Italian heraldic dictionary
Banda
honorable piece consisting of a strip that joins the canton at the top right of the shield with the one at the bottom left, occupying the third part of the surface. It can be "lowered" or "raised" with respect to its normal position, "diminished" if it is less than normal wide; it is said to be "withdrawn" if it does not reach one of the corners or neither; "counter-battlement" when it is embattled on both sides, with the battlements swapped in position; "double bed" when the battlements are in exact contrast; "spined" if the contour line has small points; "rippled" if it is shaped like a minute zigzag; "wave" if it is wavy; "gnarled" if it looks like a tree branch.