'A Companion to Seals in the Middle Ages' is a cross-disciplinary collection of fourteen essays on medieval sigillography. It is organized thematically, and it emphasizes important, often cutting-edge, methodologies for the study of medieval seals and sealing cultures. As the chronological, temporal and geographic scope of the essays in the volume suggests, the study of the medieval seal — its manufacture, materiality, usage, iconography, inscription, and preservation — is a rich endeavour that demands collaboration across disciplines as well as between scholars working on material from different regions and periods. It is hoped that this collection will make the study of medieval seals more accessible and will stimulate students and scholars to employ and further develop these material and methodological approaches to seals.
Author(s): Laura J. Whatley (ed.)
Series: Reading Medieval Sources, 2
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 432
City: Leiden
Acknowledgements ix
List of Illustrations x
Contributors xv
Introduction: Approaches to Medieval Seals and Sealing Practices / Laura J. Whatley 1
Part 1. Materiality and Seals
1. Analysis of the Materiality of Royal and Governmental Seals of England with a Focus on the Great Seals (1100–1300): Methodology and Findings / Elke Cwiertnia, Adrian Ailes and Paul Dryburgh 19
2. Material Analysis of Seals Attached to the Barons’ Letter to the Pope / Paul Dryburgh, Elke Cwiertnia and Adrian Ailes 57
3. Does Size Matter? Seals in England and Wales, ca. 1200–1500 / John A. McEwan 103
Part 2. Historiography and Seals
4. Fragments of the Past: the Early Antiquarian Perception and Study of Seals in England / Oliver D. Harris 129
5. Medieval Armorial Seals in The National Archives (UK) / Adrian Ailes 155
Part 3. Seals in Bureaucracy and Diplomatic
6. The Seals of the Judges of the Hippodrome: Drawing Data from Seals without Context / Jonathan Shea 181
7. Administration and Identity: Episcopal Seals in England from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Century / Philippa Hoskin 195
Part 4. Power and Aspiration on Medieval Seals
8. Power, Family, and Identity: Social and Personal Elements in Byzantine Sigillography / Angelina Anne Volkoff 223
9. Two Seals of Muskinus the Jew (Moshe b. Yeḥiel, d. 1336), the Archbishop of Trier’s Negociator / Andreas Lehnertz 242
10. 'Creatio Regni' in the Great Seal of Bosnian King Tvrtko Kotromanić / Emir O. Filipović 264
Part 5. Elusive Seal Owners and Users
11. Reconsidering the Silent Majority: Non-Heraldic Personal Seals in Medieval Britain / Elizabeth A. New 279
12. Seals of the Wives of Silesian Knights in the Pre-Hussite Age (1259–1414) / Marek L. Wójcik 310
Part 6. Visual Culture and Seals
13. Coins as Seals in Lombard Italy / Ashley Jones 333
14. The (Re-)Use of Ancient Gems and Coins: the Presence of Antiquity in Medieval Sigillography / Caroline Simonet 355
Select Bibliography 397
Index of Names and Subjects 412
