Coat of arms of Hastings, showing a partially dimidiated shield, where the front halves of the upper and lower lions are joined to the rear halves of ships. This motif features widely in the heraldry of the Cinque Ports.Horizontally dimidiated rabbit and fish, arms of the town and gmina of Prochowice, SW Poland. Horizontal dimidiations are rare, if not unknown, in English heraldry.Coat of arms of the consolidated commune of Les Andelys, dimidiated (French: Mi-parti) per pale, three droops of grapes and three castle keeps. Dimidiations are rare in French heraldry.
For a time, dimidiation preceded the method known as impalement. Whereas impalement involves placing the whole of both coats of arms side by side in the same shield, dimidiation involves placing the dexter half of one coat of arms alongside the sinister half of the other. In the case of marriage, the dexter half of the husband's arms would be placed alongside the sinister half of the wife's arms.
The practice fell out of use because the result was not always aesthetically pleasing (sometimes creating strange hybrids), and also because in some cases, it would have resulted in a shield that confusingly looked like one coat of arms rather than a combination of two. For instance, a bend combined with a bend sinister might result in a combination that simply looked like a chevron, thus hiding the fact that two coats of arms had been combined.
In order to avoid these drawbacks, it became customary to use more than half of each coat of arms when combining them through dimidiation. Once this practice had begun, the logical progression was to include the whole of both coats of arms in the new shield, so that in effect, impalement replaced dimidiation as a method of combining coats of arms.
A general rule which carries over from dimidiation to impalement is that if a coat of arms with a bordure (or tressure, orle, etc.) is impaled, the bordure should not continue down the line of impalement.
Galleryedit
Example of two coats dimidiated
The same two coats impaled
When the dexter half of a bend sinister is dimidiated with the sinister half of a bend, the result would look like a chevron
Tressure does not continue down the line of impalement
Coat of arms of Anne de Pisseleu, Countess of Penthièvre, Duchess of Étampes
See alsoedit
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dimidiation in heraldry.
dimidiation, this, article, about, heraldry, mathematical, operation, division, heraldry, dimidiation, method, marshalling, heraldically, combining, coats, arms, coat, arms, hastings, showing, partially, dimidiated, shield, where, front, halves, upper, lower, . This article is about heraldry For the mathematical operation see division by two In heraldry dimidiation is a method of marshalling heraldically combining two coats of arms Coat of arms of Hastings showing a partially dimidiated shield where the front halves of the upper and lower lions are joined to the rear halves of ships This motif features widely in the heraldry of the Cinque Ports Horizontally dimidiated rabbit and fish arms of the town and gmina of Prochowice SW Poland Horizontal dimidiations are rare if not unknown in English heraldry Coat of arms of the consolidated commune of Les Andelys dimidiated French Mi parti per pale three droops of grapes and three castle keeps Dimidiations are rare in French heraldry For a time dimidiation preceded the method known as impalement Whereas impalement involves placing the whole of both coats of arms side by side in the same shield dimidiation involves placing the dexter half of one coat of arms alongside the sinister half of the other In the case of marriage the dexter half of the husband s arms would be placed alongside the sinister half of the wife s arms The practice fell out of use because the result was not always aesthetically pleasing sometimes creating strange hybrids and also because in some cases it would have resulted in a shield that confusingly looked like one coat of arms rather than a combination of two For instance a bend combined with a bend sinister might result in a combination that simply looked like a chevron thus hiding the fact that two coats of arms had been combined In order to avoid these drawbacks it became customary to use more than half of each coat of arms when combining them through dimidiation Once this practice had begun the logical progression was to include the whole of both coats of arms in the new shield so that in effect impalement replaced dimidiation as a method of combining coats of arms A general rule which carries over from dimidiation to impalement is that if a coat of arms with a bordure or tressure orle etc is impaled the bordure should not continue down the line of impalement Gallery edit nbsp Example of two coats dimidiated nbsp The same two coats impaled nbsp When the dexter half of a bend sinister is dimidiated with the sinister half of a bend the result would look like a chevron nbsp Tressure does not continue down the line of impalement nbsp Coat of arms of Anne de Pisseleu Countess of Penthievre Duchess of EtampesSee also edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dimidiation in heraldry Division of the field Frisian eagleSources editArthur Charles Fox Davies A Complete Guide to Heraldry 1909 pp 182 523 525 Online texts at https archive org details completeguidetoh00foxduoft or http www7b biglobe ne jp bprince hr foxdavies index htm Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Dimidiation amp oldid 1210408894, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
