Touraine Spotting...

Le Regt. de Touraine from the Hermand Manuscript.

This is of course a blog about a fictional person and place, but I've set it in a firm historical context. I have always been fascinated by history, and especially I love the study of flags and colourful uniforms of those pre-industrial times, and I enjoy the "detective work" that can come with trying to make sense of what can often be contradictory information. Therefore, it is always exciting for me to see good examples of contemporary source material.

So, when further to a discussion I had been having on the Yahoo! Lace Wars forum regarding the pattern of the flag for the Regt. de Touraine (see previous post), I was thrilled to receive a very nice email from M. Jean-Louis Vial who, as some reading this may already know, maintains "Nec Pluribus Impar" an invaluable website containing much information on French uniforms and flags of the period, including of course the Regt. de Touraine.

He very kindly sent me a picture of this plate from the 1757 Hermand manuscript, which illustrates a soldier of the regiment along with a portrayal of the flag at the bottom of the print. The flag shows that the aurore-coloured canton was clearly positioned on the top-left close to the staff. A magnificent picture. I'd love to get my hands on a collection of prints from this manuscript!

02/19/08 M le Marquis' log, Supplemental: I just received a link from M. Vial to a public French archive site showing pictures of the whole collection (See link on sidebar). An amazing and inspiring collection! Merci beaucoup, Monsieur!