Sigillography

Sigillography, also known by its Greek-derived name, sphragistics, is the scholarly discipline that studies the wax, lead, clay, and other seals used to authenticate archival documents. It investigates not only aspects of the artistic design and production of seals (both matrices and impressions), but also considers the legal, administrative and social contexts in which they were used. It has links to diplomatics, heraldry, social history, and the history of art, and is regarded as one of the auxiliary sciences of history. A student of seals is known as a sigillographer. The word sigillography derives from the Latin word sigillum, meaning 'seal', and the Greek suffix γραφή, meaning 'description'. It was effectively coined in Italian (as sigillografia) by Anton Stefano Cartari in 1682. It entered English at a much later date: the earliest instances recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary date from 1879 (sigillography) and 1882 (sigillographer). The alternative term, sphragistics, is derived from the Greek word σϕρᾱγίς, meaning 'seal': this word is first recorded in English in 1836. Antiquaries such as Thomas Elmham and John Rous began to record and to discuss the historic use of seals in the 15th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries the consideration of seals became a fairly widespread antiquarian activity.