The seal in culture of the Teutonic order (the end of XII - the beginning of XIV centuries)

This paper is about seals using in the Teutonic Order in a wide historical and cultural context, from their appearance in a corporation chanceries until transfer of the central administration in Marienburg (1309) and the followed administrative transformations. The paper analyzes a wide range of the problems connected to origin, use and perception of a sigillographic monuments. Appearance of the seals was caused by practical need of documents authentication in connection with growth of Order’s possession. It is determined that corporate Statutes regulated some legal aspects of their using only: designation of a group of people having the right to use it, and also the special significance given to the seals of the Grand master and the Сonvent as carriers of the higher authority. The hypothesis about a possible influence on a choice of seal images by the Order chaplains that managed chanceries is stated. The short comparative analysis of external characteristics of the seals in different regions of Order activity with other military orders, first of all an Order of Saint John, showed dominance of the wax and anonymous seals in particular...