Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/761

 SEAL 735 to seals, and they abound among Assyrian and Babylonian remains. From the East the use of seals passed to Greece and thence to Kome ; and it has been common in all the European states from the earliest periods. Among both the Greeks and the Romans the seal was usu- ally set in a ring, whence annulus came to be a Latin name for a seal. The word bulla has always been used in Europe to designate specifically an impression in metal, and thus came to be the distinctive appellation of a class of instruments sealed in that way. Such, for example, are the edicts and briefs of the Bo- man pontiffs (see BULL, PAPAL), and some con- stitutions of the German emperors. The cir- cular form is common to all periods. The ogive, the spade form of the escutcheon in her- aldry, appeared with the pointed style in archi- tecture, and in the* course of time was exclu- sively appropriated by abbeys, chapters, bish- ops, and other ecclesiastical bodies and persons. The oval form was particularly frequent in France during the reigns of the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings. The size varied at different periods, and in general the smaller and thicker the seal, the older it is. Those of the Merovingian kings are hardly more than an inch in diameter, while that of Francis I. of France had a breadth of four inches. The Egyptian priests used in sealing a sort of clay. The Byzantine emperors sealed in the form of l)ull(R with lead, and sometimes with silver and gold. Silver bullcs are much rarer than those of gold. The wax most anciently employed was white. When, about the 9th or 10th cen- tury, wax was made of various colors, only emperors and kings might seal in red. In the 12th century it was customary in France to seal with green wax letters addressed to per- sons of high eminence. This color was intro- duced into Germany in the 14th century, and was appropriated by religious houses and cities. Blue seals are very rare, and Charles V. of Germany is said to be the only European mon- arch who used this color. The patriarchs of Jerusalem and Constantinople, and the grand masters of the order of Malta and of the Teu- tonic order in Germany, sealed in black. Pri- vate persons commonly used yellow wax, and this color is frequent in public documents of about the 12th century. The devices upon seals throw not a little light upon the manners and 'usages of different ages, and some of them have positive historical value. The seals of the Romans were engraved with the portraits of their ancestors or friends, with mythologi- cal subjects, or with symbolical allusions to the real or mythical history of their families. Perhaps the earliest authentic instance of a seal bearing armorial devices is that of Ar- nulphus, count of Flanders (941). Such seals were not common until the 13th century. The early seals of religious communities and of cities were inscribed with the image of their patron saint or of some sacred relic, or with the figures of ecclesiastical dignitaries or ma- 731 VOL. xiv. 47 gistrates. The name of the owner in seals at- tached to public documents usually forms part of the inscription. The ancient intaglios were frequently used for seals in the times of the early French kings. They vere used chiefly for counter-seals, and by the addition of a pious text or legend it was attempted to give a sacred character to their profane subjects. The most ancient mode of sealing was probably that of applying the wax directly to the parch- ment. When the instrument was written upon two or more leaves, the wax was made to reach them all by impressing it upon an incision made in the parchment in the form of a cross. The seal was sometimes also made upon the ends of thongs or strips of parchment run through the several sheets. Lead, silver, or gold bulla were almost of necessity appended by a cord or strip. In the 12th century it seems that in France at least pendent seals had displaced the other sort. They are still used generally for letters patent, treaties, and oth- er important public documents. During the 12th century, too, though the practice was not well established until the 13th, arose the contri- vance of counter-seals, that is to say, the use of a different impression upon the reverse of the proper seal. They are said to have been first applied to the pendent seals. They were in these cases made of the same size with the chief seals, and the mottoes interrupted on these were continued on the counter-seals. Although in some periods seals have taken the place of signatures, yet very often seal and signature have been employed together. In Rome, the praetorian law had recognized the validity of testaments that were only sealed by the witnesses ; yet an imperial constitution af- terward required the adscription of their names also. In the constitutions of the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings, the seal ordinarily sup- ports the monogram or signature of the sov- ereign, but sometimes it stands alone. From the 8th to the 10th century the use of seals in France was confined almost entirely to the kings. Most instruments of this period are at- tested, so far as the witnesses at least are con- cerned, only by the mention of their names. About the 12th or 13th century the use of seals among all classes became general, and contin- ued so until the revival of learning and the diffusion of correct writing rendered seals of less use. In England charters and grants of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Danish reigns were authenticated by the signature of the grantor preceded by the figure of a cross. The execution was attested by the subscrip- tion of the names of the witnesses, each name being preceded by a cross. Seals were cer- tainly not often used in England until late in the llth century, and then by no means com- monly. There are extant unquestioned seals of Edward the Confessor, and he certainly first adopted a great seal for England; but their general use for authenticating charters and other instruments was not fairly estah-