medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The question wasn't whether heralds in general were knowledgeable but whether this one was. And it is reductive to treat "Lower-level functionaries and tradesmen with frequent business at court" as a hendiadys. I was referring to two separate categories of people who were often at court but also at least sometimes not awfully well informed (to judge from their memoirs and chronicles). In the Neapolitan context of which I spoke, heralds _were_ lower-level functionaries. As such, they were presumably just as capable of misperception as the memoirist Loise de Rosa (a court functionary) and the chronicler Melchiorre Ferraiolo (a goldsmith). And if being a chronicler is an automatic guarantor of inside knowledge and accurate reporting, I should be glad to read your proofs thereof.
Best,
John Dillon
On Thursday, August 7, 2008, at 2:06 pm, Henk 't Jong wrote:
> During the 15th c heralds were no longer required to get in by the trade
> entrance. They were diplomats, chroniclers, court judges and masters of
> ceremony.
> Yes, they were knowledgeable, but I have no idea who this herald was.
> Any
> names?
>
> Henk
>
>
> Out of curiosity, is there any reason to think this herald particularly
> knowledgeable? Lower-level functionaries and tradesmen with frequent
> business at court in late fifteenth-century Naples were quite capable
> of
> getting things wrong (even on such basic matters as official titles).
>
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