Les sceaux des abbés et du convent du Bec au Moyen Âge
After an explanation of the current historiography, the sources and the available corpus (original seal impressions, casts, drawings, references, etc.), the article focuses on the seal impressions of the abbots of Bec between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. The article then considers the seals...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
OpenEdition
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Tabularia |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/tabularia/7502 |
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| Summary: | After an explanation of the current historiography, the sources and the available corpus (original seal impressions, casts, drawings, references, etc.), the article focuses on the seal impressions of the abbots of Bec between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. The article then considers the seals of the abbey between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Comparisons will be made with seal impressions from the other Benedictine institutions in the province of Normandy, especially from the dioceses of Rouen and Evreux. It examines in detail a little known seal of the Abbey of Bec: not the thirteenth-century design that depicted the Madonna and Child sitting on what looks like a reliquary (Herluin’s tomb?), but another design, recorded from the late thirteenth century onwards and used from then until the sixteenth century, which depicted the coronation of the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven. The study also examines the omnipresence of Herluin, the founder of the abbey of Notre-Dame du Bec, on the counterseal of the seals of the abbots and the abbey. The seals are thus one aspect of the cult of the saints, in particular the founding ones. Parallels are also drawn between the seals of the first Norman archbishops of Canterbury and those of the first abbots of Bec to own seals. Lastly, the article analyses one of the abbey’s seals, known to many Norman scholars and sigillographers, the date and authenticity of which are both much debated. The purpose of this study is to identify the original aspects of the seals of the abbey of Bec up to around the year 1500, a period of considerable transition from a sigillographic point of view, when the effigies and figurative designs on the abbots’ seals were replaced with solely heraldic designs. |
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| ISSN: | 1630-7364 |