bar, Wavy, In base and Motto.

Style keywords: Outlined in sable, Illuminated, Semi-circular and Sealed.

Classification: Personal, Created, Design rationale, Boa, Sealed arms and Heraldic document.

Bearer: Larkin, Kevin.

Pere Costa i Cases, «Nobiliario catalán», Library of Catalonia, call number Ms. 513 (153/1 and 153/2), manuscript, illustrated, Volume I: 443 pages; Volume II: 153 pages, Barcelona, 1701-1800.

A search process

This manuscript armorial, likely an autograph by Pere Costa i Cases, contains a compilation of lineages from the Crown of Aragon and other kingdoms. It features hand-painted coats of arms in color. Volume I includes an alphabetical index of families starting on folio 218 (modern pencil numbering), noting that the family names are in the Catalan language. The manuscript is a significant piece of 18^th-century heraldry, combining political, religious, and family armorials.

I reviewed it digitally for the first time while performing the search described below.

I was asked to find and document a Roca coat of arms corresponding to «azure, three chess rocks argent», which are canting arms.

Below is a summary of the search process illustrated with images from the «Memòria Digital de Catalunya» available under «Creative Commons» licenses.

I found online that it could refer to «...the Lords of the castle of Roca del Vallès. Year 1038. [P. Costa, ms]...».

The manuscript armorial created by Pere Costa i Cases during the 18^th century is sometimes cited as «[P. Costa, ms]».

As mentioned, this armorial is available online at the «Memòria Digital de Catalunya», MDC, «Library of Catalonia», where I searched for it.

This armorial contains political, religious, and family coats of arms, as seen in the previous image.

This armorial consists of 2 volumes; the first volume has more pages. To find Roca, I started with the first one, searching the Family Index located at the end of the first volume (the second volume has the index at the beginning). One must be careful because the pencil numbering on each page jumps backward upon reaching the index: from the last page with painted shields, numbered 430, to the first page of the index immediately following, numbered 218.

Under the letter R, I found 'Roca del Valles,' which refers to page 33, coat of arms number 69 of this armorial.

There it was, 'de la Roca,' from the castle of Roca del Valles, depicted as an «azure shield, three chess rocks argent».

I checked the following page for more information; there was another shield with three chess rocks, but it was not what I was looking for. I sent all this information to the person who requested it. This type of research can take hours, days, weeks, months, or even years, and most do not reach a conclusion; that is why I try to avoid them, though in this case, it only took a few hours.

Another search on the other side of the Pyrenees

The previous search for the «azure, three chess rocks argent» turned out to be the simplest one. The next search, considerably more complex, concerns a similar coat of arms, but located on the other side of the Pyrenees, «gules, three chess rocks argent», which is shown in the following photograph taken by Jon Sneddon in Saint-Lizier Cathedral, dating from the 11th century, with later additions, which was one of the two former co-cathedrals of the town of Saint-Lizier, in the French commune of the department of Ariège, in the region of Midi-Pyrénées.

First, I attempted to locate this coat of arms, with little confidence, in this same manuscript armorial by Pere Costa i Cases and, as expected, I found nothing.

Second, I attempted the search in the manuscript [Vincent, MS; 1285] and the closest match I found was the «gules, tres roques de armiños» ~ «Gules, three chess rooks ermine», which corresponds to Simón FitzSimon, as indicated in [Vincent, MS; 1285; coat of arms number 254]. The only possibility that this might be the same coat of arms is that the sable tails of the ermines may have been erased over the passage of time.

For this reason, I decided to repeat the search in [Rietstap, J. B.; 1861], where I found the following possibilities:

• Aux: «d'azur, à trois rocs d'échiquier d'argent».
• Bilhard: «de gueules, à trois rocs d'échiquier d'argent, 2 et 1, acc. en chef d'un lambel».
• Frescobaldi: «de gueules, à trois rocs d'échiquier d'argent, au chef d'or».
• Lembeke (van): «de gueules, à trois rocs d'échiquier d'argent, à la bande d'azur, brochant sur le tout».
• Pareil d'Esperuc: «écartelé: aux 1 et 4, de gueules, à trois rocs d'échiquier d'argent; aux 2 et 3, d'azur, à trois fasces d'or».
• Roche-Macé (de la): «de gueules, à trois rocs d'échiquier d'argent».
• Roque-Toirac (de la): «de gueules, à trois rocs d'échiquier d'argent».

Of these, the last two are the most promising, since in the literal text of [Rietstap, J. B.; 1861] they are described in the following manner; note how the region of origin is specified immediately after the family name:

• «Roche-Macé (de la) — Forez. De gu. à trois rocs d’échiquier d’arg.» in [Rietstap, J. B.; 1861; Tomo II, página 585, columna 2^a].
• «Roque-Toirac (de la) — Quercy. De gu. à trois rocs d’échiquier d’arg.» in [Rietstap, J. B.; 1861; Tomo II, página 603, columna 1^a].

The historical region of Quercy and the town of Saint-Lizier are approximately 200 kilometres apart, which is significantly shorter than the distance between Forez and Saint-Lizier, which is about 400 kilometres.

Therefore, the identification of the «gules, three chess rocks argent» would correspond to the de la Roque-Toirac family, which held the title of «seigneur de Puechmouriez et de Larroque-Toirac», and it could therefore reasonably be attributed to this lineage.

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Bibliographical reference of century XVIII.

Classification: Manuscript, Armorial roll, Castilian language and In color.

Author: Costa i Cases, Pere.

The following articles cite this bibliographic reference:

• Balaguer, municipality of
• Ermengol IX of Urgell

External links:

• Library of Catalonia, Volume I.
• Library of Catalonia, Volume II.

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Categories: Identification, Bibliography, Manuscript, Armorial roll, Castilian language, In color and Century XVIII.

External resources:

• Library of Catalonia, Volume I.
• Library of Catalonia, Volume II.

Azure, two lions passant, guardant, winged, each holding in its paws an open book Argent, with the inscription «Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus» Sable distributed on their four pages.

Escudo de azur, dos leopardos alados, teniendo cada uno en sus garras un libro abierto todo de plata, con la inscripción «Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus» de sable distribuida en sus cuatro páginas.

Arms designed by me, illuminated with lights and shadows, outlined in Sable, with an ogee outer contour and with a freehand finish.

Coat of arms of Deacon Mark Eschenlauer designed by him, Fr. Yannick Beuvelet and me, and emblazoned by me.

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Blazon keywords: Azure, Argent, Sable, Two, One, Four, Leopard, Winged, Grasping, Paw, Closed book, Book, Inscribed, Page and Motto.

Style keywords: Outlined in sable, Illuminated, Ogee and Freehand.

Classification: Religious, Created, Boa and Coat of arms.

Bearer: Eschenlauer, Marc.

Continue with: Marc Eschenlauer.