This document provides an overview and analysis of the emergence of personal identity and representation through seals in 11th-12th century northern France. As lay nobility in this region became increasingly involved in legal and administrative matters, they lacked literacy and relied on seals to signify their authority in documents produced in their name. The author argues that seals emerged from discussions on semiotics and sacramental theology in writing bureaus staffed by clerics, representing a novel shift toward mediated representation and conceptualization of personal identity. By following a Peirceian semiotic approach, the author examines how seals functioned as signs standing in for absent persons, and how contemporary medieval theories may have shaped the agency and meaning of this new sign.

Oxford University Press, American Historical Association The American Historical Review PDF

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