Peter O’Donoghue: York Herald (2014)

Peter O'Donoghue: York Herald, one of the Talks and Screenings at the Folger, will be held Wednesday, October 1, 2014 at 7:30pm in the Folger's Elizabethan Theatre.

Peter O'Donoghue, the York Herald of Arms in Ordinary at the College of Arms in London, speaks on Heraldry and the College of Arms.

William Smith. Alphabet or blazon of arms [manuscript]. 1597. Call number V.b.217.

Presented in conjunction with Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and Family History in Shakespeare's England (2014)—on exhibit through October 26, 2014.

The Folger is very fortunate to receive on loan from the College of Arms two draft grants of arms to John Shakespeare in October 1596, and another draft grant from 1599 in which the arms of John Shakespeare’s wife’s family, the Ardens, are impaled (shown side by side within the same shield) with the Shakespeare arms. These humble scraps of paper are among the most important documents relating to Shakespeare’s biography that are known to survive. This is the first time that they have ever left England, and we are honored that the College of Arms deemed the Folger a suitable location for their first trip abroad.