Open Access

Steen Clemmensen

• A number of german late medieval armorials belong to the Bodensee group, named after their region of manufacture. Strictly speaking, they do not make up a series of copies, but they share a number of features. All include many marker coats-of-arms, i.e. combinations of legends and figures-of-arms unlikely to have been invented independently. Some are curious mistakes of actual arms, but most belong to the imaginary arms attributed to non-christian realms or to names from literature. Some armorials include segments of ternionen (three best of each), notably the Nine Worthies, quaternionen (the Pillars of the Empire), and / or organize parts of the german nobility by their membership of tournament societies. Woodblocks were used for prestamping the outlines of shields, helmets and manteling, and several were reused for different armorials. It is likely that part of the sources used wasere older collations owned by or readily accessible to the artisans responsible. Except for short fragments copying was rarely used, but pick-and-mix would be the favoured approach, though by which guiding principles still need to b e clarified.