ПЕЧАТИ РАНИХ НЕМАЊИЋА – УЗОРИ И ПАРАЛЕЛЕ У ФОРМАТИВНОМ ПЕРИОДУ НЕМАЊИЋКЕ СИГИЛОГРАФСКЕ ПРАКСЕ
SEALS OF THE EARLY NEMANJIĆS – MODELS AND PARALLELS IN THE FORMATIVE PERIOD OF THE NEMANJIĆ SIGILLOGRAPHIC PRACTICE

Summary/Abstract: In this article we compare the sigillographic practices of the early monarchs from the Nemanjić dynasty – by which we here refer to grand župan Stefan Nemanja, his two brothers who held significant appanages (Stracimir, Miroslav), his son Stefan the First-Crowned, and his two grandsons, kings Radoslav and Vladislav – in order to show whether the Serbian monarchs from the Nemanjić dynasty adopted certain sigillographic patterns and practices from the neighbouring states: Byzantium, the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Epirote state of the Angeloi, Bulgaria and Hungary. The models for the lead seals (bullae) of Stefan Nemanja and his two brothers Stracimir and Miroslav can be traced back to Byzantine sigillographic practices: Nemanja’s seals that only have a horizontal inscription in Greek on both obverse and reverse have copious parallels in what basically was a standardized seal type of 12th century Byzantium; his seals with a horizontal inscription in Greek (obverse) and the image of St. Stephen the Archdeacon (reverse), along with those of his brothers that follow the same iconographic pattern, can also be paralleled to the seals of certain Byzantine administrative officials with prominent court titles that have the same saint represented, and in the same manner, on the reverse of their seals. The seal of Stefan the First-Crowned is so badly damaged that almost nothing can be said about its characteristics beyond that it was made from wax and that it contained an inscription on the obverse and perhaps a pictorial form on the reverse. The wax seals of his two sons, kings Radoslav (one seal) and Vladislav (two seals), have proven more helpful in our research. Radoslav’s seal and the smaller of Vladislav’s seals are one-sided, and they both show the ruler seated on the throne, with all the insignias of the royal power (in majestate). This iconographic pattern is not Byzantine, but in fact a Western model that was also employed in contemporary Hungarian royal chancery and in the chancery of the Latin Emperors of Constantinople. The similarities between Serbian and Imperial Latin sigillographic practices become almost striking if we consider Vladislav’s second, double-sided seal that has the same obverse (king seated in majestate), and an equestrian reverse (king in armour, with a spear, on horseback); the circular inscription is in Serbian. This sigillographic pattern is not attested in Hungary until later in the 13th century (and not in the royal chancery, but in the chancery of the royal princes and dukes); however, the Latin Emperors, whose reign was more or less contemporary with those of the Serbian kings, used lead bullae with the same pattern – even the royal dress of king Vladislav and emperor Baldwin II is virtually the same, containing the same Byzantine, non-Western insignias, and decorated in an identical fashion (but there are several iconographic differences – e. g. the Latin emperor on horseback never has a spear but a sword or a sceptre). All this leads us to conclude that there was no direct implementation of foreign models, but that certain influences could be observed. Those influences are certainly Western in origin, but our opinion is that it is more likely that the influences from Constantinople (at the time under Latin rule) were stronger than the ones coming from Hungary. And the logic dictates that the development of the Serbian royal sigillographic practices cannot be totally independent from the Imperial Latin sigillographic practices, since it is unlikely that the same (iconographic and artistic) innovations would independently occur almost simultaneously at two relatively nearby locations.

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