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Details
LOT 1801
Medieval Lead Papal Bulla Seal of Pope Alexander IV
1254-1261 A.D.
1 1/4 in. (31.1 grams, 30 mm).
The obverse depicting the busts of St Peter and St Paul each within an inverted pear shaped compartment defined by pellets; cross pattee supported on a staff between the busts and at the top of the bulla in the centre the letters 'SPASPE', abbreviations for St Paul and St Peter; reverse inscribed over three lines 'ALE/XANDER/PP.IIII', with an omega above the letters 'PP'; both obverse and reverse faces with a pelleted perimeter. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Private collection, UK.
Footnotes
The 'PP' abbreviation stands for 'pastor pastorum', translated as 'shepherd of the shepherds'.
The bulla was so named because it was attached to Papal documents or 'Bullae'. They were sent from the offices of the Pope in Rome and the seal signified that the document was issued with the Pope's authority. Alexander's pontificate was signalled by efforts to reunite the Eastern Orthodox churches with the Catholic Church, by the establishment of the Inquisition in France, by favours shown to the mendicant orders, and by an attempt to organize a crusade against the Mongols after the second Mongol raid against Poland in 1259.
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