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The Heraldry Society of Scotland is
pleased to announce the publication of The Dunvegan Armorial in a
limited edition of only 500 copies.
This superb Armorial has rarely been
seen outside its home at Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye in the last 250
years. The last occasion was at the Glasgow Exhibition of 1911. Compiled about
1582, probably as a Royal gift, the manuscript contains the achievements of 23
Earls, 29 Lords, and the arms of 215 Gentlemen. As a bonus, a Liber Amicorum
belonging the William Shaw, Master of the King’s Works in the 1580s, containing
the arms and signatures of Foreign Ambassadors, was bound into the volume at an
early date.
All the images have been scanned and
are now published with detailed biographies of the Nobles. The Gentlemen’s Arms,
many of which were not originally identified, have now been carefully researched
and named through comparisons with many contemporary armorials. The Introduction
covers the dating, provenance and probable origins of the Armorial, the problems
of working with manuscripts of this sort, and a brief biography of Sir David
Lindsay of Rathillet (Lyon King 1567 - 1592). The appendices include a list of
the manuscripts used for the comparisons, a table of the relative ages of the
Nobles, and a detailed comparison of The Dunvegan with Rathillet’s and Hector le
Breton’s Armorials.
The volume is A4 size, with 256
pages in full colour throughout. It is bound in maroon simulated leather with
the title in gold on the spine and front cover, and the arms of the Macleod of
that Ilk and the Society in gold on the front and back covers respectively. It
is a perfect companion to the Society’s Dublin Armorial. |
