Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/180

162 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. out of the town ; and the original water-course led from it to a circular building at the end of the beautiful Norman cloister to which he had already refeired. This circular building has hitherto been called the baptistery, but it really is nothing more than the castellum aquse of the drawing ; and on a minute examination he discovered, on clearing the rubble out, the hollow 2)illar in the centre (represented in the drawing) by which its cis- tern was supplied with water. He then proceeded to shew how the water was led from this central cistern to the monks' lavatory in the great cloister, to the kitchens and other offices, to the brew-house, bake-house^ infirmary, necessaria. See. and concluded with a general review of the principles of arrangement of the entire establishment. Friday, May 7th, the Very Rev. the Dean of Hereford in the chair. Mr. Turner made some remarks on the subject of seals. He said it naturally resolved itself into three simple divisions : the origin and antiquity of seals — the materials of which they were formed, as regards both matrix and impression — and their shape. As respects the antiquity of seals, he referred briefly to the use of them among the Babylonians, Egyptians and Eomans ; but thought that the origin of the pensile seal — the most important of the various shapes which this instrument has assumed in Europe — was to be recognised in the declining days of Roman power under the Byzantine emperors. The fashion passed from Constantinople to France ; where pendant seals were employed by the kings of the first race. The use of the large seal, then termed the " authenticum," was even at that early period accompanied by that of a smaller called the " secretum." The "authen- ticum" and " secretum" of the Frankish sovereigns were the primitive types of the Great Seal and Privy Seal introduced into England after the Conquest, It seemed possible that seals might have been occasionally employed in Saxon times, as that people must have been cognizant of their use in France ; but it could not be asserted, on the authority of one or two supjiosed in- stances, that the practice was at all general. The Saxon charters to which were pendant the broad seals of Saxon kings mentioned in some of the letters of the Commissioners of Henry YHI. for the suppression of the religious houses, were probably monkish fabrications. Pendant seals, or " bullaj" as they were originally named, were of metal — gold, silver, or lead ; they were struck from dies in the same manner as coins, and in the earliest periods had no reverses. Thus in their nature they Avere more analogous to coins or medals than to seals in the present acceptation of the term. The use of metal bullrc for the authentication of very solemn and important documents ^^revailcd among secular princes from the times of the successors of Constantine to the days of our Henry VHI. Two remarkable .examples of golden bulla; were still preserved in the chapter-house at Westminster: one of the thirteenth century, pendant to the Dower Charter of Eleanor of Castile, consort of Edward I.; the other, Avhich has been attributed to Benvenuto Cellini, is attached to the treaty of peace between Henry VHI. and Francis I. of France. The antiquity of papal bullse, Mr. Turner observed, had been much disputed by antiquaries ; their use, he believed.