Image and Authority: English Seals of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Hardcover, Reissue)

This book, on the history of English seals should be of interest not only to students of art-history and archaeology, but to all historians for its legal, political, social and cultural insights. The author examines the seal as evidence of the authenticity of a document, performing a function similar to the modern signature; he discusses seals in their wider historical implication throwing much light on those who commissioned the transaction, such as royalty, the aristocracy, yeomen and traders, the clergy, and institutions. Each seal bore an image which served as a "portrait" of its owner, and Dr. Heslop thus demonstrates, with a rich body of illustrations, how the visual imagery of the seal was used to convey ideas about the status and authority of its owner.;Moreover, since the patron was named on the seal, its date and origin can often be established. This frees the subject from many of the uncertainties that beset other aspects of medieval art by providing a securely dated stylistic sequence for the figurative arts against which the style of other objects can be measured. And for historians the seal can often account for the precise circumstances which gave rise to a particular image, such as the impact of the Norman invasion or the beginning of the civil war between the Empress Matilda and King Stephen.