BOLLA

BOLLA. – Properly denotes the lead seal attached to documents and, by extension, the document itself.

I. SEAL

The use of the lead seal is of Byzantine origin and was already widespread in the 4th century. It was adopted by the Popes at least from the 6th century and continues to be used today for the b. issued by the Apostolic Chancery; it was used by the doges of Venice until the fall of the republic (1797), by archbishops and bishops of the Romano-Byzantine territory (Benevento, Ravenna, Naples, Canosa), notaries of Ravenna, judges of Sardinia, and counts and dukes of southern Italy (for example, of Gaeta, Capua, Apulia, and Calabria); perhaps in imitation of the papal chancery, emperors and kings of Italy (9th century), kings of Castile (14th century), and certain communes, such as Pisa, Genoa, and Florence, which received it by concession of the Pope, also used lead.

It was made by pressing a small lead plate (or a globe, whence bulla) between the two engraved halves of a die, so as to obtain a flattened disk with raised impressions on both sides.

In sovereign documents of particular importance, gold was used instead of lead, more rarely gilded silver, and only exceptionally silver. Naturally, given the hardness of these metals, the impression was made by a different technique, with engraving by burin on two round plates, which were then soldered together around the edges. The richest collection of gold b. in variety of types (98 specimens in 40 types) is preserved among the documents of the Vatican Archives, with seals ranging from Federico Barbarossa to Napoleon and, among them, an exceptionally large specimen of Filippo II, king of Spain (1555) (weight 820 g). The gold b. is very rarely found in papal documents. The oldest lead

The oldest known papal one is that of Pope Agapitus I (535), preserved, however, only in a drawing; the oldest original is that of Adeodatus I (615–18) in the Vatican medallion collection, and on the obverse it represents the Good Shepherd, while on the reverse it bears the Pope’s name. In the other b. up to the middle of the 9th century, the type is uniform and simple: on the obverse there is only the Pope’s name in the genitive, and on the reverse the legend PAPAE, with two small crosses. Leo IV (847–855) and Benedict III (855–58) have the Pope’s name in monogram form; thereafter, until the middle of the 11th century, the name is written in a circular legend around a star. Leo IX (1048) added the ordinal number to the name, and on the lead seals of his immediate successors there are various representations, mostly the bust of St Peter with a verse from Holy Scripture referring to the primacy. With Paschal II (1099), the type was introduced that then remained constant up to the present day, apart from stylistic variations: on the obverse it represents the heads of St Peter and St Paul, while on the reverse there is the Pope’s name in the nominative case. The sole exception is Paolo II (1464–71), who adopted a different type inspired by the lead seal of the Venetian doges. The affixing of the b. bullatores (v.).

tavv. A–N; H. Bresslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre für Deutschland und Italien, II, 2nd ed., edited by H. W. Klevitz, Berlino 1931, p. 548 suppl.; P. Sella, Le b. d'oro dell'Arch. Vaticano, Città del Vaticano 1934.

II. DOCUMENT

This name is given to any document bearing a seal in the form of a bull (v. above), and particularly to pontifical documents.

The name bull, applied to these documents, is not earlier than the thirteenth century and was never an official designation (the official name is Apostolicae sub plumbo litterae). It is rather a general term used to designate documents differing in form and content, taking as their common element the lead seal, in contrast with others bearing a wax seal (the briefs) or entirely lacking one (petitions, chirographs, the motu proprio).

All bulls begin with the Pope’s name followed by the title episcopus, servus servorum Dei, which the Pontiffs regularly used beginning with s. Gregorio Magno: until the end of the tenth century they were written on papyrus; in the first half of the eleventh century they were also written on parchment; thereafter they were all written on parchment down to the present age. They are always in Latin; as regards script, until the twelfth century the script known as the Roman curial was used, in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries the diplomatic minuscule, in the fifteenth century the Gothic cursive, and from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century the bullatic script.

According to their object and juridical nature, b. receive different designations, which vary over the centuries, so that no general nomenclature can be established; according to their diplomatic forms, they are divided into privileges and letters (among earlier authors: bullae maiores and bullae minores).

Privileges constitute the most important class of b.; since they concern concessions or recognitions of a perpetual nature, they are drawn up with observance of solemn formalities and characterized by the Pope’s personal participation, either through the ancient formula Bene Valeta (v.), or through the rota (v.) and the signature. Privileges remained in use until the fourteenth century; they were then, in a certain sense, succeeded by the so-called consistorial letters, which likewise bear the Pope’s signature.

In the more ancient centuries, letters bore an autograph subscriptio by the Pope in the form of a salutation, following Roman epistolary usage (e.g.: Deus te incolumem custodiat, carissime fili), but no original survives from before the eleventh century, when they had lost this ancient usage and had assumed simpler forms. From the twelfth century they are distinguished according to their content: those transmitting a concession (litterae gratiosae) have the lead attached with silk threads, like privileges; those transmitting an order (mandata or litterae executoriae) have hemp thread. In the twelfth century the first examples of closed letters (litterae clausae) appear, in which the closure was effected with the same thread that carried the b., always hemp; in the thirteenth century a new class of letters (solemn letters) arose, having in the initial protocol the formula Ad perpetuum rei memoriam or another similar one.

The terms communes, legendae, curiales and secretae letters refer to various procedural methods observed by the chancery or other offices in their dispatch. - Vedi Tav. CIV.

#### BOLLA D'ORO: V. BULLA AUREA.