THE COMMON SEALS OF CORNWALL. 279 
and persons of distinction. The seals of individuals are called 
personal seals ; those of corporations, ecclesiastical and secular, are 
the common seals with which this paper deals. Sometimes a seal 
had both obverse and reverse; and in order to prevent falsifi- 
cation, counter or privy seals were introduced, which were at first. 
put upon the backs of the large seals, but afterwards frequently 
used alone. In addition to the common seals of the abbeys, 
convents, and priories, abbots and priors had their personal seals ; 
-and in municipal corporations it was no uncommon thing for 
mayors to have, not personal, but official seals, appertaining to 
the dignity and handed on with the office, and distinct from the 
seal of the general body. Official seals retain their legal import- 
ance almost intact; and, to be valid, public acts of bodies cor- 
porate must be authenticated by the common seal, to show that 
they are the deeds of the corporation and not of any individual 
or individuals. There never was the same precision about the use 
of private as of common seals, although their importance was 
great in days when few could write; and now a days anything in 
the shape of a seal will answer the requirements of legal techni- 
cality where the deed is personal only. In medizval times antique 
gems were often adopted as personal seals. Sometimes a seal was 
borrowed ; and there is a deed to which the seal of the Priory of 
St. Germans is attached, because, as the executor says, it was 
better known than his. There has been occasional laxity con- 
cerning official seals. ‘Thus the rector of a parish in Worcester, 
who claimed testamentary jurisdiction in the 16th century, used 
a seal of the customs of Exeter, instead of going to the expense 
of having one cut ; and the seal of the corporation of Maidenhead 
was evidently at one time that of a private individual. 
From gems to ivory, all possible materials have been used for 
the matrices of seals. Seals of the 12th and 13th centuries were 
commonly in lead; then different kinds of bronze and brass were 
employed, and frequently silver. Medizval seals are generally 
large and elaborate. Secular seals are commonly circular ; those 
of ecclesiastical bodies and females chiefly oval or of the vesica 
piscis—pointed oval—form. Occasionally we meet with the 
heater-shaped, the quatrefoil, or the lozenge. 
The substances used for sealing purposes are more numerous 
than the materials of the matrices. Clay, terra sigillaris, cement, 
