The Coat of Arms: Journal of the Heraldry Society (UK)

This month sees the issue of part 1 of Coat of Arms (CoA) 3rd series, volume 8. Founded as a quarterly in 1952, the journal now comes out twice a year and is issued to members of the Heraldry Society and to subscribing institutions. It is intended to publish original scholarly research on heraldry and allied subjects. The contents of the new issue are as follows:

• ‘Incipient Armory’ in the Bayeux Tapestry? By Michael J. Lewis.
• Names and Arms Clauses: Howard v Howard-Lawson. By Jeremy Goldsmith.
• Jewellery and men in Tudor and Jacobean England. A research report by Natasha Awais-Dean.
• Book reviews.
• Recently found artefacts of heraldic interest reported in England and Wales under the Treasure Act and the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
• Round-up of recent conferences, lectures, websites and podcasts.

Further issues are planned for later this year, with a view to completing volumes 8 (2012) and 9 (2013).

Editorial policy of the journal

The editorial policy of the journal is framed with a view to (i) extending understanding of heraldry and related topics, and (ii) bringing together the various strands of work that touch on these topics and might otherwise remain isolated. We are particularly interested in publishing papers that treat the interface between heraldry and the following areas, in any relevant period or part of the world:

• Social and intellectual history;
• Material culture;
• Law;
• Emblematics;
• Traditional and new systems of identification and display;
• Visual identity – personal, family and corporate;
• Gentry studies;
• Concepts and theories of nobility;
• Art history;
• Architecture and design;
• Communication studies.

The journal publishes full-length articles, short notes, project reports, comment pieces and reviews. Notes may be brief publications of newly discovered or reinterpreted artefacts, responses to earlier articles or notes, or points of information. Comment pieces may deal with topics such as the role and treatment of heraldry or related topics in literature, film and television, the internet and other new media. Reviews may be of books, conferences, exhibitions, journals, websites, television programmes or films.

Call for articles

We would be delighted to receive submissions for the journal from readers of Heraldica Nova, and indeed we plan to work closely together with this blog to bring recent research on heraldry and related topics to as wide an audience as possible. Submissions may be made electronically, with text and footnotes in separate files; suitable submissions will be anonymized and sent to a referee selected by the editorial committee.

For further information about the journal, please visit our new website, www.the-coat-of-arms.co.uk, where you will find full contents lists of previous issues of the journal, guidance for contributors and information on how to subscribe to the journal. Please also feel free to email the editors at coatofarms@theheraldrysociety.com, particularly to enquire about the suitability of any topic or a proposed approach.