This is the second volume in Brill’s series Reading Medieval Sources, “handbooks providing high-level, analytical surveys of different genres of medieval sources.” The audience is anticipated to be undergraduate and graduate students, and the volume covers a wide temporal and geographic range, giving introductions to the use of historical sources and illustrating different approaches to their usage. It is a beautiful volume, and each chapter includes full-colour images, most of which are not reproduced elsewhere. It is also available as an ebook for the same price. The first volume in the series on coinage, edited by Rory Naismith, was open access, but this does not seem to be planned for the other volumes, which cover stained glass, hagiography, and a projected volume on miracle accounts.

Introductory and generalist surveys of difficult medieval sources, such as coins or seals, are extremely useful for both students and researchers. The purpose of the book, however, is not to give a general overview, but rather to “generate new ideas and directions for future sigillographic research” (15). The emphasis in this volume is mostly on Europe, with fully half of the chapters on England and several on Byzantium, and almost all concentrate on the late medieval period. The volume is somewhat loosely divided into six sections dealing with materiality, historiography, bureaucracy and diplomatic, power and aspiration, elusive owners, and visual culture. The chapters themselves are varied, and some revolve around a certain individual, class, or collection, while others look at broader developments over time. Content ranges from analytical survey to close analysis, giving a wide variety of methodologies. General information on seal iconography and text can be found in the introduction, but is otherwise interspersed throughout the articles. For example, the fact that western Christian seal legends are generally read clockwise starting at the top, is included in Lehnertz’s chapter to show how Muskinus the Jew’s seal deviated from this practice; but a casual reader will not find this elsewhere in the volume. As a result, the volume reads more like an edited collection than an introductory handbook for undergraduates and graduate students.

The introduction is very useful, outlining the purposes of seals, and the history of the study of seals. The footnotes helpfully list seal catalogues for England, France, the Latin Kingdoms, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Eastern Europe, Byzantium, as well as printed and digital editions for the collections at Dumbarton Oaks, the National Archives, the British Museum, and the Archives Nationales de France. Throughout, it references Brigitte Bedos-Rezak’s important contributions to sigillography.

Section 1, ‘Materiality and Seals’ focuses on the late medieval period in England, and the three articles look at seal composition, size and sealing process. The first two articles are both co-written by Elke Cwiertnia, Adrian Ailes, and Paul Dryburgh. The first is essentially a project report of the 2014-15 Wax Seals: Material and Context project at The National Archives. It includes a description of methodology used for the study and a summary of the composition, colour, size, and attachment of royal wax seals. The authors make many suggestions as to what the composition of these seals can tell us, from international trade’s influence on seal production to use of colours to indicate charter contents, but ultimately hope their findings will prompt new studies. Their second article, on the “Material Analysis of Seals Attached to the Barons’ Letter to the Pope,” looks at the well-studied sets of 180 seals attached to both copies of the 1301 letter and seeks to answer questions on the letters’ production by way of analysing the seals. It is concluded that the seals were affixed in an orderly way, but more research is necessary to determine the process. Both contain detailed tables. The final article in this section by John McEwan, “Does Size Matter,” looks at the dimensions of non-elite seals from 1200-1500 in Wales and England. It begins by contrasting great and privy seals of the elites before going on to outline how seals were adapted by non-elite landowners. In the thirteenth century, non-elite seals were modelled after elite seals, and often had a personal name: as seals were increasingly borrowed in the fourteenth century, they became smaller and more “anonymous”, featuring idiosyncratic images and texts. In the fifteenth century, such seals were even smaller and often had simple designs, letters, or monograms. The decrease in size visible in these seals is not a result of the owner’s importance, McEwan argues, but rather a result of the increasing ubiquity of seals.

‘Historiography and Seals,’ section 2, gives a clear overview of past research and points to logical future avenues. A chapter by Oliver Harris looks at “Early Antiquarian Perception and Study of Seals in England,” chronicling the description and attempts at typologies of seals in the early modern period in England. The author highlights how antiquarians’ drawings and explanations predated their work on scripts, coins and even architecture, and points to future research into their methodologies and those of their continental peers. Adrian Ailes’ chapter “Medieval Armorial Seals in The National Archives” explores the connection between seals and the development of heraldry. In his exploration of previous studies, Ailes gives a blueprint of the sources available to those wishing to conduct further studies into the collection’s seals.

The two chapters in part 3, ‘Seals in Bureaucracy and Diplomatic’ are case studies of how seals from a specific class or group can be used to show change over time. Jonathan Shea looks at the Byzantine seals of Hippodrome judges in the tenth to eleventh centuries, noting that the ‘title inflation’ evident on their seals corresponded with a decline in the judges’ income and status. Philippa Hoskin’s article on English episcopal seals in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries is a survey of episcopal seals in the period. This is a very useful introduction to English episcopal seals, evaluating material evidence as well as context and historical background. In the eleventh century, a bishop’s seal indicated the bishop’s presence, but with the increase in diocesan administration especially from the thirteenth century, ad causas seals from diocesan courts were used, and the bishop’s seal could be used when the bishop was not directly involved in documentation.

Part 4 ‘Power and Aspiration’ looks at how medieval people sought to depict themselves (and their power) in seals, with two focusing on individuals and one case looking at an entire class of people. Angelina Anne Volkoff’s “Social and Personal elements in Byzantine Sigillography” lays out how Byzantine seals reveal an individual’s place in society, using titles and offices held and/or family connections to emphasise social ties and thereby assert power. She demonstrates this via a range of seals belonging mostly to elite owners from the twelfth century. Andreas Lehnertz’ chapter on the “Two Seals of Muskinus the Jew” uses Muskinus’ seals to make general conclusions about Jewish seals in late medieval German kingdoms. Like Christian seals, which they developed in response to business purposes, they had a legal function but also operated as a status symbol. Muskinus’ seals spoke to both Christian and Jewish audiences with their quasi-heraldic imagery and bilingual identification of the owner. In his chapter “‘Creatio Regni’ in the Great Seal of Bosnian King Tvrtko Kotromanić,” Emir Filipović argues Tvrtko’s seal was an important part of his attempt to create a new type of (Catholic) kingship in the “double crown” of Serbia and Bosnia. His great, two-sided seal, which was also the model for his successors’ seals, took inspiration from European rulers’ seals as well as previous Bosnian seals.

Part 5 on Elusive Seal Owners and Users contains two chapters which explore seals used outside of royal or religious contexts. Elizabeth New’s “Reconsidering the Silent Majority: Non-Heraldic Personal Seals in Medieval Britain” points out that around 80% of seals from (late) medieval Britain were personal and non-elite and have hardly been studied. She looks at matrix material, common imagery, and the use of “pseudo-heraldic” imagery to make conclusions about the ubiquity of seals and individual choice in their design, throughout arguing that much more work could be done with this large body of material. Marek Wójcik explores the six “Seals of the Wives of Silesian Knights in the Pre-Hussite Age” arguing that these women’s seals show the wide variety of cultural influences of the area. By the end of the fourteenth century, widows had shifted from using their husbands’ seals to their own personal seals, with a wide range of heraldic imagery.

The final section, ‘Visual Cultures and Seals’ seeks to connect medieval seals with Roman models, with one chapter exploring post-Roman Italy and the other twelfth and thirteenth century France. Ashley Jones’ contribution is the only one in this volume to look exclusively at early medieval seals, arguing that both the Ostrogoths and Lombard kingdoms’ seals were consciously emulating Roman legacy in their imagery, and therefore also this authority. Caroline Simonet looks at the re-use of Roman intaglios and cameos as well as those which imitate Roman coins. She highlights continuity in the use of gemstones in seals until there was a sudden increase in popularity in the late Middle Ages, pointing out that these objects were highly valued. Pagan elements and other antique imagery can be difficult to categorise, and they were often reinterpreted to suit medieval contexts. Again, the author appeals for further study on this subject.

There is need for further study in this field, and the introduction points out the omission of studies in Mediterranean and Islamic seals. While this is an important volume overall, broader geographical and chronological contexts would have been useful if the goal of the handbook is to offer a general introduction to a historical medium. This gap is to some extent covered with the volume Seals – Making and Marking Connections across the Medieval World, which appeared in 2019, edited by Brigitte Bedos-Rezak. It includes articles covering the entire medieval period and ranges across northern Europe, the Islamic world, China, and Indonesia, emphasising cultural contact. However, there is still much to be done and in general we must hope Whatley’s appeal for further sigillographic study will be successful!