The Grünenberg Wappenpuch : Some Corrections

Extract

The following are some identifications that eluded the editors of the 1875 edition. This fine armorial is not widely known to English readers; for with few exceptions its contents are exclusively continental, and in the great majority German, arms. Its compiler was a wealthy amateur armorist of the fifteenth century, of the Patriciate of the city of Constance, in which he discharged several important offices of the municipality. He was also a considerable traveller, and made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, leaving an illustrated account of it. The armorial, which he completed in 1483, is the work of a joyous and accomplished heraldic draughtsman, with a great facility for design and the fertile invention of damascening patterns. Conrad Grünenberg sets out all his coats as complete achievements, with helmet, crest, and mantling in colour. They number over two thousand, and constitute the fullest and best-executed epitome of German heraldry of his time. But he was omnivorous for coat-armour and scavenged widely throughout the medieval world for his collection, from Scandinavia to Africa, from Ireland to Russia, and beyond to the East and to lands of fable.