The identity of the

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...

writer Johannes de Bado Aureo is a matter of dispute. ("Vado Aureo" is a Latinized form of Guildford, in Surrey.) His work, ''Tractatus de armis'', written at the behest of the late Anne of Bohemia (died 1394), consort of Richard II, appeared first in a Latin manuscript that is conventionally dated from the wording of the dedication c.1395. It was widely circulated, and translated into English and Welsh. Its main rival among Latin tractates in the field of heraldry was ''De Officio Militari'' by Nicholas Upton (1454),Manuscripts with coloured achievements of

coats-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

are in British Library Add MS 30946, Cotton MS Nero C III, Harley MS 3504, 61060, and in College of Arms MS Sheldon 444. which treated heraldry in the larger context of the arts of war. Both works depend on the first work of heraldic jurisprudence, ''De Insigniis et Armiis'', which was written by a professor of law at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from ...

, Bartolus de Saxoferato, ( Bartolo of Sassoferrato), in the 1350s. Johannes broke with previous tradition in denying the right of a man-at-arms to assume a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

. Sir

Edward Bysshe Sir Edward Bysshe FRS (1615?–1679) was an English barrister, politician and officer of arms. He sat in the House of Commons variously between 1640 and 1679 and was Garter King of Arms during the Commonwealth period. Life Bysshe was born at S ...

published both treatises as ''Nicholai Vptoni, de Stvdio Militari, Libri Quatuor, Johan. de Bado Aureo, Tractatus de Armis'' (London, 1654). Professor Evan J. Jones, ''Medieval Heraldry: Some Fourteenth Century Heraldic Works'' (Cardiff: William Lewis, Ltd.) 1943, suggested that "Johannes de Bado Aureo" may have been Bishop Sion Trevor, an ecclesiastic who was trained in Roman law, and rose through the Church hierarchy to become Bishop of St Asaph, Wales.

Footnotes

References

C. Levin, "The Law of Arms in Medieval England"
Bado Aureo, Johannes de {{UK-writer-stub