Medieval Seal Bags Unravelled: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Medieval seal bags – textile and parchment wrappings that cover wax seals appended to medieval charters – are rarely addressed in scholarship, despite being an intimate part of the charters’ material culture. In fact, most seal bags go unmentioned in archives and libraries’ catalogues, have not been photographed or described, and are therefore very difficult to discover by researchers and the general public. Wrappings like these were meant to protect the seals, but some luxurious examples suggest that documents were deliberately distinguished visually in order to highlight their historical and institutional importance.

This article showcases an interdisciplinary approach to the materiality of seal wrappings through the collaboration between conservation scientists, archival records specialists, textile experts and art historians. We present the results of the characterisation of two charters, their wax seals and textile bags (TNA E 42/524 and TNA E 42/529), highlighting the specific contributions of each specialist to the project, their methodologies and specific vocabulary, while also acknowledging the obstacles and learning moments.

Medieval textiles. Seal bags. Dye analysis. Weaving techniques. Multidisciplinarity.