Marcus Vulson De La Colombière

Marcus Vulson de la Colombière (died 1658) or Sieur de la Colombière was a French heraldist, historian, poet and member of the royal court. His name is sometimes spelled as Wulson or Volson.

He published several highly successful books on symbols, prophecies, heraldry, dreams etc. He put together all the available knowledge and traditions associated with chivalry. In the 17th century chivalry was practically rediscovered by two genealogists in the French court: Vulson de la Colombière and Claude-François Ménestrier after its golden age (1100–1400) and the decline of chivalry, developing its idealized image. Some authors named Vulson de la de la Colombière as the inventor of hatching system of tinctures.

Life

We have only some fragmented data about Vulson de la Colombière's life: even major 19th-century biographies deliver only incomplete information. He was born in a Protestant noble family at the end of the 16th century in Dauphiné. He was a son of François, a lawyer, and Michelle Odde de Bonniot. In his youth, he fought for Henry IV. According to one story, in 1618 he went to Paris to request a pardon, after he killed his treacherous wife and her lover.

According to the title pages of his books, (see for example ''Le Vray Théâtre d´honneur et de Chevalerie'', Paris, 1648), he was a member of the parliament in Paris and the member of the Order of Saint Michael (''gentilhomme de la Chambre du Roi et Décoré de l’Ordre de Saint-Michel''). Until 1635 he was probably living in Grenoble, where he was a royal counsellor in the Dauphiné parliament (''conseiller du roi en la cour de parlement de Dauphiné''). He also published a book in the spirit of the Gallicanism in Geneva that year. (Several of the Protestant priests and students at the Geneva University were his kinsmen.) Gallicanism served as a means to express his Protestant views in opposition to Catholicism, and he presented them in a way acceptable to the state establishment.

His ideas conformed with those of the king, and so he left Grenoble and settled in Paris, where he devoted himself to the study of heraldry. According to the catalogues of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, his next book was published in Paris in 1638.

Hatching and dispute with Silvester Petra Sancta

Vulson de la Colombière had wide-ranging correspondence with the most renowned heraldists of his time. For this reason, it could perhaps be concluded that Vulson de la Colombière was right in claiming the title of the inventor of the hatching system, and accusing Silvester Petra Sancta of copying his method and incorrectly publishing it in his 1638 work, one year before the same hatching system was published by Vulson de la Colombière. On page 37 of his title ''La Science Heroïque'' (1644), Vulson de la Colombière maintains that Petra Sancta simply copied his system without any changes.He writes about this in page 38 of his book Le vray théâtre d'honneur: "''Et afin que le Lecteur se satisfasse entierement, ie luy presente les deux metaux, les cinq couleurs, & les deux pennes graués en la page suiuante, & luy fais voir l'inuention de laquelle ie me suis seruy au premier liure de blazon, que ie fis imprimer pour connoistre les metaux & les couleurs par la taille douce, laquelle a ésté imitée & practiquée par le docte Petra Sancta, au liure intitulé, Tessera gentilitia, qu'il a composé en Latin, & fait imprimer à Rome; Aupaurauant l'on se seruoit des lettres capitales des metaux, & des couleurs pour les denoter, mais cela enlaidissoit l'armoirie, & apportoit de la confusion, & tout au contraire ceste inuention remplit & ombrage les pieces bien mieux qu'elles n’estoient auant qu'on la practiquât; & contente la veuë auec plus d'agréement: Et il seroit necessaire que d'ores-en-auant tous les graueurs d'vn commún consentement se seruissent de ceste methodo, & la practiquassent inuiolablement lors qu'ils grauent des Armoiries en des lieux où l'on ne peut dechiffrer leurs blazons, ny exprimer leur émail. L'or est pointillé; l'argent est sans aucune haschure: car denotant le blanc, l'on ne sçauroit le mieux faire connoistre, qu'en n'y faisant rien du tout; l'Azur est hasché en fasce; le gueules en Pal, le Synolpe en bande, le Sable est hâché doublement, & le Pourpre en barre, les deux pennes ou fourrures sont assez connoissables par tout; Si bien que sans peine, sans enluminure, sans charger sa memoire, & sans beaucoup embarrasser son esprit, l'on pourroit connoistre l'émail de toutes les Armoiries, pourueu qu'on se rende ceste table familiere. I'ay practiqué cela dans la plus grande partie de celles qui sont grauées dans ce liure, y en ayant pourtant beaucoup, & particulierment à celles où il y a des animaux, où ie me suis contenté de faire simplement le trait, afin que ceux qui desireront de les enluminer, lepuissent faire auec moins de peine & d'incommodité''".

Philipp Jakob Spener also cites page 38 of Vulson de la Colombière's 1644 work, but not exactly the same way: "''Je lui fais voir l'invention, de laquelle je me suis seruy au premier livre de blason, que je fis imprimer, pour connoître les metaux & les couleurs par la taille douce laquelle a été imitée & pratiquée par le docte Petra Sancta: auparavant l'on se servoit des lettres capitales. Ostendi ei inventionem, quâ (an à se invenia, an aliunde mutuo sumpta,) usus eram in primo de insignibus quem edideram libro, ut metalla & colores sculptorum lineolis exprimerentur: secutus est Doct. Petra Sancta: cum prius literis initialibus uti in more esset''". (Spener, ''Insignium Theoria Seu Operis Heraldici Pars Generalis''. Frankfurt ain 1717. p. 113. irst edition, Ibid. 1690 Vulson de la Colombière also maintains that he showed to Petra Sancta his hatching system in the past. In his citation, Vulson de la Colombière also mentions the book publishers and copperplate engravers as the users of the hatching system, thus emphasizing that by using this method on the illustrations, engravers can always designate the tinctures of the copperplates in the same coherent manner. In the title of his 1639 book he directly mentions that hatching is a ''new method'' used by copperplate engravings ("suivant l'art des anciens roys d'armes... et une nouvelle méthode de cognoistre les métaux et couleurs sur la taille-douce"). The book was published by Melchior Tavernier, and the engraved fontoispiece was made by Abraham Bosse