Good Impressions: Image and Authority in Medieval Seals

There are few recent publications in English on medieval European seals. Those that exist are often approached from the archival perspective and focus on impressions rather than matrices. The papers in this volume present a fuller picture of seal use drawing from a wide variety of sources which combine matrix and impression. The British Museum’s own collection of medieval seal matrices is largely unparalleled in both size and scope and a number of formerly unpublished pieces are represented here. The publication comprises papers by international scholars from a conference associated with the British Museum exhibition Good Impressions, and also includes the handlist from the exhibition with associated images. The images on the seals are examined in terms of their user context as indicators of identity and status. The authors are historians, art-historians, archivists and archaeologists. The variety of approaches that each gives to their subject provides the volume with a rich, interdisciplinary character.