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Seals (Medieval Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. A medieval seal is a dual object: a metallic seal-matrix (or die) engraved intaglio, and the imprints or impressions issued from the application of that seal-matrix upon a plastic substance—wax, lead, or gold. Two terms refer to the study of seals, sigillography and sphragistics. The connoisseurship that 16th-century humanists and antiquarians lavished on medieval seals was methodologically advanced by the French Benedictine Dom Jean Mabillon (1632–1707), who constructed a taxonomy of verifiable seal features as part of his project to establish the discipline of history firmly on the basis of undisputed documentary proof. Mabillon’s method has remained a constitutive feature of sigillographic studies, which, during the 19th and most of the 20th century, came to be structured by four major principles: the idea that seals had been in continuous use since their origin in Mesopotamia circa 6000 BCE; the notion that the practice of sealing answered such human needs as securing closure, asserting identity, marking property, and guaranteeing commitment; the view that seal usage was an invariant characteristic of medieval European and Byzantine cultures, largely insensitive to specific time periods or locations; and the widespread method of reproducing medieval seals and thereafter studying them as modern after-casts rather than in their original materials (lead, wax, brass, ivory, or gold) or their actual formats (as seal-impressions or seal-matrices), or with careful attention to their historical circumstances (affixed to documents, attached to relics, stamped on goods, given as gifts, worn for apotropaic purposes, or deposited in tombs). Such epistemological strategies have privileged transcultural continuity and decontextualization and reinforced the foundational axiomatic assumption that seals generically served the functions of closure, identification, and authentication. Thus, traditional sigillography has treated seals as sources, extracting from their images and the names and titles of their inscriptions (legends) valuable information about their users, art historical trends, heraldic developments, and material culture in general. This useful dimension of sigillography as an auxiliary science has, in recent years, been complemented by a programmatic scholarly approach that seeks to restore to medieval seals their historicity (see General Overviews and Seals in the Medieval Cultures of the West). Analytical interest has thus extended to the dynamics of sealing practice, its situation within particular regions and social groups, and its interaction with other contemporary modes of representation and media of communication. Further fields of research have considered the role seals had in fostering and directing personal devotion; discourses on seals in legal, historiographical, theological, natural philosophic, and spiritual texts; and the extent to which seals operated as conceptual tools. This latter capacity in particular rendered seals fundamental to formulations of sign and image theory in the central Middle Ages. Although the main focus of this essay is on Western Europe, a separate section highlights the significance and particularities of Byzantine seals and sealing practices.
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  5. General Overviews
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  7. Several important surveys of medieval seals, such as Kittel 1970 and Collon 1997, are located in books devoted to the general history of seals, with chronologies spanning 7,000 years and geographical frameworks that range from the Ancient Near East to Greece and Rome, India, the lands of Islam, China, and modern Europe. The particular history of medieval seals benefits from such comparative perspective but receives more detailed treatment in manuals specifically focused on the Middle Ages. Pastoureau 1981 treats this subject in a European context, emphasizing the role of medieval sigillography as an auxiliary science and describing the type of evidence seals contribute to the study of administration, literacy, onomastics, kinship, heraldry, art and material culture. The accent in Harvey and McGuinness 1996 is on the history, typology, and sociology of British and Scottish seals, exemplifying a tendency in sigillographic historiography for the organization of manuals primarily with reference to national boundaries. Thus Bascapè 1969–1984 considers Italian seals, Menendez-Pidal 1993 Spanish seals, and Gomes 2008 Portuguese seals. Diederich 2012 brings considerable expertise in Rhenish and German seals to propose a manual of sigillography that addresses questions often left out of traditional manuals. Diederich urges that new perspectives for sigillographic research ought to rest upon the establishment of a typology of seal iconography that, based on the notion that seals signify their owners, should take into consideration the symbiotic interaction between seal images and seal owners’ self-images, intentions, and patronage.
  8.  
  9. Bascapè, Giacomo C. Sigilografia: Il sigillo nella diplomatica, nel diritto, nella storia, nell’arte. 3 vols. Milan: Antonino Giuffrè, 1969–1984.
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  11. In the two first volumes, the author gives an excellent survey of sigillography in general and a detailed discussion of Italian seals, devoting Volume 2 to ecclesiastical seals. Volume 3, by Mariano Welber, is currently the most comprehensive treatment of seals in medieval civil and canon law.
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  13. Collon, Dominique, ed. 7000 Years of Seals. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1997.
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  15. Twelve contributors provide a comprehensive study of seals and sealing practices in the Ancient Near East, Ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley, Minoan and Mycenaean cultures, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Medieval Europe, Modern England, India before Islam, Islam, and China.
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  17. Diederich, Toni. Siegelkunde: Beiträge zu ihrer Vertiefung und Weiterführung. Cologne: Böhlau, 2012.
  18. DOI: 10.7788/boehlau.9783412215415Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  19. Synthesis of, and new methods for, the study of seals in ten chapters. All material aspects of seals, including their images, legends, and sizes, are interpreted as conveying retrievable intentional meanings. Good exploration of the iconographic features shared by seals and tombstones. Innovative contribution on seal forgery and methods for its detection.
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  21. Gomes, Saul A. Introdução à sigilografia portuguesa: Guia de estudo. Coimbra, Portugal: Universidade Faculdade de Letras, 2008.
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  23. This excellent introduction to Portuguese seals, illustrated with thirty-six pages of plates, advocates that sigillography be taught in graduate programs in history and presents an understanding of seals that goes beyond material and technical considerations to offer new investigational perspectives.
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  25. Harvey, Paul D. A., and Andrew McGuinness. A Guide to British Medieval Seals. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.
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  27. Illustrated with some 120 reproductions, each accompanied by a detailed caption, this guide offers insightful discussions of the history, use, and design of British seals, based upon archival research and in-depth command of recent scholarship. Provides further bibliography and an invaluable index of seal mottoes and inscriptions.
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  29. Kittel, Erich. Siegel. Bibliothek für Kunst- und Antiquitätenfreunde 11. Braunschweig, Germany: Klinkhardt and Biermann, 1970.
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  31. In his pithy monograph, lavishly illustrated with eight color plates and over 400 reproductions, Kittel considers seals from the ancient Near East to 16th-century Europe, with a predominant focus on Germanic lands when discussing seals of emperors, nobles, women, cities and burghers, and churchmen and ecclesiastical institutions.
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  33. Menéndez-Pidal de Navascués, Faustino. Apuntes de sigilografía española. Guadalajara, Spain: Aache, 1993.
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  35. An excellent introduction to Spanish seals, and a pioneering analysis, sensitive to the multiple meanings and functions that attached to seals over the medieval millennium of their use. Good illustrations of characteristics specific to Iberian sigillography.
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  37. Pastoureau, Michel. Les sceaux. Typologie des Sources du Moyen Age Occidental 36. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1981.
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  39. Very general overview of medieval seals, lucidly written; no illustrations.
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  41. Bibliographies
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  43. Many detailed bibliographies of works dealing with seals appear in general surveys and manuals (see General Overviews). The bibliography of French sigillography in Gandilhon and Pastoureau 1982 is regularly updated in Revue française d’héraldique et de sigillographie (see Journals) and on the website of the Société française d’héraldique et de sigillographie. Henning and Jochums 1995 lists monographs and articles which appeared in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland up to 1990, including the older literature in Latin but not those Swiss studies that have appeared in French and Italian. Menendez-Pidal 2002, an international bibliography on seals, extends to 1992. Websites have greater flexibility in maintaining current bibliographies, but their continuity is not assured and is often short-term. Access to bibliographic resources online is best conducted from well-established sites maintained for some time, by such organizations as the Ecole nationale des chartes, Menestrel, or International Medieval Bibliography. The recently created network for research SIGILLVM seeks to promote the study of seals by making bibliographic material available online.
  44.  
  45. Ecole nationale des chartes.
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  47. The purpose of the website is to provide research tools and pedagogical dossiers focused on the methods and techniques of history. The bibliography devoted to sigillography appears under the heading of its parent discipline, diplomatics.
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  49. Gandilhon, René, and Michel Pastoureau. Bibliographie de la sigillographie française. Paris: Picard, 1982.
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  51. This useful bibliography on medieval and modern seals offers 2,542 annotated references distributed among ten chapters: generalities, catalogues, matrices, auxiliary sciences (diplomatics, heraldry, sigillography), ecclesiastical seals, seals of universities, guilds and craftsmen, corporations and administrations, Jews, and Lombards. The largest chapter deals with seals used in the thirty-four French provinces.
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  53. Henning, Eckart, and Gabriele Jochums. Bibliographie zur Sphragistik: Schrifttum Deutschlands, Österreich und der Schweiz bis 1990. Bibliographie der historischen Hilfswissenschaften 2. Cologne: Böhlau, 1995.
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  55. This work presents 2,613 titles without annotation, organized in ten chapters. The two most important deal with general studies of seals and with seals of individuals. The index references place names, technical terms, and titles of manuals.
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  57. Menéndez Pidal de Navascués, Faustino. Il messagio dei sigilli. Vatican City: Scuola vaticana di Paleografia, Diplomatica e Archivistica, 2002.
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  59. This international bibliography covers Byzantium and twenty-four European countries, listing for each bibliographies, manuals, catalogues, and journals. Alphabetical index of authors’ names.
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  61. International Medieval Bibliography.
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  63. Established in 1967 in print, updated quarterly, covers most recent publications for 4,500 journals and miscellaneous volumes published in Europe, North America, Australia, Brazil, Japan, and South Africa. A thematic search may be conducted using the categories “Numismatics,” “Heraldry,” and “Charters and Diplomatics,” but the free search offers greater flexibility.
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  65. Menestrel.
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  67. Available in French and in English; lists websites exclusively, mostly from France, but also from Britain and Europe, detailing their contents. Particularly useful to locate institutional and private databases of digitized seals.
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  69. SIGILLVM.
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  71. Created in 2007 to build upon and continue the activities of the abolished Committee on Sigillography of the International Council of Archives, SIGILLVM is still in the birthing process. Access to information is based upon membership. Comprehensive listing of links to databases of digitized seals.
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  73. Société française d’héraldique et de sigillographie.
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  75. On its website, the Société allows free access to its Newsletter and quarterly Bulletin, each of which lists recent publications and forthcoming conferences, and to the table of contents of its Revue (see Journals).
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  77. Journals
  78.  
  79. Characteristic of some journals containing articles on medieval seals is the antiquity of their circulation. One, Archaeologia (London), was first published in 1770 by the London Society of Antiquaries, underscoring the way that antiquarian interest in seals and sealed documents prompted the joint development of scholarly periodicals and sigillography. By the 19th century, antiquarianism and erudition had joined forces, and journals created during this period treated seals within the framework of auxiliary sciences of history, linking seals to such kindred media as charters and diplomas, coins, and heraldry. Several such journals are still current: the Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des chartes (Paris), the Revue belge de numismatique et de sigillographie (Brussels), the Archives héraldiques suisses (Neufchâtel, Basel), and the Rivista italiana di numismatica e scienze affini (Milan). They offer telling perspectives on the directions taken by the study of seals over many generations of epistemological practice in the humanities and in the social sciences. The title of journals created in the 20th century—Antiquaries Journal (London, the successor of Archaeologia); Archiv für Diplomatik, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel-, und Wappenkunde (Cologne, Vienna, Bonn); Revue Française d’héraldique et de sigillographie (Paris)—indicate their continuing adherence to the traditions of antiquarianism and of the auxiliary sciences. Yet these journals are also likely to contain articles that address the growing recognition of the modalities of seal agency within medieval culture and society (see Seals in the Medieval Cultures of the West). Such articles can be identified by searching specialized bibliographies (see Bibliographies).
  80.  
  81. Antiquaries Journal. 1770–.
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  83. Archaeologia was published between 1770 and 1991, and is available on Cambridge Journals Online Website, as is its successor, the annually published Antiquaries Journal. Both periodicals are publications of The Society of Antiquaries of London, the repository of a large collection of seal casts, and they regularly deal with seals, from the viewpoint of their archeology, history, and artifactual characteristics.
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  85. Archives héraldiques suisses. 1887–.
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  87. Journal of the Schweizerische Heraldische Gesellschaft/Société Suisse d’Héraldique/Società Svizzera di Araldica (Neufchâtel, Basel). Articles on seals tend to focus on their heraldic aspects and on the contributions seals can make to the history of heraldry. From 2000 onward, the journal’s table of contents can be accessed online.
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  89. Archiv für Diplomatik, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel-, und Wappenkunde. 1955–.
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  91. Published annually in Cologne, Vienna, and Bonn, mostly in German, this journal offers learned and in-depth articles on the auxiliary sciences. Seals can constitute the sole matter of the articles or may be discussed within studies on paleography, diplomatics, and documentary practices.
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  93. Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des chartes. 1839–.
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  95. Since 1839, a biannual publication, in French, of the Société de l’Ecole des chartes, available for 1839–2006 on the website of Persée. Articles on seals combine erudition and pioneering analyses.
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  97. Revue belge de numismatique et de sigillographie. 1842–.
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  99. Published in Brussels since 1842 by the Société royale de numismatique de Belgique, whose website, in French, English, and Dutch, gives access to the tables of contents of all published volumes, and to an annual bibliography of Belgian numismatics (since 1987), which has a section on sigillography.
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  101. Revue française d’héraldique et de sigillographie. 1937–.
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  103. Published since 1937 in Paris by the Société française d’héraldique et de sigillographie, whose website gives access to the tables of contents of all published volumes. The majority of articles, in French, deal with heraldry.
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  105. Rivista italiana di numismatica e scienze affini. 1888–.
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  107. Published annually in Milan since 1888 by the Società numismatica italiana. Volumes 1 (1888) through 33 (1920) are available online.
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  109. Preservation, Communication, and Research
  110.  
  111. Numerous original wax seal impressions remain affixed to documents in archives, libraries, and museums throughout Europe, although their material fragility and symbolic significance have rendered many of them vulnerable to both meteorological and social upheavals. Medieval protection and documentation of seals has been variable. Imprints that were sewn within envelopes made from obsolete written charters became dehydrated and were reduced to dust. Robinson et al. 1935, however, documents the manufacture of exquisite silk bags designed to enclose and protect waxes. Späth 2004 considers the descriptions and drawings of seals within medieval copies of original documents, which preserved at least the memory of seals’ appearance if not their materiality. Medieval drawings of specific and individuated seals are actually rare, while the generic depictions of seals and sealed charters analyzed in Brunel 2005 are often part of illuminated scenes that decorate medieval manuscripts and solemn charters. These latter illuminations appropriate the capacity of seals to manifest the exercise of authority and the working of its contractual implications, so representations of seals speak of their significance in mediating status and social interactions. Renaissance antiquarians and premodern historians, however, sought in seals the testimony of genuine historical records. In England, as discussed by Loyd and Stenton 1950, Sir Christopher Hatton (b. c. 1605–d. 1670) and William Dugdale (b. 1605–d. 1686) compiled a book of 529 charters (many sealed), 240 of which were carefully reproduced by a very able draftsman. In France, François Roger de Gaignières (b. 1642–d. 1715) had drawings made of numerous original documents and objects, including many seals. Roman 1909 catalogues Gaignières’s drawings of seals, while Ritz-Guilbert 2011 situates Gaignières’s sigillographic interest within the larger framework of his intense copying activities. The legacy of this early interest in medieval seals is precious; its trove of copies, sketches, and illustrations provides knowledge of artifacts later destroyed during European wars and revolutions. By the mid-19th century, scholars staffing the archival institutions recently created throughout Europe embarked on extensive campaigns of reproduction, creating vast collections of casts to facilitate the consultation of seals while preserving original wax impressions (see Catalogues and their Heuristic Principles). Seal conservation remains an urgent priority; in Becchetti 2011, the chief conservator at the Vatican’s Secret Archives shares his expertise and experience in using the tools and materials of modern technology to conserve and restore seals.
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  113. Becchetti, Luca. I sigilli: Orientamenti e metodologie di conservazione e restauro. I Talenti 28. Padua, Italy: Il Prato, 2011.
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  115. The author presents seals in their manifold dimensions, historical and material, as the basis for his masterly politics of preservation and restoration.
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  117. Brunel, Ghislain. Images du pouvoir royal: Les chartes décorées des Archives nationales, XIIIe – XVe siècle. Paris: Somogy, 2005.
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  119. Reproduction and insightful analysis of forty decorated acts from 1283 to 1416. Suggestive comparisons of the agency of images and actual seals in late medieval documents. The introduction, by Olivier Guyotjeannin, considers the production of illuminated charters in medieval Europe and Great Britain.
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  121. Loyd, Lewis C., and Doris Mary Stenton. Sir Christopher Hatton’s Book of Seals to which Is Appended a Select List of the Works of Frank Merry Stenton. Oxford: Clarendon, 1950.
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  123. An impressive edition of Hatton’s Book of Seals, with numerous facsimiles and an index of persons and places. The introduction gives an excellent account of the political circumstances surrounding the Book’s compilation.
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  125. Ritz-Guilbert, Anne. “Les sceaux médiévaux au XVIIe siècle: Les dessins de sceaux dans la collection Gaignières (1642–1715).” In Pourquoi les sceaux? La sigillographie, nouvel enjeu de l’histoire de l’art. Edited by Marc Gil and Jean-Luc Chassel, 45–60. Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France: CEGES, Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille III, 2011.
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  127. The author, a specialist in the entire collection of Gaignières’s copies, was able to reconstruct Gaignières’s own organization of the materials now dispersed among various departments of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. In light of this restituted scheme, it seems that Gaignières’s purpose in copying seals was prosopographical.
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  129. Robinson, Gertrude, H. Urquhart, and Alice Hindson. “Seal Bags in the Treasury of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury.” Archaeologia 84 (1935): 163–211.
  130. DOI: 10.1017/S0261340900013667Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  131. This lovely study of medieval seal bags, none of which bears a Christian design, reveal that they were cut from old silk textiles in the treasure of Canterbury. The list of bags gives a thorough description of each and some illustrations. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
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  133. Roman, Jules. “Les dessins de sceaux de la collection Gaignières à la Bibliothèque nationale.” Mémoires de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France 59 (1909): 42–158.
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  135. Following an introduction to Gaignières’s sigillographic interest, the catalogue of his seal drawings housed in the Cabinet des manuscrits (Bibliothèque nationale de France) is in the form of an alphabetical index of names, followed by the date of the seal and the call number of the manuscript which contains the drawing.
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  137. Späth, Markus. “Das ‘Regestum’ von Sant’Angelo in Formis: Zur Medialität der Bilder in einem klösterlichen Kopialbuch des 12. Jahrhunderts.” Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 31 (2004): 41–59.
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  139. A case study of the making of a 12th-century cartulary in which the copy of charters also entailed, in some significant cases, the reproduction of seals affixed to them. Good discussion of earlier works devoted to medieval drawings of seals in cartularies and vidimuses.
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  141. Catalogues and their Heuristic Principles
  142.  
  143. Seals are most often available for scholarly perusal in a reproduced format. From the 19th century onward, archival repositories adopted a curatorial policy that sharply distinguished between the written and the iconographic artifact. The preface to Douët d’Arcq 1980, authored by the then director of the French archives, makes clear that seals, though symbiotically part of the documents to which they are attached, resemble coins and should be treated as such, that is, as individual objects whose mobility permitted the comparison of different types. Accordingly, vast campaigns of seal casting took place, producing collections of several thousand items. In many cases, these collections of casts form the referential basis of the catalogues with which to research and identify seals. Collections may be formed from sealed documents held in a single repository, as in Douët d’Arcq 1980; from documents held in multiple archival repositories, as in Laurent 2003; from documents held in the multiple repositories of a given historical region, as in Demay 1873 and Demay 1881; or from seals concerning a given region but not necessarily housed in that region’s archival repositories, as in Eygun 1938. Other collections are constituted around a particular theme, as in Gandilhon 1952, which gathers and catalogues casts taken from seals used by universities and the academic world. Gray Birch 1887–1900 describes mostly casts but also medieval impressions. There are catalogues, Guglieri Navarro 1974 and Menéndez Pidal 1995, which refer directly to original seal impressions still appended to documents. Thematic catalogues describe casts and impressions which, conserved in various repositories, have been assembled around particular subjects, such as royal seals, city seals, or Jewish seals (see Sociology). Seal catalogues, whether describing casts or original seals, also differ in their organization. Most catalogues privilege a social classification by the ranks and functions of seal owners, with a sharp divide between ecclesiastical and lay seals. Thematic catalogues follow an alphabetical or chronological order, depending on the nature of their topic. More rarely, catalogues have been organized by types of seal iconography, for instance enthroned figures in majesty, equestrians in arms, sacerdotal figures, architectural motifs, or heraldic emblems. Thus, Gray Birch 1887–1900 combines a sociological system (kings, ecclesiastics, cities) with a typological order (equestrian seals, heraldic seals).
  144.  
  145. Demay, Germain. Inventaire des sceaux de la Flandre, recuillis dans les dépôts d’archives, musées et collections particulières du département du Nord. 2 vols. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1873.
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  147. Descriptive notices of 7,689 seals, whose casts are housed at the Archives nationales (Paris); few plates. The useful additions by Pierre Pietresson de Saint-Aubin, Tables générales (héraldique, iconographique et des légendes) des sceaux de Flandre de Germain Demay (Lille, 1995), exist only in mimeographed versions.
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  149. Demay, Germain. Inventaire des sceaux de la Normandie recueillis dans les dépôts d’archives, musées et collections particulières des départements de la Seine-Inférieure, du Calvados, de l’Eure, de la Manche, et de l’Orne, avec une introduction sur la paléographie des sceaux. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1881.
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  151. Descriptive notices of 3,187 seals, whose casts are housed at the Archives nationales (Paris); few plates. The introduction, devoted to the different styles of lettering, languages, and abbreviations found in seal legends, is excellent (see Scripts and Legends).
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  153. Douët d’Arcq, Louis. Collection de sceaux. 3 vols. Munich: Kraus-Thomson, 1980.
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  155. Descriptive notices of 11,849 seals, preceded by a detailed and still useful introduction crammed with details collected by the author in the course of his cataloguing. Multiple indices facilitate research. No illustrations. Original publication (Paris: Plon, 1863–1868) available free online: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3.
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  157. Eygun, François. Catalogue des sceaux du Poitou jusqu’en 1515: Etude d’histoire provinciale sur les institutions, les arts et la civilisation d’après les sceaux. Poitiers, France: Société des Antiquaires de l’Ouest, 1938.
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  159. Descriptive notices of 1,696 seals, many illustrated, whose casts are housed at the Archives nationales (Paris). This remarkable catalogue opens with a comprehensive history of the place of seals and sealing practice in the medieval region of Poitou, and constitutes one of the best regional histories of French seals.
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  161. Gandilhon, René. Sigillographie des universités de France. Paris and Bordeaux, France: Delmas, 1952.
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  163. Descriptive notices of 204 seals from the 13th to the 18th century, all illustrated; casts housed at the Archives nationales (Paris). Helpful introduction.
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  165. Gray Birch, Walter de. Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. 6 vols. London: British Museum, 1887–1900.
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  167. Descriptive notices of 23,242 casts, detached seals, and seals affixed to documents, all now kept in the British Library. Few plates. Covers England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and a host of other countries, principally France.
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  169. Guglieri Navarro, Araceli. Catálogo de sellos de la Sección de sigillografía del Archivo histórico nacional. 3 vol. Madrid: Servicio de publicaciones del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, 1974.
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  171. Descriptive notices of 2,266 seal impressions appended to documents. Each volume has its own set of plates and indices of seal owners, plates, and particular historical record groups (fonds) in which the catalogued sealed documents are located.
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  173. Laurent, René. Inventaire de la collection de moulages de sceaux des Archives générales du royaume à Bruxelles. 2 vols. Brussels: Archives generals du royame, 2003.
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  175. This second largest collection of casts in Europe, 38,000 pieces, contains seals mainly from Belgium, but also from Luxemburg, the Netherlands, and France. The current project of digitization online has reached its first stage with a database, in French, of 7,000 seals available online, and there is a search facility available (in Dutch), also online.
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  177. Menéndez Pidal de Navascués, Faustino, Mikel Ramos Aguirre, and Esperanza Ochoa de Olza Eguiraun. Sellos medievales de Navarra: Estudio y corpus descriptivo. Pamplona, Spain: Gobierno de Navarra, Departamento de educación y cultura, 1995.
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  179. This systematic gathering of Navarrese seal impressions from the late 12th to the 16th century yielded 3,377 descriptive notices, all illustrated. The introductory essay on the origins, development, and characteristics of Navarrese sealing practices offers learned as well as pioneering insights on these questions.
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  181. Research
  182.  
  183. Casts, photographs, and catalogue inevitably refer to extant seals (see Catalogues and their Heuristic Principles), but neither to all seals that existed and were in use nor even to all extant seals in a given archive. Thus, seals that have disappeared, even if clearly attested by documentary clauses, are not recorded. Also, of the many impressions issued from a given seal matrix, only the best will have likely been cast and described. Furthermore, seals judged to be esthetically or socially irrelevant were ignored. When consulting a seal catalogue, it is therefore imperative to establish its foundational and organizing principles and to understand how it has been selective. Finally, large numbers of extant seals simply remain unrecorded. Scholars intent on pursuing the study of seals thus face a paucity of research tools. The advent of digitization is improving the situation, in allowing libraries and archives systematically to capture seal casts and sealed charters in a format that permits computer processing and online consultation. Such projects, which can be tracked in current bibliographies (see Bibliographies) and catalogues (see Catalogues and their Heuristic Principles). The Collection of Facsimiles at the Medieval Institute of Notre Dame University offers an informative sampling of 200 seals, mostly French. The aim of the project Welfensiegel is to create an electronic database of the Guelph seals belonging to members of the ducal house of Brunswick and Lüneburg (Lower Saxony), from the 12th to the 18th century. Whether available online or in printed books, research tools permitting the location and identification of seals use terms specific to sigillographic endeavors. Ricci Noè 1990 offers easy access to the terminology employed to describe the physical, legal, and diplomatic aspects of seals, and translates this vocabulary into fourteen languages (Latin, French, German, English, Spanish, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, and Russian).
  184.  
  185. Collection of Facsimiles at the Medieval Institute of Notre Dame University.
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  187. An excellent website that can be researched by social category of sealers, geographic origins, and iconographic motifs. Gives for each seal a digitized image, description, transcription, provenance, and reference.
  188. Find this resource:
  189. Ricci Noè, Stefania, ed. Vocabulaire international de la sigillographie. Pubblicazioni degli archivi di Stato. Sussidi 3. Rome: Ministero per i beni culturali e ambientali, 1990.
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  191. A lexical approach to seals, clear and useful if at times somewhat rigid in its system of categorization. Definitions of terms relating to the appearance, materials, and manufacturing of seals, and to the sealing process, are given in French and accompanied by translations in fourteen European languages.
  192. Find this resource:
  193. Welfensiegel.
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  195. A project of the Historische Kommission für Niedersachsen und Bremen. Over 1,450 seals are available online, and can be researched by name, legend, gender, familial branches, iconographic device, call number, and date. Each entry contains a photograph, description, reference, and when possible the archival provenance of all known imprints of the seal described. Beautiful photos of original wax impressions.
  196. Find this resource:
  197. Materials and Techniques
  198.  
  199. Manuals of sigillography (see General Overviews and Research) and catalogues (see Bibliographies) of seals and seal matrices housed in archives, libraries, museums, and private collections offer wide-ranging considerations of their physical traits.
  200.  
  201. Seals Matrices
  202.  
  203. As Tonnochy 1952 makes clear, most medieval matrices were metallic stamp-seals with handles, mostly engraved in bronze and latten, more rarely in gold and silver. Hiebaum 1931 focuses on precious or semiprecious stone seals, ancient or medieval, that were inserted into signet rings for sealing purposes. The database assembled by Kornbluth admirably illustrates the reuse of antique gems for sealing, a practice that existed throughout the central Middle Ages in both Byzantium and western Europe. In northern Europe, bone and walrus ivory were also carved into seal dies. The practice is examined in Andersen and Tegnér 2002, where several contributors analyze the archeological evidence for the fate of matrices once they have fallen in disuse, including reuse, defacement, burial, and destruction. Bedos-Rezak 2006 considers the metamorphosis of seal dies into other objects, as their affinity with their owners made them vehicles for the expression of piety or for the demonstration of political defeat. Nevertheless, much is left to speculation concerning the medieval disposal of seal dies, and the same is even truer of their engraving, of which little is known (see Seal Engravers).
  204.  
  205. Andersen, Michael, and Göran Tegnér, eds. Middelalderlige seglstamper i Norden. Roskilde, Denmark: Roskilde Museum, 2002.
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  207. Excellent volume of thirteen essays, four in English with the others summarized in English précis, examine in detail the engraving, iconography, legends, use, and disposal of medieval seal matrices from Northern Europe, including Iceland, Scandinavia, the Rhineland, and England. English summaries. Good illustrations with informative captions.
  208. Find this resource:
  209. Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte Miriam. “L’au-delà du soi: Métamorphoses sigillaires en Europe médiévale.” Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 49 (2006): 337–358.
  210. DOI: 10.3406/ccmed.2006.2945Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211. Analyses the destruction and liturgical reuse of episcopal seals at Durham (England) and the implications of the various manipulations medieval seal matrices underwent for political and devotional purposes.
  212. Find this resource:
  213. Hiebaum, Gerta. Gemmensiegel und andere in Steinschnitt hergestellte Siegel des Mittelalters. Veröffentlichungen des Historischen Seminars der Universität Graz 9. Graz, Austria: Universitäts-Buchhandlung Leuschner and Lubensky, 1931.
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  215. Descriptive notices of 332 seal stones, few illustrated, from the 8th century to 1500. The catalogue has sections on royal ecclesiastical, lordly (male and female), and bourgeois seals.
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  217. Kornbluth, Genevra. Kornbluth Photography.
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  219. Documenting the luxury arts, has a rich database on gems and stone seals, as can be expected of an art historian of Carolingian gems.
  220. Find this resource:
  221. Tonnochy, Alex B. Catalogue of British Seal-Dies in the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1952.
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  223. This exemplary catalogue is continued online, where images and descriptions of newly acquired matrices are given.
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Seal Impressions
  226.  
  227. Medieval seal impressions, usually round or pointed oval, were made of beeswax; when stamped in lead (see Ecclesiastical Seals) or gold (see Royal and Imperial Seals), they are termed bulls (Latin bullae). The study in Martini 1984 of documents sealed in gold that are preserved in the Vatican Secret Archives evaluates a phenomenon that, though relatively rare, persisted into the modern period. Wax, a more common sealing material, was not colored until the 12th century, when the addition of verdigris for green, organic matters and carbon for brown, and cinnabar (vermilion) for red offered the possibility of differentiation. Hoskin 2012 discusses developments in sealing wax color, from natural beeswax to green and red, and patterns that, in certain chanceries and writing bureaus, dictated the use of particular wax colors for the sealing of specific documents. Manuals of sigillography (see General Overviews) review and illustrate methods of seal attachment comprehensively. Bullae were always appended, hung on woven cords that passed through an incision made in the bottom fold of documents; wax impressions were either applied directly to the parchment of charters, or affixed to them on cords or strips of parchment. Spiegel 1995, a case study of the means for affixing seals on the charters of Emperor Frederic II (d. 1250), presents a thorough analysis of seal techniques and their implications. Pastoureau 2005 addresses the intentional deep imprints of fingers sometime found on the reverse of medieval seal impressions, and his essay raises questions about the act of sealing. It can be inferred from rare texts that the softened wax was pressed against the engraved surface of the die by hand, which typically left a web of fingerprints on the back of seal impressions. Produced by hands and dies, seals were objects of replicated design, sharing affinities with artifacts which also result from a stamping process, such as coins, jetons, lead cloth and food seals, stamped tiles and, as Bredehoft 2006 expertly notes, pilgrim and secular badges.
  228.  
  229. Bredehoft, Thomas A. “Literacy without Letters: Pilgrim Badges and Late Medieval Illiterate Ideology.” Viator 37 (2006): 433–445.
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  231. The author focuses on the corpus of late medieval pilgrim badges inscribed with lettering that is unreadable or not linguistically construed, while building on earlier scholarship to discuss the role of printing in the mass production of this material. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Hoskin, Philippa. “The Use of Coloured Wax in English Episcopal Seals to 1300.” In Facsimiles of English Episcopal Acta 1085–1305. Edited by Martin Brett with Philippa Hoskin and David Smith, xxi–xxiv. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
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  235. An insightful discussion of the significance of colored wax in bishops’ seals, showing that there are some distinctive chromatic sealing practices, although they do not fit a specific documentary system. Important remarks on the difficulty of identifying seals’ colors, whose unstable pigments discolor over time.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Martini, Aldo. I sigilli d’oro dell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano/The Golden Seals of the Vatican Secret Archives. Milan: Franco Maria Ricci, 1984.
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  239. The scholarly discussion of the documents sealed in gold at the Vatican Secret Archives is equal to their luxury publication.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Pastoureau, Michel. “Le doigt dans la cire: Cent mille empreintes digitales médiévales.” In Special Issue: La pelle umana/The Human Skin. Edited by A. Paravicini Bagliani. Micrologus. Natura, scienze e società medievali 13 (2005): 331–344.
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  243. The author advocates the systematic study of imprints made by individuals as counterseals to their seals, stressing their evidential import in the fields of law, biology, and physical anthropology.
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  245. Spiegel, Joachim. “Zur Besiegelungstechnik der Urkunden Kaiser Friedrichs II.” Archiv für Diplomatik. Schriftgeschichte, Siegel- und Wappenkunde 41 (1995): 311–324.
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  247. The definitive study of sealing techniques in use at the chancery of Emperor Frederic II (d. 1250).
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  249. Forgery
  250.  
  251. Of the five volumes of Fuhrmann 1988, a monumental treatment of the manifold venues of medieval fakery and deception, two are devoted to the widespread forging of sealed documents. Contributors attempt to disentangle the conundrum that this practice presents, since some forgers produced faked seals to confirm valid transactions that earlier practices had left unsealed or even unwritten, while others forged to clarify the record, and yet others intended deceit. Some essays in Fuhrmann 1988 discuss the medieval methods devised for establishing the genuineness of seals, and the harsh punishments visited upon forgers. The art of fakery has not disappeared with modernity; to the contrary, as Bautier 1990 shows, the presence of avid collectors and eager genealogists since the 17th century has encouraged the fabrication of false matrices, which compete in the marketplace with genuine items recovered by the use of metal detectors. Scholarly attitudes toward medieval forgery have changed, with Heslop 1992 arguing for the significant cultural evidence offered by medieval forgers and their creativity.
  252.  
  253. Bautier, Robert-Henri. “Forgeries et falsifications de documents par une officine généalogique au milieu du XIXe siècle.” In Chartes, sceaux, et chancellerie: Etudes de diplomatique et de sigillographie médiévales. Vol. 1. By Robert-Henri Bautier, 247–265. Paris: Ecole nationale des chartes, 1990.
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  255. In-depth study of the 19th-century forgery of an entire corpus of documents designed to support a family’s genealogy. The seals used to seal the faked charters were removed from original documents. Originally published in Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des chartes 132 (1974): 75–93 (available online).
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Fuhrmann, Horst, ed. Fälschungen im Mittelalter. MGH Schriften 33. 6 vols. Hanover, Germany: Hahn, 1988.
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  259. Volumes 3 and 4, devoted to the forgery of documents (Diplomatische Fälschungen), discuss in depth the techniques of seal forgery, as well as the circumstances for and consequences of their production.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Heslop, T. A. “Twelfth-Century Forgeries as Evidence for Earlier Seals: The Case of St Dunstan.” In St Dunstan: His Life, Times and Cult. Edited by N. Ramsay, M. Sparks, and T. Tatton-Brown, 299–310. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 1992.
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  263. A convincing demonstration of the historical implications of forgery. Focusing on seal forgers at work in Westminster in the 1150s, the author compares their methods, which consisted in imitating earlier seals or inventing new seals from scratch.
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  265. History
  266.  
  267. The history of seals in the medieval western world (500–1500) is often obscured rather than clarified when subsumed within a metanarrative that construes sealing as a continuing practice from the dawn of Mesopotamian civilization to the present (see Introduction). Medieval seals and their utilization exhibit characteristics specific to this period, such as their material, shape, iconography, meaning, performance, and discursive presence (see Seals in the Medieval Cultures of the West). These characteristics in turn were contingent upon the local, social, and temporal environment, acting with and reacting to its components, with which they entertained mutually constitutive relationships. Traditional histories focused on medieval seals as devices for documentary validation and conceived their expansion along two axes. One, socio-chronological, tracing the diffusion of seals within society; the other, concerned with their diversification into different categories, specialized according to the type of documents they authorized. The pioneering study Clanchy 1993 expanded this analytical framework by situating sealing within a space of administrative and legal practice where orality and literary negotiated the nature of testimonial authority, and by locating seals among those objects and ritual props that fostered trust and accountability. In so doing, the author also demonstrated the extent to which the modalities of seal usage in Britain were inseparable from this region’s post-Conquest conditions.
  268.  
  269. Clanchy, Michael T. From Memory to Written Record: England 1066–1307. 2d ed. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1993.
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  271. Groundbreaking analysis of seals (particularly in chapter 9) in terms of their ability to foster trust in writing as devices that straddled the world of literate attitudes and nonliterate practices.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Seal Usage in Time and Space (500–1500 CE)
  274.  
  275. Bautier 1990 is a major panoramic presentation of the diffusion of seals from Mesopotamia to 13th-century Western Europe: after the fall of Roman imperial rule in the west, Merovingian kings and popes were the earliest issuers of sealed diplomas, and their successors retained the practice; next, in the 10th century, came the episcopate from northern Francia, the Rhineland, and Bavaria, thereafter followed by European bishops and, in the 11th century, by abbots, abbesses, and monastic houses; also in the 11th century, lay male and female magnates began to seal, a usage adopted in the next century by lords and knights; by the early 13th century, parish priests, towns and urbanites, rural tenants, and administrators of all rank sealed as well (see sociology). Manuals of sigillography also paint the diffusion of sealing in similar broad brushstrokes, while national surveys reveal that in some parts of Europe (southern France, Iberia, Britain, Scandinavia), documentary sealing appeared late or did not spread widely (see General Overviews). Roberts 2006, in its assessment of seal usage in Anglo-Saxon England, pursues a rewarding methodology. In addition to material evidence, Roberts tracked the semantics of the term “seal” in Anglo-Saxon and Latin texts of pre-Conquest England, reaching two conclusions: that seals for documentary validation were known to Anglo-Saxons (although there is no evidence that they were used before the mid-11th century), and that seals were also used to lock boxes, close letters, identify messengers, and secure bandages applied in the aftermath of ordeals. Her study brings a healthy reminder that seal function extended beyond documentary validation, and that textual as well as material evidence is necessary for a fuller comprehension of seals and sealing (see Seals in the Medieval Cultures of the West).
  276.  
  277. Bautier, Robert-Henri. “Le cheminement du sceau et de la bulle des origines mésopotamiennes au XIIIe siècle.” In Chartes, sceaux, et chancellerie: Etudes de diplomatique et de sigillographie médiévales. Vol. 1. By Robert-Henri Bautier, 123–166. Paris: Ecole nationale des chartes, 1990.
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  279. Of unique breadth, this panoramic study highlights but does not explain the fact that seal usage is not found in continuity within many regions of the west. Originally published in Revue française d’héraldique et de sigillographie 54–59 (1984–1989): $1–$84.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Roberts, Jane. “What did Anglo-Saxon Seals Seal When?” In Power of Words: Essays in Lexicography, Lexicology and Semantics: In Honour of Christian J. Kay. Edited by Graham D. Caie, Carole Hough, and Irené Wotherspoon, 131–158. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006.
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  283. The argument is built against the rich background of a comprehensive review of the large amount of work done on the question of sealing in Anglo-Saxon England.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Seal Categories
  286.  
  287. Ricci Noè 1990 (cited under Research) lists and defines the full range of seals that came to strengthen the great seal (an individual’s or corporation’s main seal)—as did the counter-seal—or substitute for it—as did the privy or secret seal for personal use and the deputed seals for administration and business. Bautier 1990 explores in depth the dynamics of praxis and prescriptive rulings, which progressively invested the seals of authoritative individuals and corporations with an official capacity, thereby creating authentic seals (sigilla authentica). Contracting parties whose seals carried only the limited guarantee of their personal commitment sought the officially sanctioned seals of royal, episcopal, or urban authorities, who then created special seals of jurisdiction, distinct from their great seals, for the validation of contracts transacted and recorded in their courts. Fraenkel 1992 takes up the question of authentication by discussing both sealing and notarial systems, the latter having remained predominant in southwestern Europe; it then traces the circumstances for the growing use of the manuscript signature, both notarial and personal, as the preferred sign of documentary validation in current affairs. By the early 16th century, the seal retained its legal status only in sovereign and official courts; elsewhere, formed as a signet ring, it served as an epistolary closing device. Bautier 1990 and Fraenkel 1992 center on France. New 2010 surveys very clearly the diversification of seals in medieval Britain.
  288.  
  289. Bautier, Robert-Henri. “L’authentification des actes privés dans la France médiévale: Notariat public et juridiction gracieuse.” In Chartes, sceaux et chancelleries: Etudes de diplomatique et de sigillographie médiévales. Vol. 1. By Robert-Henri Bautier, 269–340. Paris: Ecole nationale des chartes, 1990.
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  291. A learned analysis of the two main systems by which medieval individuals were made to respect their obligations: notarial records and oral transactions before witnesses, which were recounted, recorded, and sealed in court. Originally published in Notariado público y documento privado: De los orígenes al siglo XIV, Vol. 1 (Valencia, 1989). pp. 701–772.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Fraenkel, Béatrice. La signature: Genèse d’un signe. Paris: Gallimard, 1992.
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  295. In her pioneering study of the emergence, in the 16th century, of the signature as the sole marker of personal identity, the author shows the signature to be the vestige of a large network of signs of identity (including seals) and not, as is often assumed, an index of literacy.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. New, Elizabeth A. Seals and Sealing Practices. Archives and the Users 11. London: British Records Association, 2010.
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  299. An invaluable presentation of the types of seals found in British archival collections, from their first appearance in the early Middle Ages to sealing practices in modern society.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Sociology
  302.  
  303. Bedos-Rezak 1993 examines the seals of specific social categories—women, lords and knights, Jews, town dwellers, and kings—seeking to understand the nature of seal agency within the very social processes mediated by seals’ expression of authority, kindred, gender, selfhood, and identity.
  304.  
  305. Bedos-Rezak, Brigittte. Form and Order in Medieval France: Studies in Social and Quantitative Sigillography. Aldershot, UK: Variorum, 1993.
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  307. Of the twelve collected essays, in French and English, eight examine the relationship between seals and power in royal and aristocratic contexts, two focus on women’s seals, and one focuses on Jewish seals. The last essay, on city seals, examines the ways in which seals signified the personality of corporate entities.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Seals of Minorities: Jews and Moslems
  310.  
  311. Friedenberg 1987 presents a corpus and a historical perspective on seals used by the individual Jews and Jewish communities—as an administrative unit—of medieval Europe. In Collon 1997 (see General Overviews), the chapter dealing with Islamic seals covers their material and functional aspects, emphasizing inscriptions because seals, as official objects, fell under the proscription against figural representation. Menendez Pidal (see Catalogues and their Heuristic Principles) records the seals of Navarrese medieval Moslems.
  312.  
  313. Friedenberg, Daniel M. Medieval Jewish Seals from Europe. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987.
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  315. A fundamental work on Jewish seals in England, France, Spain, Sicily, Germany, Hungary, and Italy. Each seal is fully described, transcribed, illustrated, and situated historically.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Gender and Women’s Seals
  318.  
  319. Stieldorf 1999 integrates a detailed study of the seals used by lay women in the Rhineland within the larger European landscape of medieval sealing practices (see sociology), and is thus able to outline the gendered dimensions of sealing. The author notes the slight delay in women’s sealing and the smaller number of women who assumed seal usage, the absence of women from the heraldic grammar of their lineage, and the sometime unequal force of women’s seals as validating devices (the seals of queens as consorts never achieved the stately dimensions of the king’s great seal; see Royal Seals and Administrative Seals). Johns 2003 particularly considers the seals of 12th-century Anglo-Norman women in terms of the power they enabled women to exercise.
  320.  
  321. Johns, Susan M. Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power in the Twelfth-Century Anglo-Norman Realm. Manchester, UK, and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003.
  322. DOI: 10.7228/manchester/9780719063046.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. In addition to illuminating discussions of seals as means and indices of female power, the author provides in appendix of 145 seals, fully described and illustrated, used by women in 12th- and 13th-century England.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Stieldorf, Andrea. Rheinische Frauensiegel: Zur rechtlichen und sozialen Stellung weltlicher Frauen im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert. Cologne: Böhlau, 1999.
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  327. A catalogue of 401 seals used by Rhenish women from 1141 to 1500 (with few illustrations) concludes this impressive study of women’s seals, which is particularly strong on the legal basis for women’s sealing (including restrictions) and on the types of transactions and documents they sealed.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Royal Seals and Administrative Seals
  330.  
  331. Stieldorf 2001–2002 investigates the meaning and function of the earliest documentary seals of the medieval west, which, affixed to the diplomas of Merovingian kings, showcased this exclusive ruling prerogative. By Carolingian times, seals were associated with the imperial and royal offices, multiplying in parallel with the division of the Carolingian empire into kingdoms. This process that can be traced in Posse 1981 and Dalas 1991, whose corpuses cover the medieval centuries discussing and illustrating the great seals that were affixed in chancery under the responsibility of a chancellor, as well as the privy and deputed seals that came to be used from the late 12th century onward. Jenkinson 1936 analyzes the principles for dividing the function of the great seal of England and for adding other seals as tools of royal administration. The corpus assembled in Nielen 2011 concerns the seals of French queens and royal children. Of the many studies devoted to the iconography of royal and imperial seals (see General Overviews and Bibliographies), Keller 2002 exemplifies a fruitful approach that considers Ottonian seals to be vehicles of communication between rulers and ruled, bearing new imagery (in particular the bust in majesty and later the enthroned figure with regalia) that increasingly incorporated Christological postures and thus proclaimed the emperor’s status as the vicar of Christ at a time when actual imperial power in imperial lands was limited. Dalas 1991 has a series of introductions on the use and iconography of the seals of French kings and gives a detailed description and photo for each seal, including great seals, counter-seals, privy or secret seals, seals of regency, and seals of the Châtelet and of the Parlements.
  332.  
  333. Dalas, Martine. Corpus des sceaux français du Moyen Age. Vol. 2, Les sceaux des rois et de régence. Paris: Archives nationales, 1991.
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  335. A series of introductions on the use and iconography of the seals of French kings, and provides a detailed description and photo for each seal, including great seals, counter-seals, privy or secret seals, seals of regency, and the deputy seals of the Châtelet, Grands Jours, and Parlements.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Jenkinson, Hilary. “The Great Seal of England: Deputed or Departmental Seals.” Archaeologia, 2nd ser., 85 (1936): 293–340.
  338. DOI: 10.1017/S026134090001523XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. In-depth discussion of deputed seals, which carried as much authority as the royal great seal, and included the seals of the Exchequer, King’s Bench, and Court of Common Pleas, as well as seals for the governments of Scotland and Wales. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Keller, Hagen. “Ottonische Herrschersiegel: Beobachtungen und Fragen zu Gestalt und Aussage und zur Funktion im historischen Kontext.” In Ottonische Königsherrschaft: Organisation und Legitimation königlicher Macht. By Hagen Keller, 131–166. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2002.
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  343. An innovative approach to seals, derived from the author’s work on Ottonian politics, the pragmatics of writing, and symbolic communication. Originally published in Konrad Krimm and John Herwig (eds.), Bild und Geschichte: Studien zur politischen Ikonographie: Festschrift für Hansmartin Schwarzmaier zum fünfundsechzigsten Geburtstag (Sigmaringen, Germany: Jan Thorbecke, 1997), pp. 3–51.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Nielen, Marie-Adelaide. Corpus des sceaux français du Moyen Age. Vol. 3, Les sceaux des reines et des enfants de France. Paris: Service interministériel des Archives de France, 2011.
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  347. Comprehensive gathering of seals used by French queens and their children from the 6th century (seal rings) to 1500. Each notice is illustrated and includes description, transcription, archival references, and bibliography.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Posse, Otto. Die Siegel der deutschen Kaiser und Könige. 5 vols. Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat, 1981.
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  351. Corpus gathering the seals of German kings and emperors from 751 to 1913. All seals are illustrated on plates, with each illustration associated with a descriptive notice. Additionally, each ruler is the object of a separate notice, containing an analysis of all types of seals he used. Volume 5 contains an introduction to imperial sigillography. Originally published in 1909–1913 (Dresden: Wilhelm and Bertha V. Baensch Stiftung).
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Stieldorf, Andrea. “Gestalt und Funktion der Siegel auf den merowingischen Königsurkunden.” Archiv für Diplomatik, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel- und Wappenkunde 47–48 (2001–2002): 133–166.
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  355. Important new research on the transition between late antique sealing and royal Merovingian seals, arguing for a significant change of seal function at the beginning of the 7th century in connection with the institution of administrators empowered to seal royal diplomas.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Personal Seals: Lords and Knights
  358.  
  359. Laurent 1993’s in-depth analysis of the seals of the medieval aristocratic families of present-day Belgium deals with aspects of princely sealing, such as its early appearance, the widespread adoption of the image of equestrian warriors in arms on the great seals, the adoption of heraldic designs and their transformations into familial devices, the display of courtly iconography (hunting scenes), the use of seals by women (see Gender and Women’s Seals), and the multiplication of the types of seals owned by a given individual (counter-seals, privy or secret seals, and signets; see Seal Categories). Mayer 1978 provides a comprehensive study of Frankish seals used in the Crusader States. Coss 2003 pursues an innovative social history of the seal; in considering the lower ranks of the English nobility it shows how the armorial seal, originally typical of knights, was appropriated by esquires as they emerged as a social category in the mid-14th century.
  360.  
  361. Coss, Peter, “Knights, Esquires and the Origins of Social Gradation in England.” In Origins of the English Gentry. By Peter Coss, 216–238. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
  362. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511522383.010Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  363. The use and iconography of seals are central to the argument advanced about the formation of esquires into a social category. Reprinted, with minor readjustments, from Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5 (1995): 155–178.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Laurent, René. Les sceaux des princes territoriaux belges du Xe siècle à 1482. 3 vols. Brussels: Archives générales du Royaume, 1993.
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. Monumental corpus of seals used by the dukes of Brabant, Burgundy (from 1369), Limburg, the counts of Chiny, Flanders, Hainaut, Looz, Luxemburg, and Namur, and by their spouses. A general introduction outlines the characteristics of this princely sigillography. A judicious selection of plates enhances remarkably informative notices, organized by principalities.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Mayer, Hans Eberhard. Das Siegelwesen in den Kreuzfahrerstaaten. Munich: Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaffen, 1978.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. Detailed history of the appearance, use, and characteristics of lead and wax seals employed by western lords in crusading states. Few plates.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Personal Seals: Artisans, Rural Tenants, Urbanites
  374.  
  375. Both manuals of sigillography (see General Overviews) and seal catalogues (see Catalogues and their Heuristic Principles) describe seals appended by both male and female rural tenants to deeds (as early as the end of the 12th century in Normandy and England) that were roughly engraved with simple vegetal motifs. New 2008 examines the seals and sealing practices of town dwellers and offers an interesting perspective on the seals of craftsmen and tradesmen bearing occupation-related designs. Harvey 1991 provides a pioneering perspective on seals used by low-status individuals in the 13th and 14th centuries, citing numerous instances where such seals were anonymous, not personal to the sealers but rather provided to them either by recipients of the grant or by the clerks in charge of writing the documents.
  376.  
  377. Harvey, Paul D. A. “Personal Seals in Thirteenth-Century England.” In Church and Chronicle in the Middle Ages: Essays Presented to John Taylor. Edited by Ian Wood and G. A. Loud, 117–127. London and Rio Grande, OH: Hambledon, 1991.
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  379. In this important essay, the author directs his attention to a large group of seals, personal seals without coats of arms, which he describes as “virgin territory.” The conclusions reached from examination of this material oblige a rethinking of medieval sealing practices.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. New, Elizabeth. “Representation and Identity in Medieval London.” In London and the Kingdom. Harlaxton Medieval Studies Series 16. Edited by Matthew Davies and Andrew Prescott, 246–258. Donington, UK: Shaun Tyas, 2008.
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  383. The author analyzes in depth 530 different personal seals from c. 1200–1499, appended to documents in the Bridge House deeds (Corporation of London Record Office).
  384. Find this resource:
  385. City Seals
  386.  
  387. Bedos-[Rezak] 1980 gathers the seals of French medieval towns within a single volume, documenting urban sealing from the time of its first appearance in France during the 12th century and featuring the extraordinary variety of iconographic motifs, borrowed from bestiaries and heraldry as well as from the worlds of architecture, hagiography, folklore, and urban activities (whale fishing, sailing, crafting). Devoted to the seals of corporations, Späth 2009 considers city seals in particular, proposing new analyses showing the ways in which seal iconography and materiality articulate urban self-conceptions of corporate and personal status.
  388.  
  389. Bedos-[Rezak], Brigitte. Corpus des sceaux français du Moyen Age. Vol. 1, Sceaux des villes. Paris: Archives nationales, 1980.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. Notices of 739 French city seals, all illustrated, giving description, transcription, provenance, and bibliography when relevant. The introduction discusses the relationship between seal usage and the medieval definition of towns.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Späth, Markus, ed. Die Bildlichkeit korporativer Siegel im Mittelalter. Studien zur mittelalterlichen Kunst 1. Cologne: Böhlau, 2009.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. Thirteen essays (one in English) by historians and art historians analyze the visual strategies at work on corporate seals, and explore the ways that personal signs signified groups.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Ecclesiastical Seals
  398.  
  399. Considering the early beginnings of papal and episcopal documentary sealing, the large numbers of extant ecclesiastic seals, and the extensive variety of seal owners, comprehensive treatments of ecclesiastical seals are surprisingly rare, but the pithy surveys in Coulon 1934 and Bascapè 1969–1984 (see General Overviews), which devotes an entire volume to such seals, present valuable information about the chronology, use, material features, and iconography of bulls and seals used by popes, bishops, chapters, archdeacons, deans, chapters, officials, parish priests, and the jurisdictions attached to ecclesiastical courts, as well as by monastic institutions, where seal usage tended to remain restricted to communities and their superiors. Some specific bishops and particular orders (Cistercians in particular) or abbeys have been the object of sigillographic studies (see Bibliographies and General Overviews), of which Dalton 1992 is a good example. Since rich churches and monasteries had access to skilled engravers, their seals count among the fine artistic productions of the Middle Ages (see Art of Seals). There are discussions of the seals of the military orders in Mayer 1978 (see Personal Seals: Lords and Knights). Gandilhon 1952 (see Catalogues and their Heuristic Principles) has an annotated catalogue of the seals of French universities and of their academic and administrative staff.
  400.  
  401. Coulon, Auguste. “Éléments de sigillographie ecclésiastique française.” In Introduction aux études d’histoire ecclésiastique locale. Vol. 2. Edited by V. Carrière Victor, 109–215. Paris: Letouzey, 1934.
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  403. Though dealing mostly with French seals, the essay’s analytical scope opens up perspectives that include a wide range of issues concerning seals in medieval Christian culture and society.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Dalton, John P. The Archiepiscopal and Deputed Seals of York 1114–1500. Borthwick Texts and Calendars 17. York, UK: Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, University of York, 1992.
  406. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  407. This catalogue of all extant seal impressions affixed by the archbishops and their officers and Officials contains descriptions and photos of the best surviving impressions of each type. An introduction details the diplomatics of seal usage and analyzes the artistic milieus in which seals were designed and engraved.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. The Art of Seals
  410.  
  411. Seal matrices and impressions are often included in art exhibits and their catalogues, as in Kahsnitz 1977–1979 and Heslop 1987. In Gil and Chassel 2011, scholars from various disciplines of medieval studies interrogate the patterns of artistic innovation, appropriation, and influence at work in the craftsmanship, style, and iconographic programs displayed by medieval seals, arguing for their integral connection with Gothic figurative and architectural art.
  412.  
  413. Gil, Marc, and Jean-Luc Chassel, eds. Pourquoi les sceaux? La sigillographie, nouvel enjeu de l’histoire de l’art. Lille, France: CEGES, Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille III, 2011.
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  415. This volume of conference proceedings, which contains twenty-nine articles in French, addresses three main themes: the creation of sigillography as a discipline, the medieval conceptualization of the seal image, and the art of seals and its meaning in the visual culture of the Middle Ages.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Heslop, T. A. “English Seals in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries.” In Age of Chivalry. Edited by Jonathan Alexander and Paul Binski, 114–117. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1987.
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  419. In addition to this general introduction, the book includes “Seals and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy” (230–231), “Seals of Lords and Ladies” (251–252), “Seals of the City of London, of Merchants, Citizens and Freemen” (273–277), “English Seals of the Mid-Thirteenth Century” (316–319), “Techniques for Making Seal Matrices and Impressions” (396–400), and “Seals of the Mid-Fourteenth Century” (493–497).
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Kahsnitz, Rainer. “Siegel und Goldbullen.” In Die Zeit der Staufer: Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur; Katalog der Ausstellung Stuttgart 1977. Edited by Reiner Haussherr. 5 vols. Stuttgart: Württembergisches Landesmuseum, 1977–1979.
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  423. Important argument about the artistic influence exercised by seals, formulated within detailed notices of 162 seals, all superbly illustrated, belonging or relating to 12th- and 13th-century emperors, lords and knights, cities, bishops, and monastic superiors and institutions, from Germanic lands down to southern Italy. See especially Vol. 1, pp. 17–108, and Vol. 3, plates 1–30 and pp. 83–104.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Seal Engravers
  426.  
  427. Kingsford 1940, Heslop 1986, and Heslop 1987 (cited under Art of Seals) have shown that highly skilled goldsmiths, some of whom can be specifically identified, were responsible for engraving the seals of elite individuals and corporations, but that fine craftsmanship was absent from the making of most medieval seal matrices; this aspect of artifactual manufacturing is still relatively obscure.
  428.  
  429. Heslop, T. A. “Seals as Evidence for Metal Working in England in the Later Twelfth Century.” In Art and Patronage in the English Romanesque. Occasional Papers 8. Edited by Sarah Macready and Frederick H. Thompson, 50–60. London: Society of Antiquaries. 1986.
  430. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. In this groundbreaking investigation, the author shows that detailed examination of wax impressions as well as seal matrices may answer questions about seal engraving.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Kingsford, Hugh S. “Some Medieval Seal-Engravers.” Archaeological Journal 97 (1940): 158–180.
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  435. Gives detailed biographical notices of twenty-eight English seal engravers, from the late 12th century to 1500, including analyses and illustrations of the seals they engraved.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Scripts and Legends
  438.  
  439. Whether in Latin or in the vernacular, the wording surrounding seal images, the legend, bears the owner’s name and titles (see sociology), refers to the seal itself (see Seal Categories), or contains a pious, witty, or sentimental phrase often connected to the design, a phenomenon that is well explored by Harvey and McGuinness 1996 (see General Overviews). With respect to the forms of lettering in seal legends, Demay 1881 (see Catalogues and their Heuristic Principles) gives a detailed analysis of paleographic styles, linguistic usages, and abbreviations. The identification in Kingsford 1929 of three main styles of lettering, Roman capitals, Lombardic capitals (or uncials), and black letter, applies generally to the medieval seals of Western Europe. Diederich 1996 interprets the cross with which the great majority of seal legends begin as a chrismon and symbolic invocation, not quite putting to rest the alternative argument that the cross of seal legends derived from the signature of documentary witnesses.
  440.  
  441. Diederich, Toni. “Zur Bedeutung des Kreuzes am Anfang von Siegelumschriften.” In Graphische Symbole in mittelalterlichen Urkunden: Beiträge zur diplomatischen Semiotik. Edited by Peter Rück, 157–166. Stuttgart: Jan Thorbecke, 1996.
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  443. Although this study does not resolve conflicting interpretations about the meaning of the cross in seal legends, it clarifies the debate substantially.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Kingsford, Hugh S. “The Epigraphy of Medieval English Seals.” Archaeologia, 2nd ser., 79 (1929): 149–178.
  446. DOI: 10.1017/S026134090000881XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. Each letter of the alphabet receives a notice describing its first appearance on seals and the chronological evolution of its forms. The essay concludes that there were substantial overlaps between styles of lettering, none being fully displaced by others. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Iconography
  450.  
  451. The classification of seal iconography in Diederich 2012 (see General Overviews), predicated upon a conception of seals as media of self-expression, was developed in part to balance the art historical use of seal images as evidence for artistic skill and for shifts in stylistic movements (see The Art of Seals). However, the meaning of seal iconography need not reside exclusively in styles or in self-expression, as Späth 2011 shows in exploring the social values of seal images and taking into consideration both their subject matters and the representational modes at work in their treatment. Focusing on the iconography and materiality of seals bearing Christological designs and legends, New 2002 argues convincingly that such objects offered appropriate images for prayer.
  452.  
  453. New, Elizabeth A. “Christological Personal Seals and Christocentric Devotion in Later Medieval England and Wales.” Antiquaries Journal 82 (2002): 47–68.
  454. DOI: 10.1017/S0003581500073728Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  455. Examines the different types of Christological imagery on personal late medieval seals (13th–16th century), including the Lamb of God, Pelican in its Piety, Sacred Monogram, Crucifixion, Christ in Majesty, and Veronica (Head of Christ). Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Späth, Markus. “Architectural Representation and Monastic Identity: The Medieval Seal Images of Christchurch, Canterbury.” In Image, Memory and Devotion: Liber Amicorum Paul Crossley. Edited by Zoë Opačić and Achim Timmermann, 255–263. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2011.
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  459. Analysis of the two-sided seal commissioned by Christ Church, Canterbury, in 1232–1233, with particular attention to the ways that micro architecture in seal design enabled the incorporation of often competing iconographic traditions of local monastic identity.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Seals in the Medieval Cultures of the West
  462.  
  463. Theoretical approaches developed in legal and semiotic anthropology and in material culture studies have suggested newer interpretations of medieval seals. Experience of the relevance of modern theory has brought recognition that theoretical activity had also been part of medieval intellectual life, and prompted the discovery that seals were both conceptual tools for, and the topical targets of, theoretical debates. Welber in Bascape 1969–1984 (see General Overviews) shows the extent to which medieval legal discourse (of both canon and civil law) on seals considered them as signs mediating authorization but sought in vain to control their signifying and referential operations. Adams, et al. 2008 interrogates the elements constitutive of seal authority, tracing the contingencies that modulated the effectiveness of that authority, such as social rank, function, time, place, and especially ideas about the representational capacity of images. Based upon joint analysis of a large body of both textual seal metaphors and concrete seal impressions, Bedos-Rezak 2010 posits that seal significance and agency in the central Middle Ages were effects of the seal’s modes of production, imprint, and replication, which associated representation with original contact, identity with likeness, and verity with verification.
  464.  
  465. Adams, Noël, John Cherry, and James Robinson, eds. Good Impressions: Images and Authority in Medieval Seals. London: British Museum, 2008.
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  467. These seventeen essays, revised from conference papers, constitute an interdisciplinary approach to the relationships between seals and seal users. The volume concludes with an illustrated handlist of all seals displayed in the concurrent and eponymous exhibit held at the British Museum.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte Miriam. From Ego to Imago: Signs of Identity in the Middle Ages. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010.
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  471. Situating sealing practices within the milieus that both prompted and produced the sealed charters issued in the names of rulers and nobles, a principal argument of the book is that seal usage developed as part of larger concerns for mediation and for the ontological definitions of human and Christological identity.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Byzantine Seals
  474.  
  475. Seals, mostly two-sided lead bulls pressed within two-armed devices configured like waffle irons and known as bulloteria, are documented in the eastern part of the Roman Empire by the 4th century and remained in use within the Byzantine Empire until the Ottoman conquest of the 15th century. The practice of authorizing documents with such seals began with emperors, thereafter extending to members of the civil, military, and ecclesiastical administrations, as well as to men and women from all ranks of society. There were other uses of seals, such as securing personal correspondence or containers of gold, the authentication of relics, and the guaranteeing of payments or quality of goods. Seal usage and artistic quality peaked in the 11th and 12th centuries. Extant documentary seals from this period are numerous, finely carved with inscriptions, some in verse and anonymous, others bearing their owners’ names, titles, functions, and from the 10th century onward their patronymics. Skillfully engraved iconography includes images of the Virgin and saints, of animals and fantastic creatures, and even of human faces, although secular anthropomorphic representations on seals were an imperial prerogative. Given the destruction of most Byzantine archives, the great majority of extant Byzantine seals are no longer attached to records within historically constituted archives but exist as objects in post hoc collections, the largest of which are held by Harvard University at the Center for Byzantine Studies, Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC, 17,000 items), and the State Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 13,000 items). Most seals have entered these collections with no known provenance. These particular heuristics give Byzantine sigillography its particular research and methodological agendas, with emphases on techniques for the dating of seals, an eagerness for seals found in situated excavations, and a search for religious, art historical, prosopographical, administrative, and military information that, for some periods of Byzantine history, can be found only on seals.
  476.  
  477. Overviews and Resources
  478.  
  479. Oikonomidès 1985 offers a useful but brief general introduction to Byzantine seals. The introductory chapter in Cheynet 2008 presents both excellent perspectives on the state of Byzantine sigillography and an advanced guide for research in the field. In addition to articles and conference proceedings, volumes of the journal Studies in Byzantine Sigillography contain lists of Byzantine seals, previously published in essays and auction catalogues, thus enabling the location and identification of those from lesser-known publications. The Dumbarton Oaks website pools together and offers easy access to vast resources essential to the study of Byzantine seals, including the Online Catalog of the seal collection at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC, an ongoing project which comprises the digitization of both the existing printed catalogues (expected to be completed by 2015) and the seals (expected to be completed by 2020); a regularly updated bibliography; and two instructive expositions, one devoted to imperial seals (see Seals and the Empire), the other to a rare motif in Byzantine seal iconography: narrative scenes from the New Testament (see Seals in Byzantine Culture). These exhibits, and their successors, will remain available online on a permanent basis.
  480.  
  481. Cheynet, Jean-Claude. La société byzantine: L’apport des sceaux. Bilans de recherche 31–1/2. 2 vols. Paris: Association des amis du Centre d’histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 2008.
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  483. These informative collected studies have been revised to incorporate the results of new research and findings. In Volume 1, the Introductory chapter (pp. 1–82) is followed by four chapters on Method, five chapters on Society and Economy, and four chapters on the Cult of Saints; Volume 2 contains twelve prosopographical studies.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Dumbarton Oaks.
  486. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. Offers extraordinary resources for the study of Byzantine seals: The Lead Seals Catalogue; a bibliography; and exhibits on imperial seals, God’s Regents on Earth: A Thousand Years of Byzantine Imperial Seals, and on seals illustrated with scenes from the New Testament, Leaden Gospels.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Oikonomidès, Nicolas. Byzantine Lead Seals. Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection Publications 7. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1985.
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  491. Introduction to Byzantine lead seals, offering a survey of their manufacturing, use, iconography, inscriptions, and dating, expertly illustrated with examples selected from the collections of Dumbarton Oaks and the Fogg Museum of Art.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Studies in Byzantine Sigillography. Berlin: De Gruyter. 1987–.
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  495. Originally published by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection and edited by its founder, Nicolas Oikonomidès. Volume 7 (2002) was published by Harvard University Press; from Volume 8 on published by Walter de Gruyter. Publishes revised versions of papers read at conferences on Byzantine sigillography and articles on all aspects of the field: new finds, new methods, questions raised by seals about the political and ecclesiastical administration of Byzantium, and perspectives drawn from seals concerning Byzantine prosopography, historical geography, and iconography and art history.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Seals and the Empire
  498.  
  499. In its permanent exhibit, “God’s Regents on Earth: A Thousand Years of Byzantine Imperial Seals,” the Dumbarton Oaks website gives descriptions, interpretations, and digitized images of fifty-six imperial seals of emperors and empresses who ruled Byzantium from the 5th to the 15th century.
  500.  
  501. God’s Regents on Earth: A Thousand Years of Byzantine Imperial Seals.
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  503. The exhibit’s in-depth examination of imperial seals revolves around several themes: The Imperial Image, Dynasties of Empire, Interlopers and Usurpers, Divine Guardians, and Imperial Titulature. Each of these sections begins with a detailed introduction, followed by images and discussions of relevant seals.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Seals and Society
  506.  
  507. In several important chapters, Cheynet 2008 (see Overviews and Resources) elaborates on the information seals can provide about the dynamics of society and economics in Byzantium. Seibt 1976 makes good use of the available seals of the Skleroi in his prosopographical study of one of the wealthiest and most powerful aristocratic lineages of 10th- and 11th-century Byzantium. Oikonomidès 2004 reconstitutes the history of Byzantine kommerkiarioi by tracing changes in the inscriptions and iconography of their seals and establishing that, having appeared in the 6th century as private individuals involved in the prestigious trade silk, by the 9th century they had become officials entrusted with the collecting of taxes on goods. In considering the small number of 9th- to 11th-century Byzantine lead seals bearing animal motifs, some of which have long been recognized as displaying Islamic stylistic and iconographic features, Walker 2012 establishes criteria for distinguishing Islamicizing animal seal motifs and suggests the ways in which exotic stylistic and iconographic attributes helped seal owners express their social identities and aspirations.
  508.  
  509. Oikonomidès, Nicolas. “Silk Trade and Production in Byzantium from the Sixth to the Ninth Century: The Seals of Kommerkiarioi.” In Social and Economic Life in Byzantium. By Nicolas Oikonomidès, VIII: 33–53. Aldershot, UK: Variorum, 2004.
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  511. Valuable information from the seals of the kommerkiarioi includes the fact that some of them bear, on the obverse, the imperial effigy, a feature that is unique on the seals of civil servants. The author suggests several interpretations of this rare phenomenon. Originally published in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 40 (1986): 33–53, available online for purchase or by subscription.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Seibt, Werner. Die Skleroi: Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie. Byzantina Vindobenensia 9. Vienna: Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1976.
  514. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. A good case study of the role of seals both in Byzantine aristocratic life and in documenting that life for modern scholarship. Offers thirty illustrations.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Walker, Alicia. “Islamicising Motifs in Byzantine Lead Seals: Exoticising Style and the Expression of Identity.” Medieval History Journal 15.2 (2012): 385–413.
  518. DOI: 10.1177/097194581201500207Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. Revisits the argument that the bestiary of some Byzantine seals expresses a taste for Islamic styles, building from a recently completed catalogue of the 140 middle Byzantine (c. 843–1204) lead seals decorated with animal devices in the collections of Dumbarton Oaks and the Harvard University Art Museums. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Seals in Byzantine Culture
  522.  
  523. Cheynet 2008 (see Overviews and Resources) examines the religious iconography of Byzantine seals as evidence of their owners’ mentalities. On the Dumbarton Oaks website (see Overviews and Resources), the permanent exhibit devoted to “Leaden Gospels” (see Overviews and Resources) superbly explores seals as expressions of faith and of the ways that the Byzantines related to the New Testament. Digitized images of relevant seals arranged in two sections—Engraved Lives, which comprises scenes from the New Testament, and Architects of Faith, which focuses on Peter, Paul, and the Evangelists—allow each exhibited seal to be accompanied by a rich commentary and by quotations drawn from the Gospels and from Byzantine literature. Cotsonis 2009, in an extensive study of narrative religious scenes on Byzantine seals, analyzes iconographic designs in terms of engravers’ attitudes toward contemporary visual culture and of patterns of artistic patronage; the author’s conclusion, that in most instances the reasons for selecting a specific iconographic motif cannot be ascertained, removes seals from being seen as products of personal intention and situates them as mediators of multiple cultural expressions, including art, devotion, and the affirmation of rank. Pentcheva 2010 links material, visual, and performative aspects of the Byzantine icon to Byzantine image theory, highlighting the role of the seal-making process in explaining the icon’s ability to eschew idolatry by materializing the absence of its prototype while providing sensual experience of that which it represents.
  524.  
  525. Cotsonis, John. “Narrative Scenes on Byzantine Lead Seals (Sixth–Twelfth Centuries): Frequency, Iconography, and Clientele.” Gesta 48.1 (2009): 55–86.
  526. DOI: 10.2307/29764896Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. Essay based on 7,978 seals with religious imagery and focused on the variety, geography, chronology, and distribution of narrative scenes and of their inscriptions. Statistics are used to compare this material with trends in other media. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Pentcheva, Bissera V. The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010.
  530. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. Deftly incorporates Byzantine perceptions of seals derived from discourse on seals to show how they fostered and legitimized a conception of icons as performative through the medium of their sense-accessible materiality.
  532. Find this resource:
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