The Vatican Secret Archives also possess a very extensive and rich patrimony of seals of various origins. It is a collection of thousands of hanging and adhering seals, made of metal, wax or paper, that have nearly all reached us along with the respective documents.

Solemn Letter of Phillip II, Infante of Spain to Pope Paul IV (1st October 1555) ASV, A.A., Arm. I-XVIII, 522

    The collection that can defined as unique in the world, both for its size and quality, is the one consisting of the golden bulls. Out of the 81 examples of 42 different types; 64 are seals in gold leaves, 4 are made of solid gold, to these add 13 caskets (5 made of gold, 6 silver and 2 of gilt silver) all containing just as many wax seals. It is not surprising that the Holy See possesses such an important collection: in fact, emperors and sovereigns sometimes used precious metals, such as gold for the sovereign seals in order to communicate, with major evidence, an idea of the authority of the holder of the seal, as well as the importance of the addressee.

    In Italy, we have golden seals in the State Archives of Bologna, Florence, Venice, Milan, Turin, in some museums and in cathedral archives; in Europe there are few examples in Paris, in London, in Germany, in Spain and in other countries. The Vatican collection is the richest and most representative one even from a chronological point of view: from Frederick Barbarossa to the third decade of the XIX Century.

    In fact, the most ancient bull dates back to 1164 and belongs to a document of the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (A.A., Arm. I-XVIII, 7): it is very flat and made with two golden foils; on the recto the impressive figure of Barbarossa stands out half length, inside a circle of embattled walls where a regular tympanum door opens: the sovereign holds a lilied sceptre in his right hand and a globe with a cross in his left hand; on the verso there is a picture of ’”AUREA ROMA” (the golden age of Rome) figuring a group of buildings, palaces, towers and bell towers symmetrically arranged around the Coliseum. The inscriptions on the recto and the verso highlight Barbarossa’s imperial idea and political conception: Frederic(us) Dei gr(ati)a Romanoru(m) imperator aug(ustu)s (Frederick, by God’s grace, August Emperor of the Romans) and Roma caput mundi regit orbis frena rotundi (Rome capital of the world, holds the reins of the round orb).

Recto and verso of the seal of the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa ASV, A.A., Arm. I-XVIII, 7

    Most of the seals of this precious collection reproduce on the recto the usual iconography of the grandeur of the sovereigns, where the holder is portrayed standing or sitting on his throne with a crown on his head and the symbols of his power in his hands (sigilli ad effigie); examples of this are, for instance, the seals of Andronicus II Palaeologus, John V Palaeologus, Henry VI, Frederick II, Bela IV, Philip III and of the Emperor Charles VI of Augsburg. Whereas on the verso, some seals portray the ’”AUREA ROMA”, others reproduce Christ with the crossed nimbus, and some others illustrate the sovereign on a horse wearing his armour or heraldic elements.

Verso of the seal of Philip II, Infante of Spain (year 1555) ASV, A.A., Arm. I-XVIII, 522

    A rare example of a pope’s resort to gold to seal his documents is Pope Clement VII’s bull of 1530 that on the recto reproduces the heads of the Apostles Peter and Paul and on the verso carries the name of the Pontiff with the ordinal. With this example, this pope interrupted the Pontifical Chancery’s centuries-old tradition of using lead.

    The collection of the golden bulls also includes the beautiful seal of Philip II King of Spain (year 1555): it is striking not only for its size and weight (it is in solid gold, with a diameter of 111 mm), but also for the accurate and perfect craftsmanship, thus representing one of the most beautiful examples of the sphragistic patrimony of the Vatican Secret Archives. The recto portrays the sovereign wearing his armour sitting on a throne, with its arms that have the shape of a chimera and its back lined with a damask drape. With his right hand he grasps his sword and lays his left hand on the great crowned shield of Spain. The verso, equestrian, portrays the king wearing his armour riding a galloping horse covered by a rich damascened armour; the inscriptions highlight the many titles of the sovereign.

    The last precious seals, in chronological order, are: the wax seals in a gilded silver casket of 1803 affixed on Napoleon Bonaparte’s ratification of the treaty between the Italian Republic and Pius VII, and finally the seal in a golden casket of 1822, belonging to Ferdinand III of Lorena.

Golden casket and wax seals belonging to Ferdinand III of Lorena, grand duke of Tuscany (1822) ASV, Arch. Borghese 930, Tit. Onorifici, T. IV