Medieval Writing
Seals of Particular Authority
Any corporate body or officer who was empowered to ratify legal documents employed a seal for the purpose. These might range from the grandest of high authority to simple seals of local officials. In general, the range of motifs and designs rings the changes on those found in other categories.
Court of the King's Bench 15th century seal of the Court of the King's Bench, obverse.
The special seals of the courts of law were really a variant on the royal seal, indicating the ultimate source of their authority. Henry VI sits crowned in majesty with orb and sceptre in this example.
Court of Augmentations, obverse Court of Augmentations, reverse
Obverse and reverse of a 16th century seal of the Court of Augmentations (Nottinghamshire Archives, DDFJ 10/7/31, on a lease renewal). By permission of the Nottinghamshire Archives.
seal of admiral Seal of Earl John Holland, 1436.
The device on this seal indicates the position and authority of its owner as Admiral of England. The ship image combined with the use of heraldry on the sail makes it very similar to the town seals of significant ports like Hastings.
The miscellany of seals shown on these pages, gleaned serendipidously from various sources, indicates the wealth of visual information in seals. They seem to have been studied so far in a rather classificatory way, with lots of obscure heraldic terminology. There is surely scope for an examination of these artifacts as part of social history, and as much a part of the history of literacy and the development of literate processes in society as the written words which survive on the sheets of parchment to which they are attached.
Seals
Decoration
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