Annotated bibliography of readings related to Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and Family History

This article is related to Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and Family History in Shakespeare's England, one of the Exhibitions at the Folger.

This brief annotated bibliography of readings related to Symbols of Honor is not meant to be comprehensive but to provide a variety of resources about heraldry. Titles are listed alphabetically.

Foster, Joseph. Grantees of Arms Named in Docquets and Patents to the End of the Seventeenth Century. Edited by W.H. Rylands. London: Harleian Soc., 1915).
If a coat is not one that was inherited from before 1530—there is just one scholarly listing to identify a particular person’s coat of arms from this period.
Folger Call number: CS410 .H3 v.66
Heralds and Heraldry in Shakespeare’s England. Edited by Nigel Ramsay. Donington, Lincolnshire: Shaun Tyas, 2014.
This is a lavishly illustrated collection of essays about most of the main themes of the show, ranging from the heralds themselves to grants of arms, heraldic visitations and heraldic funerals, as well as the place of heraldry in the work of different Elizabethan and Jacobean writers.
Folger Call number: CR1615 .H47 2014
Hope, William H. St John , A Grammar of English Heraldry, 2nd ed., revised by A.R. Wagner. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1953.
For the rules or 'grammar' of heraldry, however, it is still necessary to look here. The little book is pithy and to the point.
Folger Call number: CR1612 .H7 1953
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by H.C.G. Matthew and B. Harrison, 60 vols. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Many biographies of individual heralds of the period are included in this dictionary.
Folger Call number: DA28.D4 O95 2004
Wagner, Anthony. English Genealogy, 3rd ed. Phillimore, 1983.
This book looks at the sources and interpretation of English genealogical materials. It is scholarly and yet highly readable.
Folger Call number for 1st ed, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960: CS414 .W3
Folger Call number for 2nd ed, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972: CS414 .W3 1972
Wagner, Anthony. Heralds of England: a history of the Office and College of Arms London: H. M. Stationery Off., 1967.
Wagner also wrote a very full account of the English heralds, their achievements and the dissensions that at times came close to wrecking the College of Arms. A high quality reprint, 1970, is available from the College of Arms.
Folger Call number: CR185.G7 W27
Woodcock, Thomas and John Martin Robinson, Oxford Guide to Heraldry. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
The best general introduction to English heraldry. Thomas Woodcock is today Garter King of Arms and thus principal herald at the College of Arms in London. Like Wagner's English Genealogy, it is scholarly and yet highly readable.
Folger Call number: CR492 .W7