A heraldic clan (''ród herbowy''), in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, comprised all the noble ('' szlachta'') bearers of the same

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 ...

. The members of a heraldic clan were not necessarily linked by

consanguinity Consanguinity ("blood relation", from Latin '' consanguinitas'') is the characteristic of having a kinship with another person (being descended from a common ancestor). Many jurisdictions have laws prohibiting people who are related by blood fr ...

. The concept was unique to Polish heraldry.

History

The Polish word ''herb'' derives from the German ''Erbe'', "inheritance" or "heritage", and denotes a

. Unrelated families could be granted the same

and thus become co-armigers sharing the same ''herb''. Bearers of the same coat of arms were variously called ''herbowni'', ''współherbowni'' (co-armorials), or ''klejnotni'', from ''klejnot'', "jewel". The numbers of such individual families often reached several dozen; several hundred were not uncommon. The heraldic-family tradition constitutes one of the hypotheses about the origins of the Polish nobility: the unique feature of Polish heraldry being the practice of inducting unrelated families into the same coat of arms, sometimes with minor variations of

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

. In time, all those families were integrated into the Polish nobility, the '' szlachta''. The number of families within a particular "heraldic family" varied over time and could be affected by heraldic adoption. Entire noble classes from other nations, for example from Lithuania, were incorporated by adoption—granted an '' indygenat''—into the Polish nobility and its heraldic system. Removal from the heraldic system was also possible, by '' vituperatio nobilitatis'', a legal procedure for revocation of nobility. Polish coats of arms have their individual names, usually stemming from the heraldic clan's ancient seat or battle cry; or from the way the arms were depicted "

canting arms Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus. French heralds used the term (), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial all ...

". The battle-cry derivation of many Polish heraldic family names has given rise to the now outdated term "''proclamatio'' arms", referring to the names' hortatory nature. From the 17th to the 20th centuries, belonging to a distinguished house and a shared armorial lineage mattered to members of the ''szlachta''. That is why most modern Polish armorials are arranged by clan names, rather than by their respective family arms, as was the case with 16th-century armorials.Paprocki - http://literat.ug.edu.pl/grafika/herby.htm

References

{{reflist Polish heraldry Clans

History

See also

References