Modern French shield

Diagram of a Samnite shield.

quartered in saltire silver and black

The shield samnitic, also called Modern French shield, appears in the 16th c. is a shield of rectangular shape whose lower corners are rounded as arcs of a circle with a radius of half module. According to some authors it is normally 8 modules high and 7 wide, as the tournament shield, while others report a height of 9 modules and width of 7. The center of the lower side is provided with a tip formed by two arcs of a circle of radius also of the middle module. This shield is also frequently used in heraldry Spanish along with the Spanish shield: some authors, such as the Marquis of Avilés, reported the proportion of a height of 6 modules to 5 modules wide for standard Spanish. The Samnite shield has also been adopted as the official support civic heraldry and Italian military and in this case its official size is 9 × 7.

Bibliography

• Lorenzo Caratti di Valfrei, Araldica, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori, 2003, ISBN 978-88-04-41105-5.
• Giacomo Bascapè, Marcello Del Piazzo, Insegni e simboli. Araldica pubblica e privata medievale e moderna, Roma, Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, 2009, ISBN 88-7125-159-8.