Seals - Making and Marking Connections across the Medieval World / / ed. by Carol Symes, Brigitte Bedos-Rezak.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2019
• MitwirkendeR: Andersen, Michael,; Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte Miriam,; Berenbeim, Jessica,; Cherry, John,; Copp, Paul,; Sijpesteijn, Petra M.,; Sode, Claudia,; Teh Gallop, Annabel,; Weill-Parot, Nicolas,
• HerausgeberIn: Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte,; Symes, Carol,
• Place / Publishing House: Leeds : : ARC Humanities Press, , [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: The medieval globe ; 4
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)

By placing medieval sealing practices in a global and comparative perspective, the essays gathered in this volume challenge the traditional understanding of seals as tools of closure and validation in use since the dawn of civilization. Far from being a universal technique, sealing is revealed as a flexible idiom, selectively deployed to mediate entangled identities: the introduction of Buddhism in early medieval China; the Islamization of Sasanian and Byzantine cultures; even the advancement of diplomacy from northern Europe to Indonesia.

By placing medieval sealing practices in a global and comparative perspective, the essays gathered in this volume challenge the traditional understanding of seals as tools of closure and validation in use since the dawn of civilization. Far from being a universal technique, sealing is revealed as a flexible idiom, selectively deployed to mediate entangled identities: the introduction of Buddhism in early medieval China; the Islamization of Sasanian and Byzantine cultures; the balancing of Christian orthodoxy against classical and Muslim science; the development of civic consciousness in Byzantium; the efforts of tradesmen to brand merchandise for export; and the advancement of diplomacy from northern Europe to Indonesia. This examination of documentary seals, archaeologically recovered seal dies, and commercial and conceptual seals from cultures across the medieval world shows how skillful manipulation of their iconography, inscriptions, technology, and metaphorical meanings disseminated information, negotiated influences, asserted hegemony, and forged connections.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- CULTURAL TRANSACTIONS: AN INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL SEALS FROM A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE -- SEALS AS CONCEPTUAL AND RITUAL TOOLS IN CHINESE BUDDHISM, CA. 600- 1000 CE -- IMPRINTING POWERS: THE ASTROLOGICAL SEAL AND ITS DOCTRINAL MEANINGS IN THE LATIN WEST -- A MEDIEVAL SOLUTION TO AN EARLY MODERN PROBLEM? THE ROYAL ANIMAL SEALS OF JAMBI -- EXPRESSING NEW RULE: SEALS FROM EARLY ISLAMIC EGYPT AND SYRIA, 600- 800 CE -- THE FORMULATION OF URBAN IDENTITY ON BYZANTINE SEALS -- THE CLOTH SEAL: A MARK OF QUALITY, IDENTIFICATION, OR TAXATION? -- ARCHAEOLOGY AND SIGILLOGRAPHY IN NORTHERN EUROPE -- MEDIEVAL TREATIES AND THE DIPLOMATIC AESTHETIC -- INDEX