ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3063 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3063 ************************************ ************************************************* * * * NOTE: Later research turned up additional * * information relevant to this report. * * See the end of the letter for details. * * * ************************************************* 29 Jul 2005 From: Gunnvor Silfraharr Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our help choosing a northern German name from 1300 or later including and a byname that means "scribe", "illuminator". You also asked for help in designing arms appropriate for your period. Here is what we found. In our period, there wasn't a uniform German language, but rather a collection of dialects that varied from one region to the next. These dialects fall into two major groups: Low German in the north and High German in the south, including Austria and Switzerland. Some names were used only in one region (and therefore only in one dialect) or another; other names were used in all dialects but spelled or pronounced differently in each dialect. Therefore, your choice of name may depend on exactly what part of Germany you want to re-create. Since you are interested in northern Germany, we will focus on Low German names [1]. We have researched the name for previous clients. It was originally a Norse name, , which first appears in northern Germany in 1293 in the form . (The slash represents an acute accent on the preceding letter.) For details, see our reports http://www.s-gabriel.org/2155 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2519 The typical Low German form of this name is , pronounced \AY-rik\. In general, doesn't seem to have been common in northern Germany until well after 1600. In the 14th c., the name was likely to have been largely confined to the north and to appear mostly as ; the spelling would be a deliberate attempt to "High-Germanize" the name. We found a few northern German examples in your period: 1293 at Lu"beck [2, 3] 1320 in Mecklenburg [2, 3] 1377-1426; three counts (Grafen) bore this name [2, 3, 4] 1357-1422; three dukes (Herzo"ge) had this name [2, 3, 4] 1456 at Greifswald (on the coast of the Baltic Sea just about due south of the island of Ru"gen) [5] The spellings of the first four names shown here may either be normalized or taken from High German sources, or they might have been deliberately "High Germanized" for some other reason; the spelling doesn't reflect what we'd expect to see in a Low German name. The represents an o-umlaut, while is used to represent u-umlaut. We found several bynames describing various types of scribes and illuminators, but unfortunately almost all of them are High German forms of words that may or may not even have had Low German counterparts. The principal exception is Low German "writer, scribe", corresponding to High German . The earliest documents show a preference for the Latin forms and (feminine ), as in the citations 1250, 1272 [6]. Subsequently we see such Low German examples as and a man known only by the byname , both from 1496, as well as such High German examples as 1404 and 1495 [7,8,9]. We looked for other Low German bynames that might have been used for a scribe or illuminator, but we found only one likely possibility, the term "dyer, painter". Our Low German sources are a bit limited, but we did manage to find two northern instances of this byname in your period, in 1307 and in 1559 [10, 11]. High German had a few more choices. In High German, a writer of official documents might be termed ; we found one example, , in 1548 [12]. Another High German byname related to the profession of the scribe is "feather-quill", used as a byname for the scribe in 1281, near Stuttgart [13]. An illuminator could be called , "painter"; for example 1284, 1291 [14]. In 1495 we found the names , , and , and one instance of with no given name [8]. Note that {sz} represents a single letter, an s-z ligature called ess-tzet, which you can see at: http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-documents/details.html#diac We cannot say how likely it is that any of these would have been found in northern Germany in your period; if the northern provenance is important to you, we recommend sticking with or , either of which would be a fine choice for northern Germany in the later 15th or 16th century. You also mentioned that you were interested in designing arms appropriate for your period. Probably the best way to go about this is for you to look at examples of German coats of arms from your period, and to select motifs and designs similar to those in use then. The Zurich Roll of Arms (ca. 1340) is a good source. You can find photographs of the arms from the Zurich Roll online at: http://ladyivanor.knownworldweb.com/zroaen0.htm http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ZurichRoll/ Another excellent source is available in print only: Siebmacher, Johann, _Johann Siebmachers Wappenbuch von 1605_, 2 vols., ed. Horst Appuhn (Dortmund: Harenberg, 1988, 1989). After you have reviewed these sources, please write us again and let us know what motifs or designs appealed to you, and we can give you further assistance in designing your own arms. I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Juliana de Luna, and Alzbeta Michalik. For the Academy, Gunnvor Silfraharr 29 July 2005 ----------------------------------------------------- References [1] German Dialects 2 with Dialect Map. (WWW: About.com, 2005). http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa051898.htm [2] Bahlow, Hans. _Deutsches Namenlexikon: Familien- und Vornamen nach Ursprung und Sinn erklaert_. (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag. 1985, 1990). S.n. . [3] We're not sure whether the in these names in the original source had Low German , High German , or an abbreviation from which the vowel can't be inferred, like plain or with nasal stroke. [4] We're not sure to what extent the dynastic examples are documentary and to what extent there may be some normalization. [5] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann. _Etymologisches Woerterbuch der deutschen Familiennamen_. (Limburg a. d. Lahn, C.A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-1960). S.n. . [6] Brechenmacher, op. cit. [see note 4, above] s.nn. , . [7] Schwarz, Ernst. _Sudetendeutsche Familiennamen aus vorhussitischer Zeit_. (Koeln: Boehlau Verlag, 1957). S.n. . [8] Schmid, Peter. _Der Deutsche Orden und die Reichssteuer des Gemeinen Pfennigs von 1495: Die Grundherrschaft des Deutschen Ordens im Reich an der Wende vom 15. zum 16 Jahrhundert_. (Neustadt: Degener in Kommission, 2000.) [9] Engel, Franz. _Die Mecklenburgischen Kaiserbederegister von 1496_. Mitteldeutsche Forschungen 56 (Koeln: Boehlau Verlag, 1968). pp. 58, 245. [10] Bahlow, op. cit. [see note 2, above] s.n. . [11] Brechenmacher, op. cit. [see note 4, above] s.n. . [12] Brechenmacher, op. cit. [see note 4, above] s.n. . [13] Brechenmacher, op. cit. [see note 4, above] s.n. . [14] Brechenmacher, op. cit. [see note 4, above] s.n. . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Correction, Aryanhwy, March 2006: Added footnotes to examples of and . Correction, Aryanhwy, August 2007: Corrected footnote for citation of .