Pieczęć jako „forma symboliczna”
A seal as a "symbolic form"

Summary/Abstract: The object of author’s interest in a seal, at which he looks not in the traditional way, but from the point of view of anthropology, sociology and linguistics, utilizing the experiences and research methods of art history, cognitive history and theology. A seal, an iconographical and legal sign, is presented as a multilayer carrier of material and spiritual culture, displaying different planes of and perspectives on the past, especially those which cannot be introduced by oral, written or audial sources. Through the image on the seal and the legend text complementing it, the seal can represent the structures of longue durée and spatio-temporal rhythms, which enable outlining, for example, dawning of a new era, temporal rhythms, cultural, civilizational, religious and national differences, as well as marking the cultural borderlands. Therefore, a special status of a seal as an important civilizational achievement of man emerges. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that sigilla are an important element of the history of a document, and studying the seal spot on a document, together with the analysis of the corroboration formulas and the whole scriptive and semiotic aspect of the seal, provides material for the reconstruction of mentalities of different social groups, value systems and hierarchies. In a seal, both linguistic and iconographic means of communication are employed, and therefore, regarded as a specific symbolic form, it appears to us not only as a memory carrier, but also a memorial.

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