Ordinary of arms

An ordinary of arms (or simply an ordinary) is a roll or register of coats of arms arranged systematically by design, with coats featuring the same principal elements (geometrical ordinaries and charges) grouped together. The purpose of an ordinary is to facilitate the identification of the owner of a coat of arms from visual evidence alone.

Ordinaries may take a form which is either graphic (consisting of a series of painted or drawn images of shields) or written (consisting of blazons – verbal descriptions – of the coats). Most medieval and early modern manuscript ordinaries were graphic, whereas all the principal modern published ordinaries have been written. A knowledge of the technicalities of blazon is essential for the student hoping to make best use of a written ordinary.

By extension, ordinaries may also be compiled of other elements of heraldic display, such as crests, supporters or badges.

Although ordinaries of arms have been compiled since the 14th century, the actual term seems to have come into use only in the 18th century. The earliest clear attestation is found in Edmondson's Complete Body of Heraldry of 1780.

The ordinary appears to have been an English development of the 14th century. No medieval ordinaries are known from continental Europe.

Medieval English ordinaries include "Cooke's Ordinary", compiled in c.1340 (644 coats), "Cotgrave's Ordinary", also of c.1340 but in blazon (556 coats), and the larger "Thomas Jenyns' Book", compiled in c.1398 (1,595 coats). These three are all related, and perhaps derive from a lost progenitor. An independent work is "William Jenyns' Ordinary", compiled in c.1360 (1,612 coats).

In the early 16th century, Thomas Wriothesley, Garter King of Arms, planned a comprehensive painted roll and ordinary of all English arms: this was not completed, but parts of the ordinary survive in what is now known as "Prince Arthur's Book" of c.1520. In the second half of the century, Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, drew on a wide range of medieval sources to compile "Glover's Ordinary", the fullest and most authoritative ordinary to date. This was assembled in its first form in 1584, and contained some 15,000 coats. At the beginning of the 17th century, Augustine Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant and later Windsor Herald, compiled "Vincent's Ordinary", also of about 15,000 shields, drawn in trick.

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