Sinople

Representation of the siple enamel, colour and engraving.

Synopsis in the weapons of the hundred Lysing, in the Swedish province of Östergötland

In heraldry, sinople, sínople and even sinoble (from the French sinople and this name of the ancient city of Sinope) is the denomination of the color green. Among the heraldic enamels, it belongs to the group of colors, along with gules (red), azure (blue), sable (black) and purple.

History

Michel Pastoureau has observed that in the arturian romances of the 12th and 13th centuries the "green horses" are almost always irreflexive or evil characters. (Illustration of N.C. Wyeth, 1922).

One of the earliest mentions of a green shield is found in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, dating from around 1155, where this enamel is described under the name received in France at the time: vert ('green').

At the beginning of heraldry, between the 12th and 13th centuries, this enamel was the least used: the historian Michel Pastoureau found that it appeared in less than 5% of European armories. To explain this low presence of green in shields, it has been argued that until the XIII century this color had negative connotations (the Devil and his creatures, Islam, Instability); that until the end of the 14th century it was difficult to manufacture and to fix satisfactorily; or that it did not stand out against the green of the grass.

However, during the XIV century western Europe experienced a revaluation of the color green and, although this color it was never widely used in armories, by the beginning of the 15th century it was already well established within the heraldic canon.

From vert to sinople

Until the beginning of the XIV century, the term sinople was used in French literature as poetic designation of the color red. This word derived from sinope, sinopis, Latin words that in classical antiquity generally referred to red, alluding to a class of highly prized red ocher that was extracted in Cappadocia and was exported from the Anatolian port of Sinope. Even after its adoption by heraldry as meaning "green", sinople retained its literary meaning of " red" for about two more centuries.

It is unknown why the word sinople underwent this change of meaning in heraldic jargon; Pastoureau places this change between the years 1380 and 1400, or perhaps a few decades earlier. It has been suggested that French heralds changed the name of the enamel from vert to sinople due to that vert was homophonous with vair ('veros'), a heraldic lining.

In the Spanish kingdoms, it was not until the mid-15th century that the French heraldic term sinople began to be translated as green heraldic enamel, instead of red.

From red to green

Regarding the apparent absurdity of adopting the name of a red pigment to designate a green enamel, the Jesuit and heraldist Claude-François Menestrier (1631-1705), in his work L' Art du blason justifié, explains it by quoting part of the text of a handwritten pamphlet dating back to around the year 1400, which dealt with colors for painting and illustration. In his book, Menestrier copies a chapter from this pamphlet, where a pigment called sinoplum is mentioned, which —always according to the manuscript— came from the “city of Sinopoli” and was sometimes red and sometimes red. times green. This suggests that the renowned Anatolian red ocher, today's crimson red, was at one time called sinoplum, and also some kind of green pigment, likewise imported.

Conventional heraldic sinople and how to represent it through oblique lines when not available colors

Representation

The sinople is not exactly defined. Consequently, the tone and shade of green to be used to represent it is at the discretion of the heraldic artist. It is recommended, however, that green be strong and true to its nature; should not lean too much towards yellow or blue.

When colors are not available, the sinople can be represented by a very fine hatching of parallel oblique lines that go from the upper left corner of the drawing to the lower right, according to the method attributed to the Jesuit Silvestre Pietra Santa. This is the method of representation commonly seen in one ink prints.

Examples of use

Below are two notable ancient examples of the use of sinople enamel.

• To the left: the weapons of Saxony, derived from those of the ancient Dukes of Ascania. The siple crancelin probably dates from around 1200, during the formation of the Duke of Saxony-Wittenberg, and represents a crown of rude.
• To the right: the "Styria Panther", weapons of the Austrian state of Estiria, dating from 1160, when they were adopted as emblem of the Ottokar III Margrave.

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  The traditional weapons of Saxony, currently the official shield of the Free State of Saxony

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  Estiria Shield, currently still in use

Amadeo VI, Duke of Savoy (1334–1383) was nicknamed the "Green Count" because he used to wear this color. Although the colors of the Savoy arms were silver and gules, during the life of the Green Count the sinople was added to the livery of the House of Savoy. These three colors, much later, would give rise to the current flag of Italy.

Use on terraces and mountains

Among the heraldic figures, the terraces and mountains are usually of sinople, representing the color of the grass, although the rules of heraldry do not prevent them from being assigned any other color.

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  Shield of the French commune of Domfront (Orne), with a silver castle terraced with siple

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  Synopsis in the arms of the Czech municipality of Dolní Nivy (Sokolov district)

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  Shield of the municipality of Altenberg bei Linz (Alta Austria), with a mountain of three spiders

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  Mount of three spiders in the shield of Hungary

Names, attributions and meanings in disuse

Towards the beginning of the Renaissance, a system of symbolic correspondences for heraldic colors was developed that is now in disuse. It is noteworthy that around 1828 this system was considered absurd by the English heraldist William Berry, although the Spanish Francisco Piferrer, in 1858, comments on it as if it were still valid.

Although Jean Courtois, Sicilian Herald of the Kingdom of Aragon, mentions in his treatise Le blason des couleurs (1414) that any of these sinople associations can be used to emblazon, in practice it is It is possible that only the planetary system and the system of precious stones were used. For Alberto and Arturo García Caraffa (1919), the emblazoned with gems corresponded to the titles and the one with planets to the sovereigns. Arthur Fox-Davies cites an example of emblazonment with precious stones dating from 1458.

Below are some of the ancient symbolic correspondences of the sinople, as well as some of the "Greek" names attached to it.

In addition, according to Courtois, the sinople would be considered by some as the "least noble" of the heraldic colors.