Future projects
Medieval Seals Online
Medieval Seals Online is concerned not only with seals of kings, bishops, knights, monasteries and the like, but also those of ordinary people (almost unknown, although in fact some four-fifths of all surviving seals). This will be a new source of historical evidence - for individuals, for the craftsmen and their markets, for the law, for art and design, for popular taste and for much else.
The project will open up this little-known part of our national heritage:
- To everyone interested in the Middle Ages
- To teachers, museum curators, and anyone concerned with education
- To those researching the Middle Ages, especially the people and families of the period
Medieval Seals Online will offer:
- An interactive introduction dealing with how seals were used; how they were made; what their designs mean; what they can tell us about architecture, dress, armour and heraldry, religious imagery and popular piety, women, kingship, class structure, and even humour
- Images of seals available for study and research as well as for exhibitions, museum displays etc. These web images will be supplemented by higher resolution versions stored on CDs to provide a further research resource.
- A catalogue, fully searchable under many different heads: names of owner and user, date, region, design, inscription etc. Exact consistency of description, even for detailed elements of design, will make the catalogue a tool of great value for medieval study and research.
Medieval Seals Online can become a reality only if it has funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund or elsewhere. The application must show that it would have wide support and would be of wide use and interest.
