Abstract
The analysis of the consilium of the famous canonist Giovanni d’Andrea and three of his Bolognese colleagues from 9th May 1329 reveals that legal consilia in the fourteenth century were usually authenticated both with the signature and signum of the notary drafting the document and with the seals of the jurists. Three of the seal impressions formerly appended to the document illustrate in a strikingly similar fashion a detailed image widely disseminated on seals of jurists in medieval Italy: the doctor sitting enthroned in the cathedra, turned towards the viewer and at the same time concentrated on the open book in his hands. The image is a sympathetic visualisation of the basic scheme of the consultation of the legal doctors, i. e. the transmission of the theoretical legal knowledge of the studium to the world outside the university, which is exemplified in the text of the document in a specific casus. Seals of medieval jurists bear an effigy of the owner of the seal, like other seals of high-ranking persons, such as emperors, kings and bishops. Thereby, and by the insistent repetition of a picture form which can be distinguished clearly by its three dimensionally refined visual idiom from the seals of emperors, kings and bishops, the seals of doctors of law advertise themselves as sigilla authentica which enjoy absolute credibility.
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