Apparatus Sigillorum – nieznane źródło do sfragistyki miejskiej Pomorza Zachodniego. Autorstwo, czas i okoliczności powstania

Abstract

The purpose of the article is presentation of an unknown collection of copies of the municipal seals Apparatus Sigillorum Pomeraniae et Rugiae Civitatum and an attempt to establish authorship, time, and circumstances of its origin. The work survived among the remnants of the so called Ostens Library, where it came in 1773. Brief notes made on its cover suggest that it originates from the collection of Matthäus Heinrich Liebherr. The analysis of the aesthetic of the executed copies allows a supposition that there were several drawers and the work could be completed by the successive owners. The content of the dorsal notes implies that the author used the seals from the collections of Pomeranian scholars belonging to the society Collectores Historiae et Juris Patrii. It is likely that the activity of this society inspired the compilation of the catalogue of the Pomeranian towns’ seals.

Keywords

• sphragistics
• seals
• Western Pomerania
• the Ostens Library
• Apparatus Sigillorum
• copies of seals