Arms of Jean Delisle

Blazon

Per pale Argent and Gules on a saltire a bendlet and a bendlet sinister in saltire interlaced with three annulets in bend all counterchanged;

Symbolism

The saltire evokes an hourglass as well as the spokes of a wheel, symbols of time and movement, both of which convey Dr. Delisle’s interest in history, genealogy and translation. The saltire also symbolizes the Roman numeral X and thus indicates that he is the tenth generation of his family in Canada. Red and white are the colours of the Royal Society of Canada, of which he is a Fellow. The use of alternating colours on either side of the division line alludes to his work in the field of translation, an activity that involves a shift from one side of a linguistic divide to another. The three rings represent his children, Christian, Isabelle and Jean-Philippe. The interlaced diagonal strips, similar to the warp and weft of a fabric, refer to the texts on which Dr. Delisle has laboured as a translator, academic and author, the word “text” originating in the Latin term for weaving.