Takács Imre: Az Árpád-házi királyok pecsétjei (Corpus sigillorum hungariae mediaevalis 1. Budapest, 2012)
Type History and Iconography
Forming a particularly close unit among the twelfth century group are the seals of Béla II, Géza II and Stephen III (Cat. 11, 12, 15). We know of several impressions of Géza II’s great seal. The maiestas composition on these precisely follows the great seal of his predecessor Béla II, and the great seal of Stephen III, who succeeded him in 1162 (figs 19-21). They are identical in diameter, form, layout, size and separation of their details. The observable and measurable data yielded by their worn surfaces cannot exclude the possibility that all three kings used the same matrix, and only re-engraved the legend with the name of the king. The retention of a royal seal for several generations is not unparalleled in the Middle Ages, and a similar phenomenon in Hungary was the passing on of the royal signet ring in the second half of the twelfth century.309 In the 1160s, during the reign of Stephen III, the impression of the royal signet ring took on a new function as a counter-seal. The custom seems to have continued unbroken until the end of the century and the reign of King Emeric. The worn impressions permit the inference that the same irregular oval gem signet ring passed down from Stephen III to Béla III and then to his elder son King Emeric. An 1181 charter mentions the joint use of royal seal and signet.310 We also encounter a royal signet ring in the thirteenth century,311 but it only became part of a regulated - and increasingly complex - official procedure in the fourteenth. Four Louis the Great signet rings are known to have survived,312 and it was during his reign that there first appeared a court official charged with safeguarding one of the royal signet rings, the conservator sigilli annularis domini regis,313 Clear traces of the royal signet ring are detectable in the image field of the royal seals used by three consecutive monarchs in the second half of the twelfth century. The recesses of two signet ring impressions 309 Subsequent use of the seal matrix with a new legend: Ewald 1914, p. 115. Examples of retaining the seal matrix of a previous sovereign mentioned by: Ewald 1914, p. 186. 310 In Béla Ill’s charter of 1181, granting Topuszko to the Diocese of Zagreb: regali sigillo et anuli mei inpressione roboraui. CAH, n. 41, 81. 311 The gem seal used by Andrew II’s first-born son, junior king Béla as a counter-seal to his father’s may, to judge from its size, have been a ring. IV. Ladislaus’ signet ring mentioned by: Szentpétery 1923, p. 313. 312 One of these is a silver signet ring bearing the name of King Louis and now preserved in Belgrade; Bajalovic - Hadzi - Pesic 1977, p. 126, fig. 63; mentioned in: Kumorovitz 1993, p. 72. 313 Fejérpataky 1885, p. 77; Kumorovitz 1993, pp. 71-72. are arranged approximately symmetrically beside the figure on a royal seal of Stephen III held in Sopron (Cat. 16), but the wax bearing the signet image itself have fallen out in both places.314 A signet impression of roughly the same size as that used by Stephen III is visible in two places on Béla Ill’s royal seal, and in this case it is possible to discern the figure of a galloping horseman (Cat. 18; fig. 22). The positions of signet impressions relative to the figure of the enthroned king are strikingly similar on the two seals. The third of the kings, Emeric, also had a signet-ring impression with a galloping-horseman image on his great seals. This kind of “insignia” does not occur on the seals of any subsequent monarchs. Between Emeric’s sudden death and the ascent to the throne of his younger brother Andrew, the royal signet ring either disappeared or was deliberately disposed of. On the 13-15 mm diameter royal signet impression on Emeric’s great seal, the horseman figure may be identified with almost total certainty. The royal signet ring definitely passed down through several generations, but the worn impressions rule out so much as a guess at whether it was engraved on a gem and when it was made. It could have been an ancient Greek or Roman stone, a semi-precious stone engraved in the Middle Ages, or a figure engraved into the material of the ring. It obviously could not be the same as the gem signet ring with the Arabian legend found in Béla Ill’s grave in Székesfehérvár,315 or the ring containing the ancient garnet intaglio found in the grave of Agnes (Anna) Chatillon.316 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 1154,31 and a winged mythological figure appears on the counter-seal of Abot Uros of Pannonhalma (1207-1242).318 In addition to several surviving signet rings,319 the type includes one that is known only from a drawing and a description: the signet ring of Bishop Alexander of Várad (1219-1230), who accompanied Andrew II on his peregrination to the Holy Land. It was set with a late Roman engraved sapphire.320 A fine example of an ancient gem depicting a horseman and set into a medieval ring has been found 314 1162: Sopron, Városi Lt. Dl 1. 315 Dcér 1966, p. 46, Abb. pp. 52-54. 316 Kovács 1969, p. 8, fig. 1. 317 Heinrich der Löwe I, pp. 324-325. 318 Mons sacer I, pp. 506-507. 319 Gesztelyi 2000, Nr. 37, 57, 204. 320 Hlatky 1938, p. 48; Gesztelyi - Rácz 2006, p. 13. 62
