Byzantine Seals in Austria

The Byzantine lead seals are that group of historical sources, which offers the most important part of new and till now unrecorded information on historical, prosopographical, administrative, art historical and other data for the evolution of the Byzantine empire, for the development of Byzantine culture through the centuries. A great part of the material is unpublished, and many elder publications are not equal to modem standards. Only in the last 50 years there began some progress in the methodological area, the transcriptions became more trustworthy and secure, the dating became more narrow than before, and we try more and more to avoid elder mistakes like too quick identifications with persons known from other sources. The "promachoi" of modern sigillography worked hard to find and establish verifiable criteria in this respect, but nevertheless much more research has to be done today and in the future. The Byzantine Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences supports since 1971 a seals project, that became one of the centres of Byzantine sigillography. Of foremost importance is the well known photo collection of about 40.000 seals, the biggest in the world (we estimate the total of remnants to about 80.000 seals - more than 17.000 in Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, more than 13.000 in the former Soviet Union, esp. in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, about 8.000 in Paris, at least since the important donation of the Zacos collection to the Bibliothèque Nationale), and this material becomes systematically organized, so it can be of immense help for identifying similar or even parallel pieces or for the construction of different positions in the cursus honorum of single persons, even if they are not recorded in other sources. Another enterprise is the collecting of all available metrical inscriptions on seals (including much unpublished material), that can help reconstructing damaged or partially lost legends on other seals (as many seals follow more or less certain formulas). As the institute is also a centre for Byzantine prosopography (the Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit was published here) we intend to collect as much of prosopographical material as possible, as we hope also to find a way to support the third volume of the planned Prosopography of the Byzantine empire (1025 till the beginning of the Palaeologan dynasty). Austrian collections own about 1200 Byzantine lead seals, a relatively modest number. A first volume was published in 1978 by the initiator of this project, who later on focused on other research programs in the run of his academic career, only partially in the sigillographic field. The second volume will have to deal with the seals of the central and provincial administration in the Byzantine empire (estimated to about 450 pieces). The bulk of the work should be done by a young scholar, Dr. Alexandra-Kyriaki Wassiliou, who became an expert in sigillography in the course of her excellent dissertation on metrical seals in Austrian collections, who published already more articles and was for some time collaborator of the Byzantine research institute. The dissertation was a kind of preparatory work for at least some of the seals in question. In the tradition of our seals project we would like to continue and promote international collaboration, esp. with two colleagues from Greece and Russia, yet on the basis of low expenses. On the other hand that will help to reduce travelling costs. Similar to the Dumbarton Oaks publications we intend to offer only a short and precise commentary to the single seals, and it should consider the relevant material in other collections, as much as possible. It is also our aim to construct sometimes a series of relative chronology.

The object of this project was to achieve the second volume of the Catalogue of Byzantine lead seals which can be found in the public and private collections in Austria, dedicated to the theme "Central and Provincial Administration". At the same time efforts should be undertaken in order to improve the specific methods of this discipline and to reconsider the sigillographic materials in such an innovatory way that they may be used better for further investigations. The "rough-manuscript" of the volume which covers approximately 380 seals, was finished within the period prescribed by the collaborator of the project, Ms. Dr. Alexandra-Kyriaki WASSILIOU. In this form already it exceeds other similar catalogues. However in a second working process the manuscript is thoroughly reconsidered and proved together with the project leader, concentrating attention especially on the dating - in order to fix it in a correct time, as much as possible in a narrow period, as well as in the question whether the person mentioned on a special seal could have connection with other seals or "seal-types", or whether the same person could be identified with another one, recorded in other sources, mainly literary ones. In this respect the methods developed were repeatedly critically proved in order to avoid hasty conclusions. The manuscript of this volume will be presented in june 2003 to the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Concerning the Central Administration of the Byzantine empire, esp. for the period from the 6th to the 12th centuries, thanks to this Catalogue, already some new far-reaching knowledge could be gained, not only through the Austrian seals, but also by the help of other seals which are quoted in the commentary. Some pieces have been already edited by F. Vitalien Laurent in Corpus des sceaux, but even there some corrections were necessary. In the sphere of the Provincial Administration, the percentage of until now inedited materials was much higher. Thanks to the method of "relative chronology", many new informations could be gained in connection with the "themes", as the military and civil administrative units of the middle Byzantine period are named. Very often some seals are the first, and until now the last documentary evidences concerning a special theme, and in some cases such units can be only found on seals. Also for the Prosopography of the Byzantine era, the present volume can be regarded as an important progress. The most encouraging result of this three years-work is the recognition that the co-author of the Project, Ms. Dr. Wassiliou, became one of the main specialists in this field on an international level, and in this way the basic conditions of a Viennese Center for Byzantine Sigillography are created. For the achievement of the last volume of the whole work, which will investigate 600 seals, fortunately the FWF has approved a final project, which has been already initiated. Since this volume will contain extensive indices, a short index for the second volume can be sufficient.