Vair ancient

Blazon of the Albero lineage of Aragon.

Vair ancient.

Escudo de veros antiguos.

Illuminated and with a glass finish.

It can be consulted in [Cadenas y Vicent, V. de; 1987; page 62].

[Friar, S.; 1987; pages 157-158] says of the veros: «originates from the fur of a species of squirrel... which was popular in the Middle Ages as a lining for the garments of those not entitled to wear ermine. The animal was blue-grey on the back and white underneath. By sewing a number of these pelts together, with white and blue-grey alternating,... one which easily translated into the stylized armorial form of Vair and its variants».

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Blazon keywords: Vair ancient.

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

Classification: Interpreted, Lineage and Coat of arms.

Gules, a cross vair ancient.

Escudo de gules, una cruz de veros antiguos.

Coat of arms that I have interpreted as follows: the shield has a semicircular (round) base; the field is in flat tincture of Gules; the ancient vair, rounded or of the old form, which are always Argent and Azure, are illuminated and outlined in Sable; and the whole of the hereditary coat of arms has a raised-stroke drawing.

Este escudo puede encontrarse en el libro del propio [Argote de Molina, G.; 1588; páginas 14 y 168], en la página 14 en grande, con cimera y rodeado de otros escudos de menor tamaño y en la página 168 de menor tamaño, con yelmo y lambrequines. En ambos casos el trazado de los veros es antiguo, redondeados, y en estas interpretaciones así los he reflejado.

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Blazon keywords: Without divisions, Gules, Argent, Azure, Cross and Vair ancient.

Style keywords: Freehand, Illuminated and Outlined in sable.

Classification: Interpreted, Personal, Coat of arms and Heraldry and heralds.

Bearer: Argote de Molina, Gonzalo.

Gules, a cross vair ancient.

Escudo de gules, una cruz de veros antiguos.

Coat of arms that I have interpreted as follows: the shield has a semicircular (round) base; the field is in flat tincture of Gules; the vair ancient, rounded in the old style, are outlined in Sable and illuminated; and the whole has a raised-stroke drawing.

The coat of arms of the commune of Bailleul is very similar to this coat of arms, with the difference that it is of regular vair instead of ancient, rounded vair, like that borne by Gonzalo Argote de Molina.

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Blazon keywords: Without divisions, Gules, Argent, Azure, Cross and Vair ancient.

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

Classification: Interpreted, Personal, Coat of arms and Heraldry and heralds.

Bearer: Argote de Molina, Gonzalo.

Juan Mogrovejo de la Cerda, «Árbol de los Veras compuesto por Alonso López de Haro, Criado de Su Majestad y Ministro de su Real Consejo de las Órdenes y Cronista de los Reinos de Castilla y León», bound in original parchment, Milan, 1636.

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Contents

The book contains a total of 66 main genealogical trees, each with an average of 28 nodes/persons, totaling over 1700 nodes. Additionally, it includes 41 lines of descent with approximately 1150 individuals. The content is composed of:

• Title page with the coat of arms of the Veras.
• Errata and additions.
• Dedication.
• Warnings and introduction by Juan Mogrovejo de la Cerda, folios 1 to 4.
• Tree of the Veras, folios 6 to 66, with 61 genealogical trees.
• Eulogies of five Christian princes known for their virtue and valor, with trees of their descendants up to the Count of La Roca, folios 67 to 72.
• Linear trees of descent from Don Fernando Carlos Antonio de Vera, Doña María Antonia de Vera y Tovar, and Doña Catalina de Vera, folios 73 to 114, with 41 trees.
• Limitations of the work on folio 115.
• Indexes with handwritten corrections, folios 116 to 122.
• Additions to the edition, including a genealogical tree of Don Luis Francisco de la Cerda Sandobal y Rojas, Marqués de Alcalá.
• Additional handwritten documents attached but not bound.

In the previous image, The canting arms of Juan Antonio de Vera y Zúñiga, Count of La Roca, in this book about his genealogy, are canting because «vair~veros~Vera».

The motto in the beak of his sable eagle is «Veritas Vincit», although some authors claim that not all his trees honor this motto [Vera-Ortiz, J.A.; 2009].

The colored version of the coat of arms in this image was painted by me. Blazon: Vair ancient, a bordure gules charged with eight saltires couped Or.

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Bibliographical reference of century XVII.

Classification: De bibliotheca, In black and white and Castilian language.

The author is Mogrovejo de la Cerda, Juan.

Here are the articles quoting this reference:

• Vera, lineage of Aragon
• Vera-Ortiz, J.A.; 2009

External resource:

• National Librari of Spain, Vera's tree.

Internal resources: Physical book..

Quarterly: 1 and 4 Gules, a castle triple-towered Or, port and windows Azure, and masoned Sable; 2 and 3 vair ancient.

Escudo cuartelado: 1^o y 4^o de gules, un castillo de oro, aclarado de azur, mazonado de sable; 2^o y 3^o de veros antiguos.

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

Coat of arms of the municipality of Monroy, Caceres, emblazoned by me with vair ancient. I have painted it using vair ancient, as I wish to illustrate with this coat of arms a reflection on the Virgin of the Sagrario of Plasencia, Caceres, dating from the mid-13th century, and on the forty-four coats of arms made of gilded silver sheet that adorn it, featuring lions, castles, and rounded vair ~ vair ancient, these may be associated with the lords of Monroy, a lineage of considerable importance in the town of Plasencia during the Late Middle Ages, can be seen in The Virgin of the Sagrario of Plasencia and the Monroy vair.

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Blazon keywords: Gules, Or, Azure, Sable, One, Quarterly, Castle, Triple-towered, Port and windows, Masoned and Vair ancient.

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

Classification: Civic, Interpreted, Boa and Coat of arms.

Bearer: Monroy, municipality of.

There are identification processes that take years or months, and others in which, almost immediately, the elements fall into place. In this specific case, the identification was surprisingly rapid, largely thanks to the exceptional quality of the photographic material.

When Dr. Germán Corcho Sánchez consulted me about the small coats of arms that appear repeatedly on the image of the Virgin of the Sagrario in the Cathedral of Plasencia, a work from the second half of the thirteenth century, covered with gilded silver, the visual documentation he provided proved decisive. His photographs, of extraordinary sharpness and detail, made it possible to clearly observe shields barely a centimetre and a half wide, punched and retouched with repoussé engraving tools.

Two of the shields raised no doubts for anyone in Plasencia: the castle of Castile and the lion of León. The third had been attributed either to Plasencia or to Segovia, the latter, I understand, because the shield may appear to depict the arches of an aqueduct. And it was this one, the third, about which Dr. Germán Corcho Sánchez was asking me.

My proposal was to interpret it as a vair fur, and in this case, that of the Monroy vair, whose ancestral seat is located in the municipality of Monroy.

My reasoning was that the arms of Castile functioned as the common element linking the quartered arms of Castile and León and the quartered arms of Castile and the Monroy vair, hence the sequence visible in the photographs: vair, castle, lion, vair, Castile, León,... as shown in the following visual composition, in which I combine the arms of Castile and León and those of the Monroy lineage with the excellent photographs by Dr. Germán Corcho Sánchez of the Virgin of the Sagrario of Plasencia.

On the other hand, the influence of the Monroy in Plasencia was such that the presence of their coat of arms on the Virgin’s mantle is coherent and perfectly contextualisable within medieval Plasencia. But sometimes I think that the speed with which the pieces fell into place may not be due solely to that, but rather to the fact that, as a child, from a pastureland near the Tagus, the silhouette of the castle of Belvís de Monroy formed a habitual part of my horizon.

I would like to expressly thank Dr. Germán Corcho for his generosity in citing my interpretation on his page dedicated to the Virgin of the Sagrario of Plasencia on his website dedicated to the coat of arms of Plasencia.

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Categories: Identification, Collage, Photographic and Vair ancient.

Blazon of the Vera lineage of Aragon.

Vair ancient, a bordure gules charged with eight saltires couped Or.

Escudo de veros antiguos, una bordura de Gules cargada de ocho sotueres cortados de oro.

Illuminated and with a glass finish.

It can be consulted in [Mogrovejo de la Cerda, J.; 1636; cover].

[Friar, S.; 1987; pages 156-157] says of the vair: «originates from the fur of a species of squirrel... which was popular in the Middle Ages as a lining for the garments of those not entitled to wear ermine. The animal was blue-grey on the back and white underneath. By sewing a number of these pelts together, with white and blue-grey alternating,... one which easily translated into the stylized armorial form of Vair and its variants».

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Blazon keywords: Vair ancient, One, Bordure, Gules, Charged, Eight, Saltire, Party per fess and Or.

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

Classification: Interpreted, Lineage and Coat of arms.