Bolla

BOLLA. - Properly denotes the lead seal appended 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 even today for the bulls dispatched 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 Roman-Byzantine territory (Benevento, Ravenna, Naples, Canosa), by notaries of Ravenna, by judges of Sardinia, by counts and dukes of southern Italy (e.g. of Gaeta, of Capua, of Apulia, of Calabria); perhaps in imitation of the pontifical chancery, the emperors and kings of Italy (9th century), the kings of Castile (14th century) and certain communes also used lead, e.g. Pisa, Genoa, and Florence, which had it by concession of the Pope.

It was obtained by squeezing a small plate of lead (or a globe, whence bulla) between the two engraved halves of a matrix, so as to obtain a flattened disc with impressions in relief on both sides.

In sovereign documents of particular importance, gold was used in place of lead, rarely gilded silver, and only by exception silver. Naturally, given the hardness of these metals, the impression was made with a different technique, by engraving with a burin on two round sheets, which were then soldered around the edge. The richest collection of gold bulls for variety of types (98 specimens in 40 types) is preserved in the documents of the Vatican Archive, with seals from Frederick Barbarossa to Napoleon and, among others, a specimen of Philip II king of Spain (1555) of exceptional size (weight 820 gr.). The gold bull is of very rare use in pontifical documents. The oldest lead pontifical seal known is that of Pope Agapetus I (535), preserved however only in a drawing; the oldest original is that of Adeodatus I (615-18) in the Vatican medal collection and represents on the recto the Good Shepherd, while on the verso it bears the name of the Pope. In the other bulls up to the middle of the 9th century the type is uniform and simple, that is, on the recto there is only the name of the Pope in the genitive and on the verso the legend PAPAE, with two small crosses. Leo IV (847-855) and Benedict III (855-58) have the name of the Pope in the form of a monogram, then 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 in the lead seals of his immediate successors there are various representations, mostly the bust of St. Peter with a verse of Holy Scripture in reference to the primacy. With Paschal II (1099) the type was introduced that then remained constant down to our own day, apart from stylistic variations: on the recto it represents the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, on the verso there is the name of the Pope in the nominative case. Only Paul II (1464-71) is an exception, who adopted a different type inspired by the lead seals of the Venetian doges. The affixing of the bull was the office of the bullatores (v.).

II. DOCUMENT

This name is given to any document furnished with a seal in the form of a bulla (v. above), and in particular to pontifical documents.

The name of bulla applied to them is not earlier than the 13th century and was never in official use (the official name is Apostolicae sub plumbo litterae). It is rather a generic term serving to designate documents differing in form and content, taking as a common element the lead seal, as against others furnished with a wax seal (the briefs) or entirely lacking one (the supplications, the chirographs, the motu proprio).

All bulls begin with the name of the Pope followed by the title episcopus, servus servorum Dei, which the Pontiffs used regularly from St. Gregory the Great onward: until the end of the 10th century they are written on papyrus, in the first half of the 11th century they are also written on parchment, then they are all on parchment down to the present age. They are always in Latin; as for the script, the so-called Roman curial script was used until the 12th century, in the 12th-14th centuries the diplomatic minuscule, in the 15th century the Gothic cursive, and from the 16th to the 19th century the bollatica script.

According to their object and legal nature, b. receive different names, which vary across the centuries, so much so that a general nomenclature cannot be established; according to diplomatic forms they are distinguished into privileges and letters (in older authors: bullae maiores and bullae minores).

Privileges constitute the most important class of b.; referring to concessions or recognitions of a perpetual character, they are drawn up with the observance of solemn formalities and characterized by the personal participation of the Pope, whether through the ancient formula Bene Valete (v.), or through the rota (v.) and the signature. Privileges were in use until the 14th century, then in a certain way the so-called consistorial letters succeeded them, in which there is also the signature of the Pope.

Letters, in the more ancient centuries, bore an autograph subscriptio of the Pope in the form of a greeting, similar to the Roman epistolary custom (for example: Deus te incolumem custodiat, carissime fili), but no original has survived earlier than the 11th century, when they had lost this ancient custom and had become of simpler forms. From the 12th century they are distinguished according to content: those that convey a concession (litterae gratiosae) have the lead attached with silk threads like privileges, those that convey an order (mandata or litterae executoriae) have a hemp thread. In the 12th century there are the first examples of closed letters (litterae clausae), in which the closure was obtained with the very thread that bore the b., always of hemp; in the 13th century a new class of letters (solemn) arises which have in the initial protocol the formula Ad perpetuum rei memoriam or another similar one.

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

Giulio Battelli