Takács Imre: Az Árpád-házi királyok pecsétjei (Corpus sigillorum hungariae mediaevalis 1. Budapest, 2012)
Catalogue
from 1193 granting the county ofModrus to Bertalan comer mentions the use of the gold seal: ... imaginis nostris in aurea bulla impressione fecimus communiri. (Zagreb, Croatian State Archives, Dipl. Med. Varia, n. 4; Smiciklas II, p. 263; CAH, p. 88). The bulla came to light without a document in the second half of the nineteenth century, but had already been ascribed to Béla III on the basis of a published drawing; its date of manufacture was determined as around 1188 (Pray). Since the etching published in the appendix to György Fray’s book also shows traces of the suspension cord, it was probably still attached to its charter, a conclusion supported by the identification of Béla III as its owner. Legend on the reverse in four lines (the tops of two letters on the bottom line are visible): SIG[ I ] / LLVM / BELE / [REGIS] Original: Budapest, Hungarian National Museum, inv. no. 1871.286. (Purchase through the art trade front “Kaffka” in 1871 for 72 forints.) Pray, Tab. Vl/5; Pager 1822, fig. IV/3; Varjú 1896, p. 146; Forster 1900, pp. 150, p. 153, figs. 87-88; ÁlAássy 1902, p. 313, fig. 198; llartoniek 1924, pp. 12, 18, 20-22, 24, 25, figs. 5-6; Szentpétery 1930, p. 69; Kumorovitz 1936, p. 54; Gerevich 1938, pp. 210-21 1, fig. CCXXIX/8; Deer 1966, pp. 48, 87, fig. 390; Kovács 1974, pp. 24, 44, fig. 10; III. Béla emlékezete 1981, fig. 4. 20. King Emeric (1196-1204) Great seal Aiam: 116 mm The composition of animal-head faldistorium and king figure seated on a throne may be a derivative of the royal seal of Philippe Auguste II of France, which is also the precursor of the royal seal of King Henry III of England as a minor (Bartoniek 1924). A style parallel in Hungarian monumental sculpture, showing up in the drapery, is a large figure fragment from Somogyvár (Pannónia Regia, cat. no. IV-14). From its size the signet ring corresponds with the 13-15 mm diameter carved royal signet ring used by Enteric’s predecessors Stephen III and Béla III on their great seals. The horseman figure on the counterseal on Béla Ill’s seal can almost certainly be matched with the image on Enteric’s signet. There are no impressions of the signet ring front after Enteric’s death. The worn impressions rule out so much as a guess at whether it was engraved on a gent and when it was made. It could have been an ancient gent, a semi-precious stone engraved in the Middle Ages, or a figure engraved into the material of the ring. It could certainly not be the gent signet ring with the Arabian legend found in Béla Ill’s grave in Székesfehérvár, which was an item of personal jewellery, or the garnet ring with the siren figure from the grave of Anna of Antioch. It was not unusual for ancient gems to be used in medieval signet rings. A representation of Mercury has been identified on the impression of Thomas Becket’s ring, made before 1154 (Heinrich der Löwe I, pp. 324-325), and a winged mythological figure appears on the counter-seal of Abbot Uros of Pannonhalma (1207-1242, Mons Sacer I, pp. 506-507). A fine example of an ancient gem depicting a horseman and set into a medieval ring has been found in Ulm (Das Reich der Salier, pp. 441-442). The double cross, whose first appearance among royal insignia adorns the orb on this seal, could have derived from such Byzantine-modelled precursors as the double cross of Salzburg or the royal iconography of the Barbarossa era. (Charlemagne’s arm reliquary, portrait of Empress Beatrix with double cross; Schramm - Miitherich 1983, Nr. 211). The legend is divided by a line from the image field and has alternate antiqua and uncial lettering without punctuation or spaces: HEMERIC(US) D(E)I GRA(CIA) HVNGAR(I)E DALMACIE, CHOACIE RAMEQ(UE) REX 165
