page_title: List of heraldic charges
section_title: Lettering
hierarchical_section_title: List of heraldic charges / Inanimate charges / Lettering
caption_attribution_description: Stammwappen der Augsburger Patrizierfamilie Langmantel
context_page_description: This is a list of heraldic charges. It does not cover those charges which are geometrical patterns and resemble partitions of the field; for these, see Ordinary.
  Fox-Davies in his presentation of common heraldic charges divides them into the following categories: the human figure, the heraldic lion, beasts, monsters, birds, fish, reptiles, insects, plants, and "inanimate objects".
context_section_description: Lettering in coats of arms are usually placed in the motto, not in the heraldic shield as a charge. However, a tradition of introducing individual letters as heraldic charges on the basis of acrophony originates in the 15th to 16th century, primarily in personal and municipial heraldry, and with some frequency in the modern period, appearing more often on the continent than in British heraldry where letters as charges have traditionally been discouraged. Fox-Davies (1909:281) regarding letters of the alphabet as heraldic charges:
  "Instances of these are scarcely common, but the family of Kekitmore may be adduced as bearing 'Gules, three S's or,' while Bridlington Priory had for arms 'Per pale, sable and argent, three B's countercharged.' [...] Corporate arms (in England) afford an instance of alphabetical letters in the case of the B's on the shield of Bermondsey."
  One of the earliest instances of the use of letters as heraldic charges is that of the Langenmantel family of Augsburg. Rüdiger I Langenmantel (d. 1342), one of the leading figures of the Augsburg patriciate during the first four decades of the 14th century, is the founder of the "Langenmantel vom RR" branch of the family, derived from his coat of arms showing two letters R (for his given name), shown addorsed (as mirror images).
  Religious symbolism:
  Emblem of the Trinity
  Alpha and Omega
  Chi Rho
  Christogram
caption: Langenmantel vom RR family coat of arms as shown in Siebmachers Wappenbuch (1605).
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