This drip goes hard! Do you agree?

It’s from the Hyghalmen Roll, a roll of arms made in 15th-century Cologne, Germany.

What is a roll of arms, anyway? Let’s find out while we look at more examples.

A roll of arms, or an armorial, is a manuscript that shows lists of coats of arms, sometimes hundreds of them.

Here is another example from the Hyghalmen Roll.

Coats of arms were used in heraldry to differentiate noble families, events, guilds, and other associations from each other. The roll of arms was like a dictionary for these coats of arms.

This is from the early 15th-century Beyeren Armorial.

They’re like a dictionary because they also show the name of the person or association that bears the coats of arms.

And they were used far as into the early modern period, as seen by this early 18th-century roll of arms of the Drapery Court of Brussels.

And rolls of arms are still used to this day, especially by heraldic institutions and enthusiasts. For example roll-of-arms.com lists the modern coats of arms for countries around the world.

Artists who specialize in heraldry are still commissioned to create family coats of arms today.

For example, this coat of arms was recently drawn by John F. Mueller for someone with the surname Baldwin.

Here is a roll of arms showing the heraldry of medieval Europe.

Which one is your favorite?

But what are they for? Today, medieval rolls of arms are still used by historians to trace back lineage, and in their time they were often used by heralds to record the achievements and bearings of noble men. In most traditions, only a “king of arms”, however, had authority to grant armorial bearings.

This is Thomas Hawley, who was made Norroy King of Arms in 1534.

Heraldry was a highly regulated business with dedicated colleges in every kingdom. It’s the duty of officers of arms to correct unauthorized armorial bearings. There is even a law of arms that gives people, I’m not joking, the right to bear arms!

In Denmark, today, it’s still a criminal offence to wear unauthorized armorial bearings.

This is a roll of arms from Ireland.

And here is a Swedish roll of arms.

I hope you found this information interesting!