medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

  Please forgive a rather ignorant question, but besides the difference 
between circular and linear inscriptions here, there is also a 
difference between signatures and seals as means of legitimating 
documents.  As an art historian, I'm more familiar with seals, since 
they usually feature very interesting imagery.  But could someone 
comment briefly on signatures and seals as alternate means of 
legitimating documents?
Much obliged, as always,
Jim

On 28/09/2010 10:50 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> In our earlier thread regarding the crosses in VLFBERHT inscriptions, Verena
> wrote:
>
>> Since the cross occurs at the beginning/end of a circular inscription,
>> it is effectively in both positions.
> Yes, of course, in this case one *can* see it in both positions, but it is still
> a single cross, not two crosses enclosing the inscription (except maybe in the
> unclear case of your seal 921), and even in circular inscriptions one should
> rather assume that it is an initial cross marking the beginning, as it seems to
> be derived from the cross or chrismon preceding or replacing the verbal
> Invocatio which is placed at the very beginning of each legal document (BTW, one
> of the VLFBERHT inscriptions listed by Stalsberg is accompanied on the reverse
> by a verbal invocation: IINIOMINEDMI = In nomine domini)
>
> What I meant to point out is that in subscriptions the signum (cross or
> monogram) is usually placed before the verbal subscription (i.e. before the name
> and/or title), as in Stalsbergs variants +VLEBERHT and +VLFBERTH, in less
> frequent cases it may be placed at the end of the verbal subscription instead (I
> have found a charter quoted that was co-signed by Bernward of Hildesheim, where
> the subscriptions beginn with the usual position of the cross at the beginning
> and then from Bernward on switch to the final position), as in Stralsberg's
> variant no. 3. But subscriptions enclosed by two crosses -- as in +VLFBERHT+ or
> +VLFBERH+T or in a third variant where the second cross is produced by a
> vertical line crossing the "I" in +VLFBERHIT -- seem to be quite uncommon, at
> least on the continent and at the period when the VLFBERHT inscriptions came
> into use.
>
> As regards the single (and usually initial) cross, we seem to agree (against
> Vera and Stalsberg) that it does not (or not necessarily) indicate the
> signatory's state as a bishop (as Vera suggested) or as an ecclesiastical person
> in general, but was used also by secular persons: Pippin and Carloman, for
> instance, used a cross (for Pippin see
> http://www.digam.net/image.php?file=dokumente/1210/1.jpg&b=850), in one of
> Pippins charters -- according to its 11th-century copy -- the king and several
> archbishops, bishops and priests, but also several counts signed their names
> with a cross (http://www.digam.net/image.php?file=dokumente/6539/2.jpg&b=850).
> Stralsberg herself quotes a female signatary Himma (or Imma) as signing her name
> in her donation to Sankt Gallen with a cross (Urkundendbuch ed. Wartmann I.114),
> and one might also refer to a donation made by her son count Gerold where the
> donator is signing his name with a cross, whereas his mother and all other
> witnesses are listed -- according to Wartmann's print -- only with their names,
> but not with a cross (I.108). So While it remains still possible or even likely
> that Ulfberht was a cleric, I would nevertheless discard the initial cross as
> evidence of this clerical status.
>
> However, I still cannot explain the second cross at (or near) the end of the
> VLFBERHT inscriptions, where in charters a scribe would normally add a more or
> less stylized "SS" (subscripsi(t)). There are papal bulls where the Benevalete
> or BV is enclosed by two crosses, and Charles the Bald used a red uncial
> "LEGIMUS" enclosed by two crosses with a hook at their base which have been
> interpreted as "deux globes crucigères" (see the image at the bottom of p.13 of
> http://www.badw.de/aktuell/akademie_aktuell/2010/heft2/05_Fees.pdf, and Michael
> D. Metzger, _The legimus subscription of Charles the Bald and the question of
> Byzantine influence_, in: Viator 2 (1971), p.53-58). One can find, I believe,
> signatures enclosed by two crosses in norman charters of the 12th century in
> Sicily, but I have no reference at hand, and they would probably not help to
> explain the VLFBERHT inscriptions. So I will leave this question open to the
> better wisdom of this list!
>   
> Kind regards, O.
>
> Dr. Otfried Lieberknecht
> D-40477 Düsseldorf
> Klever Str. 37
> Tel. +49 (0) 172 407 6073
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.lieberknecht.de
>
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