Author: Ferne, John (Compiler).
Title: THE BLAZON OF GENTRIE: deuided into two parts. The first named The glorie of generositie. The second, Lacyes nobilitie. Comprehending discourses of armes and of gentry. Wherein is treated of the beginning, parts, and degrees of gentlenesse, vvith her lawes: of the bearing, and blazon of cote-armors: of the lawes of armes, and of combats. Compiled by Iohn Ferne Gentleman, for the instruction of all gentlemen bearers of armes, whome and none other this worke concerneth.
Description: At London : printed by Iohn VVindet, for Toby Cooke, 1586. 1st Ed. Sm. 4to. [20], 341, [3], 130pp. 2 historiated initial letters, several decorative initial letters, decorative head and tail pieces, numerous woodcuts armorial shields, four double page genealogical charts (the first of which was a cancelland and has the cancel bound in between although initially laid down - evidence of glue stains - unfortunately the first sheet of cancelland and cancel with all together 6 holes affecting the image of the cancel, and the second cancelland with sl. marginal loss affecting the image), Signatures V. and XV lacking sm. portion to leading corner, closely trimmed to head with minor loss across head of signature R3i, light minor waterstain to fore-edge of signature Hh onwards, minor soiling to title page, light browning, contemporary calf boards with gilt rule to edges and gilt dec. motifs to corners, some surface wear and marking, edges and corners with some restoration work, rebacked in C20th calf with gilt rule edged raised bands and blind motifs with gilt lettered title label. ¶ STC (2nd ed.) 10824; Moule 34; ESTC S101914; ‘A variant of the edition with Andrew Maunsell's name in the imprint. The last leaf is blank [not present in our copy]. The half of the genealogical tree on 2D1v was printed upside-down; this was intended to be corrected by cancels of the whole tree pasted onto 2D1v-2r [as in our copy], but the cancels are often simply bound in.’ "The most complete epitome [of heraldry] then extant" (Allibone, 588). Sir John Ferne (c. 1560–1609), administrator and writer on heraldry. ‘... Admitted to the Inner Temple in 1576/7, when he was probably in his late teens, Ferne devoted much of his time to the study of heraldry, and was commissioned to compose a history of the medieval de Lacy family based on that written by a foreign adventurer called Albertus à Lasco. His patron, who claimed to be a Polish nobleman and aimed to use this work to establish a distinguished pedigree for himself, vanished within a few months, but Ferne sought to gain some benefit from his labours by publishing his researches as The Blazon of Gentrie in 1586. This work refuted à Lasco's pretensions to any relationship with the Lacys, but made much of the ancestry of the earls of Lincoln, who were among the leading landowners in Ferne's own county. However, the more significant part of the treatise comprised a debate on the nature of gentility, couched as a dialogue between a herald, a knight, a clergyman, a lawyer, an antiquary, and a ploughman. Ferne proclaimed his volume to be 'for the sole instruction of the armigerous gentry', and insisted that Christ himself was eligible to have borne arms because of his mother's descent from Shem ...’

Keywords: HISTORY; HERALDRY


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