Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/103

Rh .—Common Seals, secreta, &c, of corporations and the like.

1. Cities, and towns.

2. Universities, and colleges therein.

3. Guilds, companies, and similar societies.

4. Schools, hospitals, and other communities.

.—Personal Seals, except those of sovereigns and their male issue, and of their respective consorts and daughters, appearing to be such.

1. With effigies seated, equestrian, or standing, with or without heraldry.

2. With heraldry of any kind, but no effigy.

3. With merchants' marks or initials as principal subjects.

4. With devices of other kinds, and names.

5. Ditto, ... but no name.

6. With names, but no device.

7. With legends or mottoes, but neither device nor name.

8. Miscellaneous personal seals.

.—Seals unascertained, &c.—i.e., miscellaneous lay seals not comprised under any of the above heads.

After what has been said by way of introduction to the preceding Scheme, I have little to add in explanation of it. In regard to official seals, in every case it is the office, whether ecclesiastical or lay, and not the officer, that is to determine the place of the seal. In like manner our universities and colleges for education are to be considered lay corporations, as in fact they are. See Blackst. Comm. I., p. 471. By device is intended such as constitutes the principal subject, and not mere ornament or accessories. It will be obvious, and it is unavoidable, that a seal difficult to decipher or interpret may sometimes require to be placed under a different head when more completely understood: and though the seals themselves are to furnish the distinctions, yet what is found on them will sometimes need explanation; and hence in those cases it may happen, without any inconsistency, that we ascertain, by additional information from other sources, such important facts, for example, as whether an office or community was lay or ecclesiastical, secular or monastic. It is not easy to define precisely certain terms: as, for instance, who is a sovereign, but in the great majority of examples there will be no difficulty; and in the very few doubtful cases it is not of any great consequence should the seal be placed under some head to which, if not a sovereign's, it would belong, until the doubt is removed: and so in