From the beginnings of Sigilography to the digital age. Projects and repositories of European medieval seals

Abstract

The birth of Sigilography as an autonomous discipline, countless inventories and catalogs of medieval seals were published throughout Europe, laying the theoretical foundations that would serve for the study of seals. Most of the existing stamp catalogs in Spain have only collected the imprints preserved in state-owned and local archives and in other unique collections of recognized prestige, completely ignoring the important collections that other institutions and entities preserve. Despite the historiographic advances that have been experienced in recent years and that have made known some medieval seals of the Crown of Castile, important gaps persist. Analogous to other ambitious and innovative projects existing in Portugal or France, work has begun in Spain on the creation of a large digital database –“SIG-NUM”– which aims to establish itself as a simple and quickly, developing with a multidisciplinary approach in which the uniqueness and seriality of the seals and its diplomatic nature converge with other aspects such as Heraldry, emblems or Epigraphy.