Summary

Sculpture, bronze; Seal of the Order of the Crociferi in Bologna; Italy, Bologna, c. 1200-1220. The seal depicts the enthroned Virgin and Child, whilst its legend tells us that it was made for the Bolognese Hospital of the medieval religious Order of the Crociferi or Cross-Bearers, whose members regularly carried a small Cross in their hands. At its height the Order had hospitals or hospices for the care of pilgrims and the sick throughout Italy and beyond. Although it claimed ancient origins, the Order was formally established by papal decree in 1159 whilst in 1265 another papal bull confirmed the convent and hospital in Bologna as its mother house. The Bolognese house of the Order, situated on the then eastern edge of the city, was a stopping off point for visitors who arrived in the city along the via Emilia. The seal matrix was made around the time of the dedication of the Order’s Bolognese church, S. Maria del Morello (‘The Virgin of the Cherry), in 1201, which would explain the magnificent figure of the enthroned Virgin Mary, holding the Christ Child. As a medieval work of art, the seal is very likely to have come to Sudbury Hall through George John Warren Vernon, 5th Baron Vernon (1803-1866), who was a keen scholar of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321). He was the creator of a once famous edition of Dante’s poem Inferno (‘Hell’), known as the ‘Vernon Dante’. This very fine and rare medieval seal matrix would certainly have appealed to Lord Vernon. His celebrated library has long been dispersed, so it is all the more important as a reminder of this chapter in the history of the Vernon family and Sudbury Hall.

Full description

The seal of the Order of the Crociferi in Bologna. A circular bronze matrix, with an integral suspension loop. The design is in incuse, so it reads in reverse. The Virgin and child are enthroned, Mary crowned and holding a sceptre with a fleur-de-lys head, seated on a throne with arms in the form of wolves. In the field six stars. The legend between two rings in the form of beaded decoration describes the seal as that of the Hospital of the Crociferi or Cross-Bearers of Bologna. Two holes towards the bottom, which damage the legend, are later. The reverse is undecorated and is smoothly finished. This is a matrix for a seal, a type of object that has since the earliest times served important official and personal functions. The making of seals was a highly specialised skill that employed similar techniques to those used to make coins, so seal-makers were often closely associated with mints and were also often trained as goldsmiths. Matrices were die-cut, the design and lettering cut into the surface in intaglio and in reverse, so that impressions made from them will read in the correct direction. Made by pressing the matrix into a blob of melted wax or lead, seal impressions were affixed to letters and to legal documents such as contracts. The use of a seal gave personal authority to a document, guaranteeing its authenticity, but sealing a letter or other document also improved its security. Seal matrices would gradually wear out with use, necessitating replacement from time to time, whilst personal seals were usually broken up on their owner's death. This partocular seal is in excellent condition. Although it is today all but entirely forgotten, the medieval hospital of the Order of the Crociferi (Cross-Bearers) in Bologna was once a major institution in the city’s life, the mother house of a religious order that flourished from the twelfth through to the sixteenth century, with houses throughout Italy and beyond. The most important source for the history of the Order is a book by Benedetto Leoni, a member of the Crociferi and Bishop of Arcadia in Crete, published in Venice in 1599 ('Origine et fondatione dell'ordine de' crociferi', Venice, Gratioso Perchacino, 1599), in which many documents are cited from the Order’s archives, which are now lost. The Order of the Crociferi or Cross-Bearers claimed origins as far back as the first-century A.D. Christian martyr and Bishop of Rome Cletus. The documented beginnings of the Order came however much later, in 1159, when Pope Alexander III placed the new Order under his protection, decreeing it should operate according to the rules of Saint Augustine. In the following year work began on building the Order’s first church in Bologna, S. Maria del Morello, with an adjoining monastery, in the eastern part of the city, on today’s via Mazzini (Gentili 1962, pp. 96ff.). The church of S. Maria del Morello (‘The Virgin of the Cherry’) was consecrated in 1201. In July 1175 the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I granted further privileges and indulgences to the hospital and church of the Crociferi. Subsequent Pontiffs throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries reaffirmed the Order’s privileges, in 1265 Clement IV confirming in a Papal bull that the church and convent in Bologna were henceforth designated as the mother-house of the Order. In 1300 Brother Francis paid to the Diocese of Bologna a tithe contribution of fifteen Bolognese pounds (Gentili 1960, pp. 50-51), one of the higher contributions from among the religious houses in the diocese, suggesting that the Order in Bologna was in a flourishing state at this time. By the late thirteenth century the Order had expanded widely in Italy and beyond, with hospitals for pilgrims and the infirm established throughout Italy, from Venice to Sicily. By now the Order had been organised into five provinces – Bologna, Venice, Rome, Milan and Naples – with in total around two hundred properties. These consisted of a religious house and an adjacent hospital. The sign of the Order was an iron cross that would be held in the hand, or else worn on the breast. The Order began to decline in the course of the fifteenth century, because of two main factors, a significant reduction in pilgrimages to the Holy Land and the expansion of commanderies, a network of properties where members of military orders could live. In 1511, the ruler of Bologna Annibale Bentivoglio ordered the demolition of the Bolognese convent and church as part of improvements to the defences of the city of Bologna during a time of war. The complex was subsequently rebuilt on the other side of today’s Via Mazzini. In the sixteenth century the fortunes of the Crociferi improved but in 1656 Pope Alexander VII suppressed the Order, decreeing the transfer of the assets of the church and convent in Bologna to the Chapter of the Cathedral of Siena (the Pontiff’s birthplace), where they were to be used for the funding of several ecclesiastical posts. The buildings in Bologna passed to the Jesuits and subsequently to other religious congregations before in 1906 they were sold to become private residences. They were radically transformed at this time, but the outlines of the buildings survive, including a fine Renaissance courtyard, gateway and arcade. As well as its role as a monastery and hospital, the buildings of the Crociferi at the eastern edge of the city, were long of great importance in the history of Bologna, since they were an obligatory stop for all those arriving in the city from the East, along the road known as the via Emilia. It was from the Crociferi or Crociali as they were popularly known in Bologna, that magnificent processions would prepare for their departure on their way to Piazza Maggiore in the city centre. Among the famous individuals who passed by this way, often eating and staying overnight at the Crociali, were the Popes Eugene IV (1436), Pius II (1459) and Julius II (1507), and the condottieri (mercenary captains) Gattamelata (1433) and Nicolò Piccinino (1440). In 1506 the Crociali was the venue for a meeting between the ruler of Bologna, Giovanni Bentivoglio, and Lucrezia d’Este, Duchess of Urbino. Seals survive for some of the various houses or orders of the Crociferi or Cross-Bearers that emerged in Medieval Italy (Bascapé 1969-84, II, Sigilli ecclesiastici, 1978, pp. 231-32). Given the distinctive practice of Order members to carry a Cross in their hands or sewn onto the front of their robe, most of the hitherto known seals in some way or other reflected this, for example featuring a Cross, usually placed on three hills, a priest holding a cross or an order member kneeling before a Cross. This makes the Sudbury Hall seal matrix, with its magnificent depiction of the enthroned Virgin and Child, highly unusual. It may well be that this choice of image was in some way associated with the dedication of the Order’s Bolognese Church, S. Maria del Morello (‘Madonna of the cherry’), in 1201. Stylistically the enthroned Virgin and Child group, frontal facing and rather hieratic and stiff, would fit well with a dating of c. 1200-20 (thanks to Julian Gardner for advice on dating). Circular seals are not uncommon from this period, one of the best-known being the silver seal matrix for Robert fitz Walter (died 1235) in the British Museum, dated c. 1213-19 (P&E 1841,6-24,1; Adams, Cherry and Robinson 2008, p. 117, no. 8.1). There are also parallels with early thirteenth-century French royal seals, such as seals of Philippe-Auguste (reigned 1180-1223), with the figure enthroned upon a chair with wolf’s head arms (Dalas 1991, pp. 150-51, nos. 70-71). Philippe-Auguste also carried a baton crowned with a fleur de lys similar to that held by the Virgin in the Sudbury seal matrix. An early thirteenth-century seal with the enthroned Virgin and Child on one side is the seal matrix for Boxgrove Priory in the British Museum, dating from c. 1200-30 (P&E 1882,4-5,1; Adams, Cherry and Robinson 2008, p. 110, no. 21). This is a two-part seal matrix, which would have made a double-sided seal, with the wax squeezed between the two parts of the matrix, whereas the Crociferi seal is a smaller and simpler single-part matrix. The seal matrix therefore dates from a little before the lifetime of the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321), who attended the university of Bologna as a young man. This helps to provide the probable explanation of how this medieval object came to Sudbury Hall, since George John Warren Vernon, 5th Baron Vernon (1803-1866) and his second son the Honourable William John Borlase-Warren-Venables-Vernon (1834-1919) were both passionate scholars of Dante. Among the 5th Lord Vernon’s numerous publications on Dante, the summit was his sumptuous edition of the Inferno (‘Hell’) in three folio volumes, published between 1858 and 1865, known as the ‘Vernon Dante.’ He assembled a magnificent library of books and manuscripts, much of which was sold during his lifetime, whilst the remainder of the library was dispersed in successive sales at Sotheby's in 1918, 1921 and 1928. There may in addition have been a good collection of medieval antiquities, pretty well all of which was sold before the National Trust took on responsibility for Sudbury in 1967. A fine Limoges enamel book cover with Christ in Majesty, now in the Wyvern collection, was sold by the 9th Lord Vernon in 1958 (Sotheby’s, 16 May 1958, lot 48; Williamson 2021, pp. 106-09, no. 32). This rare seal matrix, in fine condition, survives at Sudbury as a poignant reminder of this chapter in the history of the Vernon family. Jeremy Warren March 2026