Budny (2021 Congress)

Mildred Budny
(Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

“Seals, Matrices, and Signatories

Abstract of Response
Intended To be presented at the 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies [CONGRESS CANCELLED]
(Kalamazoo, 2020)

Rescheduled for the 56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(Kalamazoo, 2021)

Session II of II on
“Seal the Real: Documentary Records, Seals, and Authentications”

Part I:  Signed & Sealed

Part II:  “× Marks the Spot”

Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence
Organized by Mildred Budny
2020 Congress Program Archived / 2020 Congress Program

2021 Congress Program Planning

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Abstract

Complementing the other presentations in this pair or series of Sessions on “Seal the Real”, which I have organized, my Response aims briefly to survey some case-studies involving a range of materials and forms of authentications encountered in the long transition to the modern custom of signatures as autographs.  The trajectory involves documents (such as charters), correspondence, cartularies, seals, signet rings, and literary and historical works of multiple kinds.

The papers in the pair of Sessions examine poignant cases from a range of settings.  These cases are represented — or posed — by

  • the illustrations of seals in the thirteenth-century Chronica Maiora by Matthew Paris at Saint Albans Abbey;
  • the reuses of engraved antique gems as seals in medieval England;
  • the complex (or questionable) sealing practices observed within the sphere of the 15th-century poet Thomas Hoccleve;
  • an extraordinary set of cross-signs employed to signal individual attestations in cartularies from Angoumois in western France in the twelfth century; and
  • the shape of a perhaps-artificially deformed human head in a wax seal on a receipt of 1345/1346 from Grenoble (Curiouser and Curiouser).
London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D I, folio 146v. Matthew Paris’s description in the 'Liber Additamentorum' of the gems of Saint Albans Abbey.

London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D I, folio 146v. Matthew Paris’s description in the ‘Liber Additamentorum’ of the gems of Saint Albans Abbey.

The range of subjects under consideration exhibits a variety of materials, contexts, purposes, and evidentiary challenges.  They serve as points of departure and return for exploring the nature of authenticating signs in diverse situations and endeavors.

The human desire effectively to express identity and authenticity as a matter of record manifests itself in many centuries and settings.  The time-honored human determination to establish recognized — that is, effective — modes of authenticating intentions and actions, by individuals and institutions alike, underpins the historical transmission (or disruption) of formal records of agreements, sales, transfers, decisions over grievances and feuds, and other impactful official arrangements across the centuries.  Among these methods are early forms of ‘signatures’, sometimes made by proxy, whether by cross-sins, names inscribed by others on behalf of the signatory, personal or official seals, or other forms.  Under consideration also are forgeries (‘signatures’, seals, and questionable documents), reported records of documents perhaps otherwise lost (as in cartularies, chronicles, and other narratives), and the occasional preservation of fingerprints upon the records themselves.

On display for observation and discussion at the session there may be some original materials themselves from the medieval and early modern periods.  They might include some seals, seal matrices, documents, and manuscript fragments, exhibiting a range of regions, periods, languages, and purposes.

[Note:  The requirement now to hold the Congress only ‘virtually’ means that such a display of materials may have to take digital forms, for example through photographs or on screen, as a series of images or a gallery to accompany the discussions, or as demonstrations as part of the presentation.]

See also

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Private Collection, Group of 8 Preston Charters: Faces Forward. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Private Collection, Group of 8 Preston Charters: Faces Forward. Photograph Mildred Budny.

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Preston Charter 12 Face with Seal. Photograph Mildred Budny.

Preston Charter 12 Face with Seal. Photograph Mildred Budny.

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Preston Charter 12 Seal Upright. Photograph Mildred Budn

Preston Charter 12 Seal Upright. Photograph Mildred Budny.

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Judgment of Arbitration by Philip I, Count of Savoy, of 28 May 1275 with Brown Wax Seal and with Docketing in French. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

Judgment of Arbitration by Philip I, Count of Savoy, of 28 May 1275
with Brown Wax Seal
and with Docketing in French. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

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Seal of Philip I, Count of Savoy, with photography by Mildred Budny

Photography by Mildred Budny

Private Collection. Set of 14 Seal Matrices accompanied by Specimens of their Seals.

Private Collection. Set of 14 Seal Matrices accompanied by Specimens of their Seals.

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