12th International Symposium on Byzantine Sigillography

The object of study in sigillography and the closely connected field of Early Russian sphragistics, are the lead seals – molybdobulloi – that were once attached to documents of various sorts. Sphragistic material is an invaluable multifaceted source of information in the study of questions relating to the history of Byzantium and Early Rus’, quite often making it possible to trace the political, economic and cultural ties of mediaeval states.

The Symposium on Byzantine Sigillography has been held in various European countries, Turkey and the USA. This was the first time it took place in Russia. The State Hermitage was chosen as the venue for the symposium because since the time of Academician Nikolai Likhachev, a full member of the Imperial Russian Historical Society and pioneer of the study of Byzantine and Early Russian seals in Russia, St Petersburg has been a centre for this field of scholarly research. At the same time the Hermitage is home to the world’s second largest collection of Byzantine seals, the core of which is made up of the collections of Nikolai Likhachev and the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople, as well as the world’s biggest collection of Early Russian seals. Specialists around the world are very familiar with the works of Valentina Shandrovskaya, who was for many years the keeper of this Hermitage collection.

Among the priority topics discussed in the course of the symposium were new finds of Byzantine and Early Russian seals on the territory of Russia, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey; the mutual influences of Byzantine and Early Russian sphragistics; the study on iconography and the cults of saints from sphragistics material; data bases of Byzantine seals and more. Participants in the symposium included researchers from Austria, Bulgaria, the UK, Germany, Greece, Turkey, France and Switzerland.