Takács Imre: Az Árpád-házi királyok pecsétjei (Corpus sigillorum hungariae mediaevalis 1. Budapest, 2012)

Catalogue

the Peace of Vienna forced him to relinquish the territory in 1261, although charters replaced the title dux Stiriae with those of junior king Duke of Transylvania (dux Transsilvanus) and “lord of the Cumans” (1267: Esztergom, PL T 495; MonStn'-g I, p. 544). During the 1260s, two distinguishing marks were placed on the seal dies: a bird form flying under the arm holding the orb on the front, and a branching leafy plant at the bottom, a star form behind the horse on the reverse. Since these marks are not visible on a 1261 impression (Kumorovitz 1993) from Kassa (Kosice), but do appear on the 1267 Esztergom specimen (Esztergom, PL T 495), they are probably linked to the changes following the loss of Styria in 1261. A 1264 impression published as a drawing by György Pray (Pray, Tab. VIII/4), on which the distinguishing marks do not appear, cannot be regarded as decisive from a chronological viewpoint. The adjective primogjenitus in the legend may be interpreted as an emphatic distinction from the king’s younger son Béla, Duke of Slavonia-Dalmatia, who also used an equestrian seal in the 1260s.

Legend on the front between beaded lines:

SIGILLVM STEPHANI DEI GRACIA REGIS ET DVCIS STIRIE

on reverse:

PRIMOGENITI BELE QVARTI ILLVSTRIS REGIS HVNGARIA (sic)

Originals:

Budapest, Hungarian National Archives, DL 68754, 86834, 312, 42.

Esztergom, Primatical Archives, T 495.

Copy:

Budapest History Museum

Budapest, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Art History, inv. no. 774. 786.

Pray, Tab. VIII/4; MonStrig I, Tab. V; Marczali 1896, pp. 534, 535, 695; Áldássy 1902, pp. 329-330; Döry 1917, p. 36; Bartoniek 1924, pp. 18, 26; Szentpétery 1930, pp. 113-114, 116; Gerevicb 1938, p. 212; Domanovszky 1939, p. 263; MMT, fig. 184; Makkni -Mezey 1960, fig. 11/b; Kumorovitz 1993, figs. 1-2; Zsoldos 1997, fig. 10; Megpecsételt történelem, p. 30; Veszprémy 2000, p. 14; Bodor 2001, p. 11, fig. 30.

36.

Stephen V(1270-1272)

Double seal diam: 104 mm

The major iconographic development here is the orb with double cross on the maiestas image on the front, returning for the first time since King Enteric’s great seal at the end of the twelfth century. This double-cross heraldic device is another sign of the strengthening of authority since the reign of Béla IV. The key to the content and iconography of the seal, the not fully-legible subsidiary legend of the reverse, also has an important place in the career of the double cross symbol in Hungary. The reading by L. Bernát Kumorovitz, although not perfect in every detail, permits an interpretation that traces the double cross heraldic device of the late Árpáds to a venerated reliquary containing a real relic (Kovács 1984). This important relic may not necessarily have been a particle of the Holy Cross. The coat of arms appearing on the seal, one which was quick to find followers among Stephen V and his two House of Árpád successors, suggests that the crown-of-thorns relic plundered from Constantinople may also have been involved. Stephen V continued to use his junior king seal for a few months after his coronation. The making of the new seal may be connected with a 1270 charter by which the King granted a goldsmith called Máté 60 holds, of land in a village called Zaarberen of Solomon, son of Felch, who had died without issue (transcript dated 1389: MOL DL 7460; Zsijjmk. Okit. I, p. 130).

Ornate majuscule legend in two lines between beaded lines on the front, outer line:

S(IGILLUM) STEPHANI DEI GRACIA VNGARIE DALMACIE CROVACIE RAME SERUIE GALIC inner line:

IE LODOMERIE CUMAN / IE BULGARIEQ(UE) REGIS

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