Talk:Bear in heraldry

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Madrid. Perhaps it's the Ursa Major because there are 7 stars on the blue border. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.8.98.118 (talk • contribs)

Bogus claim, bogus reference

In Switzerland, the heraldic bears in a coat of arms had to be painted with bright red penises, or would be mocked as being she-bears. The omission of this led to a war in 1579 between St. Gallen and the canton of Appenzell. [Brown, Gary (1996). Great Bear Almanac. pp. pp. 340. ISBN 1558214747. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)]

There are so many things wrong with this claim that expose it as an obvious fake:

1. The reference cites page 340, yet the book itself only has 340 pages, and that's only if you include the front cover, back cover, blank pages, TOC, index, etc. (See the Google Books online preview of this book)! The alphabetical index starts on page 315, and presumably, pg 340 is the back cover, which, course, makes no such claim.
2. Giving the benefit of the doubt, I next searched the source for the word "Appenzelle", which appears only once in the entire book, and that is in a table listing discovered remains of the now-extinct cave bear. Here's the search for the word "Appenzell"
3. Further still, the word "penis" appears three times, in sections referencing only anatomical and taxonomic differences between various species of bear.
4. I could find no historical reference to support the claim that the war in 1579 -- the so-called 'linen affairs' -- had anything to do with the stated claim. They had much bigger things to fight about in 1579.

It's amazing that this paragraph has remained unchallenged for almost four years, but this needs to be properly cited or be deleted under WP:V. A Google search shows that in that time, it has been quoted ad nauseum, so the challenge will be to find a reference that is not a circular one (See WP:CIRCULAR). Grolltech (talk) 21:23, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

In fact, the claim seems to be real — I find numerous sources for both the red penises and for the war between Appenzell and St. Gallen, all of which predate wikipedia:

• "The bear is not easy to depict graphically. The fur should be rendered clearly but not naturalistically, and the artist must be prepared to paint the animal's male organ bright red, or he may be mocked (in Switzerland at least) for having painted a she-bear. This was actually the cause of a war between St. Gallen and the canton of Appenzell in 1579." (Neubecker, Ottfried (1976). Heraldry : sources, symbols, and meaning. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 120. ISBN 9780070463080.)
• "An armorial bear once nearly caused war between Appenzell and St. Gallen (Switzerland) in 1578. The Appenzell people were very proud of their heraldic bear. The first St. Gallen printer, Leonhard Straub, printed a calendar in 1578 which portrayed the coats of arms of many different cities, and the Appenzeller people discovered that the sex of the bear shown on their coat of arms was not shown, although it was supposed to be a male bear. Since St. Gallen and Appenzell had been involved in a number of disputes in the past, this was seen as the supreme insult. Negotiations to improve matters were unsuccessful, and when the threat of war developed, the pages of the calendar with this bear had to be destroyed in order to pacify the Appenzell citizens." (Grzimek, Bernhard (1972). Grzimek’s Animal life encyclopedia. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. vol. 12 p. 119.)
• "In Switzerland the male organ of the bear had to be painted bright red, or the heraldist would be mocked for use of a she-bear. Such mockery led to a way in 1579 between the cantons of St. Gallen and Appenzell." (Brown, Gary (2009). The bear almanac : a comprehensive guide to the bears of the world (2nd ed.). Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press. p. 216. ISBN 9781599213316.)
• "Er war es, der um ein Haar den Anlaß zu einem Krieg zwischen den Appenzellem und St. Gallem gegeben hatte. [...] 'Der Buchdrucker Leonhard Straub in St. Gallen gab auf das Jahr 1579 einen Kalender mit den Wappen aller XIII Kantone der Eidgenossenschaft heraus. Kaum hatte sich dieser Kalender im Lande verbreitet als es da Lärm gab: der Bär in ihrem Wappen habe kein männliches Zeichen, die St. Galler haben, durch Darstellung eines Weibchens, ihres Standes Ehrenwappen auf eine recht schimpfliche Weise entstellt usw. Die Obrigkeit von Appenzell schickte nur eine Gesandtschaft an die von St. Gallen, um sich über den Schimpf ihres Landwappens, über das Verbot gegen den Gamgrempel (Handel) und anderes mehr zu beklagen [...] die Appenzeller wurden darüber so aufgebracht, daß sie ihr Banner auf dem Rathhause ausstellten und das Volk ermahnten, sich zu einem Kriegszuge bereit zu halten.'"(Strehler, Hermann (1965). "Das Churer Missale von 1589". Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 40: 186; quoting Hartman, Georg (1818). Geschichte der Stadt St. Gallen. St. Gallen: Beym Verfasser. pp. 371–372.)
• “En nous menant chez lui, M. Kurz nous montra sur la salle en bois du tir fédéral l'ours mâle d'Appenzell et l'ours femelle de Saint-Gall, dont le sexe a été une cause de guerre entre ces cantons.” (Michelet, Jules (1959). Journal. Paris: Gallimard. p. 285 (Friday 10 August, 1838.))

I'm going to reinstate those two sentences. Heraldicbear (talk) 18:26, 30 September 2014 (UTC)