Bezantée

Bezantée moulding style, showing the use of the disc like forms as a decoration for a Romanesque pier and arcade

Bezantee, bezantie or bezanty is an ornamentation consisting of roundels. The word derives from bezant, a gold coin from the Byzantine Empire, which was in common European use until circa 1250.

In architecture, bezantée moulding was much used in the Norman period.^[1]

In heraldry the word is shorthand for semé of bezants, i.e. strewn (literally "seeded") with bezants. A bezant is a roundel whose tincture is or. In English heraldry, a field sable bezanty often alludes to the Duchy of Cornwall. An ounce (leopard) bezanty appears as a supporter in the English bearings of St Edmundsbury Borough Council; a bordure bezanty appears in the coat of Berkhamstead Town Council.

References

• Heraldry Dictionary
• MacKinnon of Dunakin, Charles. Heraldry. 1966. London: Frederick Warne & Co. (Page 60)

1.  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bezantée". Encyclopædia Britannica 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 840.