Silvester Petra Sancta (1590, in Rome – 6 May 1647, in Rome) was an Italian Jesuit priest, and heraldist. His name is also spelt as Sylvester Petra Sancta, Petrasancta, in Italian Padre Silvestro da Pietrasanta. Pseudonym: Coelius Servilius Biography He was the confessor of the Cardinal Pier Luigi Carafa (1581–1655) from a distinguished Neapolitan family. Between 1624 and 1634, Petra Sancta stayed with Carafa in Cologne where he fought against rising Protestantism through his sermons and religious discussions. He had emblem books published in 1634 and 1638, respectively. He was also Rector of the College of Loreto. Later he settled in Rome and published his treatise on heraldry there. During the mid-1620s, he published a translation in Liège. and since 1631 he was also the editor of a book published from Antwerp. That means during the late 1620s and the early 1630s he stayed in the Spanish Low Countries and the neighboring territories. In 1634 he published his first book touching the topic of heraldry in Antwerp; but his main heraldic work containing the hatching system was published in 1638 in Rome. In 1643, he was appointed the Apostolic Visitator for the Order of Piarists. As a result of his critical visitation, Pope Innocent X reduced the order in his breve Ea quae pro felice on March 16, 1646 into a secular congregation subordinated to the local bishops. The order was rehabilitated in 1656 and renewed in 1669. The dispute between Petra Sancta and de la Colombière Today Petra Sancta is known primarily as the inventor of the modern hatching method in heraldry published in 1638. However, his hatching system is identical with that of de la Colombière from 1639. For this reason, de la Colombière accused Silvester Petra Sancta of copying his method and incorrectly publishing it in his 1638 work, one year before the same hatching system was published by de la Colombière. Petra Sancta provided preliminary comprehensive studies on his heraldic work in Germany and the Netherlands. It is likely that he was acquainted with the idea of hatching and the earlier existing hatching methods from the Dutch engravers before he developed his own hatching system. His 1638 book is sometimes dated between 1636 and 1638. His earlier work De Symbolis Heroicis, Libri IX (Antverpiae, 1634) already had a hatching table and a description of hatching system, but without any practical use. For example, the gules in