THE DANCERS

63

the MSS, although there can be no question of portraiture since
the figures are all masked.39 The identity of the captain may be
known, however, from the coat of arms which is figured alongside
him, in the lower half of the folio,40 and which were a major inter-
est in the creation of the MSS, whether they represent the aristo-
cratic families of Nuremberg or the craft to which the captain
belonged.41 There is an emblem in our MS for each captain, ex-
cept for the years 1479 and 1481, an omission which was probably
unintended by the artist; when there is more than one captain
the coat of arms for each is painted in the miniature, one above
the other or on either side of the Laujer.42 The emblems usually
measure one and one-half by one and three-quarters inches, and
are very carefully colored and illuminated with gold or silver.43
That the coats of arms in our MS are authentic is revealed by a
comparison with the devices for the same families in Siebmacher's
Wappenbuch,4 although not all of the old family escutcheons ap-
pear here.
The miniaturist was restricted to the representation of only one
costume for each group of Ldujer, as the maskers all dressed like
their captain. The identity of dress is not unusual for the period,
which, as Chambers has remarked, "was an age of guilds in every
department of social life."45 Groups of celebrants on any occasion
often dressed uniformly,46 and particularly in the case of a festal
group a kind of livery would be natural.47 In discussing the cos-
39 In some MSS the names of the captains are placed above the miniatures, e.g.,
MSS Nos. 21, 51b, 67.
40 This is the usual arrangement, but in MS No. 3 the shield is placed below the
text, in MS No. 45 it is on the verso of the folio bearing the miniature of the
Ldufer, while in MS No. 61 the coats of arms decorate the folios following those
with the miniatures.
41 MS No. 42, for example, contains a complete armorial following f. 111. From
the Ratsverlag of June 1, 1605, quoted above p. 18, it is evident that the families
whose coats of arms appeared in the Schembart illustrations considered them a
private matter and therefore prevented the public sale of the drawings.
42 Cf. Figs. 6, 9, 10, etc.
43 For colored reproductions, cf. Bruggemann (Vom Sch.).
"J. Siebmacher, Wappenbuch (Nurnberg: Bauer & Raspe, 1856-1908), II, Abt.
1 : Der Adel des Kbnigreichs Bayern; VI, Abt. 1 (1, 2, 3) : Abgestorbener Bayerischer
Adel.
45 Chambers (Med. Stage), I, 373.
46 Cf. Schultz, p. 322, for several examples in 1464, p. 328 in 1470.
47 In the Freydal each group of mummers is depicted in the same costume. For
examples of carnival actors dressed alike cf. Hampe (Theaterwesen), p. 227, Nr. 6
(i479): "in gestalt alter weiber" ; p. 228, Nr. 13 (1487): "in gestalt des morn";