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Sigillography, also known by its Greek-derived name,sphragistics, is the scholarly discipline that studies thewax, lead, clay, and otherseals used to authenticatearchival documents. It investigates not only aspects of the artistic design and production of seals (both matrices and impressions), but also considers the legal, administrative and social contexts in which they were used. It has links todiplomatics,heraldry,social history, and thehistory of art, and is regarded as one of theauxiliary sciences of history. A student of seals is known as asigillographer.
The wordsigillography derives from the Latin wordsigillum, meaning 'seal', and the Greek suffixγραφή, meaning 'description'. It was effectively coined in Italian (assigillografia) by Anton Stefano Cartari in 1682.[1] It entered English at a much later date: the earliest instances recorded by theOxford English Dictionary date from 1879 (sigillography) and 1882 (sigillographer).[2] The alternative term,sphragistics, is derived from the Greek wordσϕρᾱγίς, meaning 'seal': this word is first recorded in English in 1836.[3]
Antiquaries such asThomas Elmham andJohn Rous began to record and to discuss the historic use of seals in the 15th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries the consideration of seals became a fairly widespread antiquarian activity. Notable early students and collectors includedRobert Glover,John Dee,Sir Robert Cotton andNicolas-Claude de Peiresc.[4][5][6][7]
The first published treatises dedicated to seals included Giorgio Longo'sDe anulis signatoriis antiquorum (Milan, 1615);Olivier de Wree'sSigilla comitum Flandriae (Bruges, 1639); and Theodorus Hoepingk'sDe sigillorum prisco et novo jure tractatus (Nuremberg, 1642). Especially influential in shaping the discipline wereJean Mabillon'sDe re diplomatica (1681) andJohann Michael Heineccius'De veteribus Germanorum aliarumque nationum sigillis (1710). In England,John Anstis compiled a substantial study titled "Aspilogia", but this remained in manuscript: the first work to reach print was a much slighter tract by John Lewis,Dissertation on the Antiquity and Use of Seals in England (1740).[8][9] In the second half of the 19th century sigillography was further developed by German scholars includingHermann Grotefend andOtto Posse, and French scholars includingLouis Douët d'Arcq andGermain Demay.
Sigillography is also an important subdiscipline ofByzantine studies, involving the study of Byzantine lead seal impressions and the text and images thereon. Its importance derives from both the scarcity of surviving Byzantine documents themselves, and from the large number (over 40,000) of extant seals.[10] One of the largest compendiums of Byzantine seals can be found in the large volume byGustave Schlumberger,Sigillographie de l'empire Byzantin, published in 1904.[11]
The first international colloquium on Byzantine sigillography was held atDumbarton Oaks in August 1986.[12]
Sigillography features in the plot ofKing Ottokar's Sceptre (1939/1947), one ofThe Adventures of Tintin. Tintin accompaniesProfessor Alembick, a sigillographer, on a research trip to the fictionalBalkan nation ofSyldavia, only to become embroiled in a plot to dethrone the King.
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