History in Wax - Medieval Great Royal Wax Seals preserved in the National Archives of Sibiu
History in Wax - Medieval Great Royal Wax Seals preserved in the National Archives of Sibiu

Summary/Abstract: The County branch of the National Archives in Sibiu holds animpressive collection of medieval documents. Amongst them, there is a high numberwith hanging seal. The latter are hanging either from a small parchment bit or froma string. Only a small percent of these shows an attached double royal seal. Ourpaper aims to describe and analyze these royal seals within the County branch of theNational Archives in Sibiu. We managed to identify 7 hanging great royal sealsissued by five different Hungarian kings: Otto of Bavaria (1), Mary of Anjou (1),Sigismund of Luxembourg (3), Matthias Corvinus (1) and Vladislaus II. (1). Thechronology of these seals spans over the period of two centuries, between the firstdecade of the 14th one up until the second decade of the 16th one. Throughphotographic units, we are able to describe the seals both from the perspective oftheir legend, as well as their decorations and visible heraldic symbols. We shall alsotry to correlate the heraldic coat of arms represented on these seals with chroniclesand other visual sources depicting them.

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