Roll of Arms - Varieties

Varieties

The heraldist Stephen Friar, writing in 1987, classified rolls as follows:

• Occasional: relating to a specific event such as an expedition, tournament or a siege.
• Institutional: associated with foundations, orders of religion or chivalry possibly compiled over many years.
• Regional: collecting the arms of residents of a region; a practice almost unique to the English county rolls of the 14th century.
• Illustrative: sometimes used to illustrate narratives or chronicles.
• General: a combination or variety of collections.
• Online rolls: In the Internet age, a number of societies maintain rolls of their members.