A few more armorials online (Mandragore database)
Paris, BnF ms français 2692, fol. 4v-5r. http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre?O=COMP-1&I=3&M=imageseule
The Mandragore database of the Bibliothèque national in Paris (http://mandragore.bnf.fr/jsp/rechercheExperte.jsp) allows one to search images of the BnF’s illuminated manuscripts. Unsurprisingly perhaps, this also brings to light a rather larger number of heraldic images (some 10,000 images are tagged ‘armoiries’) and at least a few armorials: 18 manuscripts in the database have been described as armorials (i.e. have the word ‘armorial’ in the modern title). Here’s a list:
Also, while not an armorial, René d’Anjou’s famous Livre des tournois is always worth looking at, even if it is only an imcomplete set of pictures in low resolution (sart at http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre?O=COMP-1&I=1&M=imageseule or search for mss français 2692 and 2695).
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Christof Rolker (November 2, 2017). A few more armorials online (Mandragore database). Heraldica Nova. Retrieved August 10, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/pi11
Accidentally coming back to this articles almost a decade later, a quick comment: the old Mandragore database had its flaws, as Torsten rightly pointed out, and some of them persist; but some have been mended since 2022. Also, not so much Gallica but Biblissima has replaced Mandragore; apparently, in the course of making Mandragore and (many) other databases interoperable, they came up with a new ontology and, importantly, integrated the Mandragore decriptors in the authority file (i.e. the Biblissima database) so you can now search Mandragore via the Biblissima Portail. As far as arms are concerned, one now has considerably fewer hits for “armoiries” but thanks to the interoperability, quickly can go from the individual image to the entry on the manuscript itself and hence often the digital copy of the whole codex. Also, all entries have identifiers now
Thanks for the list, they are always a good start for surveys -and one should go to Gallica for actual verification. In any case 7 of the manuscripts are of knights of the Round Table as published by Michel Pastoureau (BA ms.5024; BnF fr.1435-1438, fr.12597, fr.14357) and fr.24381 is the Le Jouvencel. It could be interesting to look at the remaining ones.
Yes, Mandragore is very old and old-fashioned, and indeed there are (by now) often better scans around – though Gallica has its own problems with metadata, of course. And yes, full manuscripts, and yes, links to individual images but no, no permalinks.
All in all, I assume and indeed hope that Mandragore will be replaced, but still see it as useful.
Thank you, Christof, for this new blogpost. Does Mandragore also provide persistent links? And do they feature images of the whole manuscript? By the way, I think this database will be replaced, in the long term, by a new system. Mandragore dates back to the time when you had to by high resolution images, thus the low quality. It often is doubled now by Gallica. So, if you find interesting images on Mandragore, it’s worth to check Gallica for better images.