Recycled documents in Apulia: seal cases from the archive of St. Nicholas of Bari

Abstract

Thirty-two seal cases of royal and princely documents of the 13th-16th centuries made by recycling parchment and paper documents are preserved in the St Nicholas Basilica’s Archives. The paper speculates on the period and technique of manufacture and on the choice of materials to be reused. The cases were made during a restoration campaign promoted by the Chapter between the late 15th and early 16th century to improve the administration of the church. In organising the work, enclosures were made of different materials, and various, often drastic, operations were carried out to protect the seals. Documents, mainly private ones, that had no economic interest for the church were used to make the parchment cases, but documents were also used testifying to the recent domination of the Prince of Taranto in the city, which ended in 1463 and was to be consigned to oblivion. Written traces also remain in a cartulary that the canons commissioned from a Bari public notary in the late 16th century. It is a valuable aid in increasing knowledge about St. Nicholas’ history and the quantity of its documentary heritage, the technical archival vocabulary in use and the organisation of work in a notary office in a city of the Kingdom.