ABSTRACT

Crusader royal seals were collected as antiquarian objects from the late Renaissance onwards by a small number of Western scholars like Fabri de Peiresc. The exceptional character of the seal is underscored by the fact that it was produced at a time of considerable political and administrative turmoil following the conquest of Jerusalem in July 1099. It co-joins two elements: civitas, implying simultaneously the idea of a spiritual and secular Christian commonwealth and simply "city" or "town", in the Frankish context one with a famous biblical pre-crusader past, obviously in reference to Jerusalem. Fascinatingly, the entire legend appears as far as the author know only for a second time verbatim 70 years later, in the main account of the Jerusalem kingdom's history, William of Tyre's Chronicon. The creation of a royal seal should be regarded as part of Baldwin’s efforts to achieve a genuine, legitimate kingship in Jerusalem as quickly as possible.