Another Good Heraldic Research Site Found

From a link in an article entitled “A Call to Arms! Heraldry in Renaissance Florence (And a Mystery You Can Help Solve)” by Bryan Keene in the The Getty Iris, the on-line magazine of the J. Paul Getty Museum came a discussion of heraldry in general, and a link to a really great site for Italian arms in Tuscany.

Ceramelli Papiani, blasoni delle famiglie toscane descritte nella Raccolta Ceramelli Papiani

The Ceramelli Papiani Collection, a collection of Tuscan heraldry by Henry Ceramelli Papiani (1896-1976), and now kept in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, is now available on-line.  The project created a database of blazons and emblazons of the coats of arms of Tuscan families, drawn from various archives of Archivio di Stato di Firenze and other Tuscan Archives, many also accompanied by an  account, where possible, of historical and/or genealogical information.  The digitized database can be browsed by surname or searched by surname the blazon of any portion of the shield (in Italian, e.g., bandato, not bendy).

Unfortunately, the site is not letting me see the images of the arms. I get an error message telling me that I am “forbidden;” I assume that’s because I’m entering the site from the U.S.  Still, I can get to the blazons, and can use the site’s heraldic dictionary (or the copy I have of di Valfrei’s Dizionario di Araldica) to help determine what the arms look like.

Yes, I’ve already added the link to this website (http://www.archiviodistato.firenze.it/ceramellipapiani2/index.php?page=Home) under “Some Good On-Line Armorials and Ordinaries” in the left-hand column of this blog (as well as to the Favorites bar in my web browser).