Appendix 4 - Brief Descriptions of Royal and Imperial Seals and Bullae

Summary

The function of this appendix is to provide the reader with brief descriptions of the iconography and inscriptions of royal and imperial seals and bullae from the period c.1050-c.1250 and to point them to the relevant catalogues or literature where fuller descriptions and often reproductions of these seals can be found. As charters and seals have yet to be subject to the kind of digitisation projects that are now commonplace for manuscripts, few of the seals in this appendix can be seen online. A handful of the seals described below have been digitised and when a seal (or its matrix) is available online a link is provided.

References are made to the following catalogues:

Birch, W. de G., Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, vol. 1 (London, 1887).

Dalas, M. Les sceaux des rois et de régence, CdS 2 (Paris, 1980).

Heslop, T.A. ‘Seals’ in English Romanesque Art, 1066-1200, ed., G. Zarnecki, J. Holt and T. Holland (London, 1984), 298-320.

Kahsnitz, R. ‘Siegel und Goldbullen’ in Die Zeit der Staufer, ed., R. Haussherr and C. Väterlein, 5 vols. (Stuttgart, 1977), IV, 17-108.

Nielen, M.-A. Les sceaux des reines et des enfants de France, CdS 3 (Paris, 2011)

Posse, O. Die Siegel der deutschen Kaiser und Könige von 751 bis 1806, 5 vols. (Dresden, 1909-13).

Stieldorf, A., ‘Die Siegel der Herrscherinnen - Siegelführung und Siegelbild der “deutschen” Kaiserinnen und Königinnen’, Rheinische Vierteljahrblätter 64 (2000), 1-44.

Wyon, A. B. The Great Seals of England (London, 1887).

If a number is given below, it refers to a catalogue entry rather than a page number. In Posse's catalogue of German seals the seals are not numbered sequentially throughout the catalogue. Instead Posse numbers the seals of each monarch individually. When reference is made to secondary literature other than the catalogues listed above, the bibliographic reference is accompanied by a page number.

Where seals are grouped together this is not to imply that they are identical, but that the iconography is broadly similar. For the differences between these seals the reader is referred to the relevant catalogues. R and L are used to refer to the hands of the monarchs depicted on the seal, rather than to sides of the seal itself. Unless otherwise specified, all seals are circular.