Used to authenticate (and more besides) documents right back in ancient times, those of the VSA demonstrate the variety and richness of the seals. The Vatican seals show us more than a thousand years’ history of the Church and its intense relationships with medieval and modern society, not only in the western world.

Popes, Cardinals, Emperors, Kings, Queens, Doges and Bishops,  councils, corporations, merchants and men of law have come out of the darkness of time to take us into their world through the figures and symbols they chose to be remembered by, impressed in gold, silver, clay, wax, sealing wax or on simple paper. The special importance of the sphragistic wealth of the Archives is shown by the gold seals, the largest collection in the world, with 81 items, from Federico Barbarossa to Napoleon.

The Vatican Secret Archives contain, among others, a vast and rich collection of seals from various origins. There are thousands of hanging and adhering seals, in metal, wax or paper, which virtually all reached us attached to their respective documents.