Catalan Sigillography and Beyond: Iconic Behaviors in Medieval Breaking Seals

The author analyzes various cases of breaking seal matrices in medieval Catalonia and other regions in this text. The manuscript notes of the Catalan sigillographer Ferran de Sagarra guide the exploration of the mechanisms of signification associated with an essential medieval political theology. Beyond the materiality of the sigillary matrix and the printed seal, one can decipher a series of iconic behaviors that allow the author to propose a method for understanding European cultural history through anachronistic narrative forms akin to those of Aby Warburg, Walter Benjamin, or, more recently, Georges Didi-Huberman. It is possible to demonstrate the historical validity of seals in the service of a cultural history and thought that transcends political or religious narratives, opening new horizons in the understanding of the Latin West from the Carolingian period to the apex of international Gothic.