C ? 8 9 1 
were properly called Signa ; the Seals cut in Stone 
were called Sigilla 5 Sigillum being a Diminutive of 
Signum , as Tigillum is of Tignum: But the later and 
more barbarous Latinijis have form'd the Diminutive 
of Signum into Signetum 5 and If a very filial! Pocket- 
Seal, they have called it Signaculum . See Job. Mich . 
Heine cius de Sigillis. Franco f 1 709. Fol .p. 1 6. & feq. 
The learned Montfaucon , amongft his prodigious 
Treafuresof Antiquities, in his Anti quite expliquee 7 
Tom. III. Fartie 2de. Chap . 12. gives us the Figures 
and Defcriptions of feveral of thefe larger Sigilla or 
Signa , whereon, he faith, the Names were all cut 
in hollow in capital Letters, 'Domini Fatronique 
nomen majufeulis literis infculptum, which he 
expreffes in French , imprime en creux s and he 
imagines their Ufe to have been to mark earthen 
Veffels, particularly thofe great earthen Jars, wherein 
the Romans ufed to keep their Wines. If any of 
them had occurr'd to him with the Letters excifre , ex - 
fculpt<e y protuberant or (landing out, as the Types in 
our modern way of Printing are made, fo accurate a 
Defcriber of Antiquities could not have paffed fuch 
an one over without having mention'd it, and that 
the rather becaufe of its being a greater Rarity : tho' 
feveral Lamps of Terra coSta are (lamp'd with Letters 
imprefled or hollow, from fuch protuberant Letters as 
in this Stamp, but the greater Number have the Letters 
raifed, or (landing out. 
You have here the Impreffion and Figure of 
one of thefe lad fort of Stamps *, whereon the 
Letters are exfculpt£ or protuberant, as is like- 
wife the Edge or Border round the whole Stamp. 
This 
* The Impreffion at p. 3^8. is from the very Stamp itfelf, and the 
Figure of the Stamp is reprefented in the Tab. prefixed. 
