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.
- Cover
- Copyright Page
- 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?
- 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
Text
Audio
Adobe DRM
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