Takács Imre: Az Árpád-házi királyok pecsétjei (Corpus sigillorum hungariae mediaevalis 1. Budapest, 2012)
Catalogue
Originals: Esztergom, Cathedral Chapter Archives, 24-1-2. (1198) Esztergom, Cathedral Chapter Archives, 24-1-4. (1202) Copies: Budapest History Museum, inv. no. 66.1878. Budapest, Hungarian National Archives, VI 16-17. Budapest, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Art History, inv. no. 1176. Schwartner 1790, Tab. 1/4; Schwartner 1802, Tab. IV/4; Pray, Tab. VIII/3; Perger 1822, Tab. V/5; MonStrig I, Tab. V; Marczali 1896, fig. p. 352; Varjú 1896, p. 146; Forster 1900, p. 149; Bartoniek 1924, pp. 14, 15, 19, 24, 26; Gerevich 1938, pp. 210-211, CCXXXI1I/4; Deér 1961, p. 294, Taf. XII/1; 111. Béla emlékezete 1981, fig. 6; Marosi 1984, p. 181; MTII, fig. 238; Megpecsételt történelem, p. 22; Veszprémy 2000, p. 13; Bodor 2001, p. 5, fig. 17; Gesztelyi - Rdcz 2006, p. 71; Takács 2011, p. 86, fig. 2d. 21. King Emeric (1196-1204) Gold bulla pressed gold plate, soldered together from more than one piece, hollow; diam: 64 mm Hollow disc made by soldering two plates bearing the impression and a long bent strip. King Emeric’s gold bulla is a turning point in Hungarian royal seals on several counts. It is the first Hungarian double seal with the royal coat of arms occupying the reverse . It is also the first appearance of the shield with barry of eight that later became the badge of the dynasty and the kingdom. No less new is the maeistas composition on the front. The royal costume also has a richer composition than on earlier royal seals: a shorter upper garment, resembling and worn like a Dalmatic, has been inserted between the tunic and the cloak. The outstretched arms of the monarch on previous Hungarian royal seals, designed to present the royal insignia, have given way to arms held close to the body in the resting position: the right hand gripping the shaft of the sceptre is resting on the leg, the left arm is crooked, and the outline of the orb, in the left hand in front of the chest, is not detached from the outline of the figure. This move to more compact figure representation has a domestic precedent in Béla Ill’s gold seal, where the arm holding the sceptre is held close to the body, but the orb remains held out in the old gesture. This trend was not shared by contemporary imperial seals (Otto IV and Frederic II); neither can these be the origin of the finely-proportioned, richly detailed throne edifice type on King Emeric’s gold seal, which substantially departs from his predecessors’ royal seals and even from the elegant animal-figure faldistorium on his own royal seal. Some precursors of the ornate throne were from an earlier period. The high throne edifices depicted on the imperial seals of Conrad III, Frederick Barbarossa and Henry IV are the typological precursors of the image on Emeric’s gold bulla. The double seal of Iking Waldemar II of Denmark (1202-1241) is another example influenced by the imperial seal throne type after 1200, and its place in the development of heraldry also makes it a close parallel. The next appearance of high-backed throne on Hungarian royal seals came only much later, in the reign of Ladislaus IV (Queen Isabella’s seal), but became widespread in the early fourteenth century (Otto, Wenceslas, Louis the Great, Mary, Sigismund). A similar, richly-detailed throne representation on the prelate’s seal of Bishop Desiderius of Csanád (1202-1229) clearly bears an affinity to the royal seal (Takács 1992, p. 25, fig. XXVI/ 1 1). Legend of uncial and capital letters with triple-dot punctuation between rows of beads, on front: HENRIC(VS) TERCII BELE REGIS FILIVS on reverse: D(E)I GRA(CIA) HVNGARIE DALM(ACIE) CHROAC(IE) RAMEQ(VE) REX 166
