Michel Pastoureau, archiviste-paléographe, spécialiste d'héraldique, mais aussi du graphisme et des couleurs au Moyen-Age en général nous introduit à l'art du blason, apparu au XIIe siècle.
Pastoureau was born in Paris on 17 June 1947. He studied at the École Nationale des Chartes, a college for prospective archivists and librarians. After writing his 1972 thesis about heraldic bestiaries in the Middle Ages, he worked in the coins, medals and antiquities department of the French National Library until 1982. Since 1983 he has held the Chair of History of Western Symbolism (Chaire d'histoire de la symbolique occidentale) and is a director of studies at the Sorbonne's École pratique des hautes études. He is an academician of the Académie internationale d'héraldique (International Academy of Heraldry) and vice-president of the Société française d'héraldique (French Heraldry Society). When he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lausanne in 1996, he was described as an eminent scholar who has made a radical contribution to several disciplines. Professor Pastoureau has published widely, including work on the history of colours, animals, symbols, and the Knights of the Round Table. He has also written on emblems and heraldry, as well as sigillography and numismatics.
Un saggio breve e conciso, ma che è ottimo per entrare nel mondo affascinante quanto a volte nebuloso di un'arte (a tutti gli effetti) come l'araldica. Dalle radici storiche alle implicazioni sociali, dai significati reconditi dei colori sino alla simbologia tutt'ora attuale, Pastoureau ci racconta la storia delle Armi con semplicità e precisione, invogliandoci ad andare a scavare ancora di più, incuriosendo il lettore anche con brillanti paragoni con il nostro mondo contemporaneo. Forse, speravo fosse ancora più approfondito, ma come detto è uno stimolo a cercare ancora.
I knew very little about heraldry and wanted to get an idea of its broad outline, evolution, and meaning. This book gave me more than I wanted, really, but that is not a fault. The main faults are a certain dullness in the translation and images that are too small, a problem endemic in this series.
2.5 stars. I find this subject fascinating, but the text was very dry and the book hard to get through (as evidenced by the year and a half it took me to read 120 pages). Wonderful photos and illustrations.
A tiny introduction to European heraldry, with an emphasis on how it has evolved into today's symbols, logos and emblems. An interesting and short read.
Très belle introduction, dans le style de la collection Découvertes, et avec la profondeur de vue de Michel Pastoureau. Non seulement, cet opuscule nous fournit les clefs d'interprétation des blasons, mais il récapitule l'invention et l'évolution de la "science héraldique", et prolonge le sujet - audacieusement - vers la sémiotique. À la place des dix pages de glossaire, par ordre alphabétique, on aurait préféré une présentation des termes dans une structure thématique : partitions, émaux, figures... mais ceci, sans doute, pour un autre ouvrage.