wide-ranging correspondence with the most renowned heraldists of his time. For this reason, it could perhaps be concluded that Vulson de la Colombière was right in claiming the title of the inventor of the hatching system, and accusing 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 Vulson de la Colombière. On page 37 of his title La Science Heroïque (1644), Vulson de la Colombière maintains that Petra Sancta simply copied his system without any changes. Vulson de la Colombière also maintains that he showed to Petra Sancta his hatching system in the past. In his citation, Vulson de la Colombière also mentions the book publishers and copperplate engravers as the users of the hatching system, thus emphasizing that by using this method on the illustrations, engravers can always designate the tinctures of the copperplates in the same coherent manner. In the title of his 1639 book he directly mentions that hatching is a new method used by copperplate engravings ("suivant l'art des anciens roys d'armes... et une nouvelle méthode de cognoistre les métaux et couleurs sur la taille-douce"). The book was published by Melchior Tavernier, and the engraved fontoispiece was made by Abraham Bosse. Maybe he was also the author of the remaining engravings inside the book. However, Vulson de la Colombière contributed to the drawing and engraving of illustrations too, as we can see from his signature under the armorial genealogical table of his supporter, Denys de Salvaing. In his 1639 title, Vulson de la Colombière published a hatching table, but did not mention Petra Sancta. The reason probably was that in 1638 the publication of his book was already in progress and/or he did not know nothing about the same hatching method published by Petra Sancta in 1638. He had also described the way of hatchings by words, and published another hatching table in 1644. Ottfried Neubecker maintains that the hatching system in heraldry was invented by Vulson de la Colombière and not Petra Sancta who only popularized the system through his second treatise titled Tesserae gentilitia, published in 1638. Works De la Puissance du pape et des libertés de l'Église gallicane. Par Marc de Vulson, conseiller du roi en la cour de parlement de Dauphiné. Genève: Iean de Tournes & Iaques de la Pierre, 1635 Recueil de plusieurs pièces et