Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

SEA
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have fared like the Oleron sea laws : they have gathered
bulk with increasing years.
The question remains to be answered, How did this col¬
lection of sea laws acquire the title of the “ Wisby sea laws”
outside the Baltic 1 for under such title they were received
in Scotland in the 16th century, as may be inferred from
extracts from them cited in Sir James Balfour’s System of
the more Ancient Laws of Scotland, which, although not
printed till 1754, was completed before his death in 1583.
The text of the Wisby sea laws generally current in Eng¬
land is an English translation of a French text which
Cleirac published in 1641 in his Us et Coustumes de la
Mer, and is an abbreviated, and in many respects muti¬
lated, version of the original sea laws. This inquiry, how¬
ever, would open a new chapter on the subject of the
northern sea laws, and the civilizing influence which the
merchants of Wisby exercised in the 13th century through
their factories at Novgorod, linking thereby the trade of
the Baltic to that of the Black Sea.
See Pardessus, Collection de Lois Maritimes anterieures au X VIII.
Sibde (6 vols., Paris, 1828-45); Schlyter, Wisby Stadslag och Sjordtt,
being vol. viii. of the Corpus Juris Sueco-Cotorum Antiqui (Lund,
1853); and The Black Book of the Admiralty, ed. by Sir Travers
Twiss (4 vols., London, 1871-76). (T. T.)
SEALING WAX. In mediaeval times, when the princi¬
pal use of sealing wax was for attaching the impression of
seals to official documents, the composition used consisted
of a mixture of Venice turpentine, beeswax, and colouring
matter, usually vermilion. The preparation now employed
contains no wax. Fine red stationery sealing wax is com¬
posed of about seven parts by weight of shellac, four of
Venice turpentine, and three to four of vermilion. The
resins are melted together in an earthenware pot over a
moderate fire, and the colouring matter is added slowly
with careful stirring. The mass when taken from the fire
is poured into oiled tin moulds the form of the sticks
required, and when hard the sticks are polished by passing
them rapidly over a charcoal fire, or through a spirit flame,
which melts the superficial film. For the brightest quali¬
ties of sealing wax bleached lac is employed, and a pro¬
portion of perfuming matter—storax or balsam of Peru—
is added. In the commoner qualities considerable admix¬
tures of chalk, carbonate of magnesia, baryta white, or
other earthy matters are employed, and for the various
colours appropriate mineral pigments. In inferior waxes
ordinary resin takes the place of lac, and the dragon gum
of Australia (from Xanthorrhoea hastilis) and other resins
are similarly substituted. Such waxes, used for bottling,
parcelling, and other coarser applications, run thin when
heated, and are comparatively brittle, whereas fine wax
should soften slowly and is tenacious and adhesive.
SEALKOTE. See Sialkot.
SEALS1 (Gr. o-<fipayls, Lat. sigillum). During the
mediaeval period the importance of seals was very great,
as they were considered the main proofs of the authenticity
of all sorts of documents, both public and private.2 That
is much less the case now, the written signature being
thought a safer guarantee of genuineness. In order to
make illicit use or imitation of a seal difficult, the seal
itself was usually locked up and guarded with special care,
and in the case of royal personages or corporate bodies
was often made a very complicated work of art, which it
would have been almost impossible to copy exactly. One
very curious precaution that was adopted is still in use
with the corporate seal of the monasteries of Mount Athos.
The circular matrix3 is divided into four quarters, each
1 For antique seals, see Gems, Jewellery, and Ring.
2 In some cases, in the presence of witnesses, a seal which did not
belong to the signer of a document was used when the right matrix was
not at hand. This has naturally caused many archaeological puzzles.
3 The word “ seal ” is often used to denote both the impression made
of which is kept by one of the four epistatai or ruling
monks; the four pieces are joined by a key-handle, which
remains in the custody of the secretary. Thus it is only
when all five guardians of the various parts of the matrix
meet together that the complete seal can be stamped on
any document. The device on the Mount Athos seal is
a half-length figure of the Madonna and Child, and the
imprint is made by blackening the matrix in the flame of
a lamp and then pressing it on the paper or vellum itself.
Mediaeval seals were applied in two different ways : in
one the stamp was impressed in wax run on the surface
of the document (Fr. plaque or en placard) ; in the other
the wax impression was suspended by cord or strips of
parchment (Fr. pendant). The latter method was neces¬
sarily used with metal seals or hullee (see below).
For the sake of greater security in the case of plaque
seals, it was a common practice from the 12th century
onwards, or even earlier, to make a cross cut in the vellum
of the document, the corners of which were then turned
back, thus forming a square opening, over which the wax
seal was stamped; the turned-up corners helped to hold
the wax in its place, and the aperture allowed a second
matrix to be applied at the back. This was usually a
smaller private seal called a secretum. Thus, for example,
an abbot would use on the front of a document the large
corporate seal of his community, and on the back would
stamp his personal seal as a secretum.
Till the 12th century pure white beeswax was generally
used, after that wax coloured green or red. The use of
shellac or other harder materials, such as modern sealing-
wax, is of recent date. Thus it was usual to protect the
soft wax seals by some sort of “ fender,” often a wreath of
rushes or plaited strips of paper twisted round it; another
method much employed in the 15th century was to cover
the seal with leaves of oak, bay, or beech. Pendant seals
were often encased in boxes of wood or cuir houilli, which
in some cases are very richly decorated. From the 13th
to the 15th century original royal documents are usually
on fine vellum and have green seals hung by many-coloured
silk and gold thread, while office copies are on coarser
vellum and have white seals hung by parchment strips.
In England an important official, called the clerk of the
chafe-wax, an office which still exists, was entrusted with
the duty of softening the wax for state seals over a
chafing-brazier. Two different methods of sealing docu¬
ments, either closed or open for inspection, are recorded
in the legal terms “letters secret” and “letters patent.”
Owing to the enormous number of mediaeval seals which
still exist, and their frequently great historical and artistic
importance, it is necessary to adopt some method of
classification, especially for large collections, such as that
of the British Museum, which contains about 25,000
specimens, and the very important one of the Society of
Antiquaries.4 The chief classes are these(1) Ecclesi¬
astical.—(a) Seals belonging to offices, such as those of
popes, bishops, abbots, deans, &c.; (h) common seals of
corporate bodies, such as chapters, religious colleges, monas¬
teries, and the like; (c) official seals without the name of
the officer; (d) personal seals, with or without a name.
(2) Lay.—(a) Royal seals, including those of queens and
royal princes; (6) official seals in the name of the
sovereign or a state official; (c) common seals of corporate
bodies, such as towns, universities, guilds, schools, hospi¬
tals, &c.; {f) personal seals (not being royal) with effigies,
heraldry, merchants’ marks, or other devices, with or with¬
out a name, or with name only, or with legend only.
and the object that makes the impress. More correctly the latter is
called the “ matrix,” and only the impression is called the “ seal. ”
4 This valuable collection has been arranged and catalogued by Dr
C. S. Percival, the best modern authority on English seals.