Rome image seal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rome image seal of the Golden Bull

Rome image seals are called medieval seals , which usually bear a representation of the city of Rome on the back in addition to the image of the ruler on the front .

This representation is usually idealized, that is, no actual architecture is reproduced. The seal inscription mostly contains the famous Leonine hexameter Roma caput mundi regit orbis frena rotundi ( Rome, the capital of the world, controls the reins of the world ), which is still one of the trademarks of the city of Rome today. However, the verse comes from the environment of the German emperors, more precisely Konrad II. On an imperial lead seal from 1033 the verse appears for the first time with the representation of Rome. There is a Roman manuscript from the same period, probably from the surroundings of the imperial court, which contains the verse. Since the manuscript can no longer be precisely dated, the first document for Roma caput mundi ... cannot be clearly identified. In later times the representation of Rome can be found with the inscription on seals of special documents in the form of gold bulls . In addition, the verse entered the urban Roman tradition. A reference can still be found today, for example, on the base of a portal column of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano .

literature

  • Wilhelm Erben : Images of Rome on imperial seals and papal seals of the Middle Ages . Graz 1931, ( publications of the History Department of the University of Graz 7).
  • Otto Posse : The seals of the German emperors and kings from 751 to 1806. Part 1: 751-1347. From Pippin to Ludwig the Bavarian. Baensch, Dresden 1909.
  • Percy Ernst Schramm : The German emperors and kings in the pictures of their time 751-1190 . New edition ed. by Florentine Mütherich , Munich 1983.
  • Andrea Stieldorf : Seal customer. Basic knowledge . Hanover 2004, ISBN 3-7752-6132-X , ( Hahnsche historical auxiliary sciences 2).

Web links