Papal Bulla

Einhard

Hey all,

I'm quite excited about this, but no doubt some expert will quickly point out that it's a poor forgery and all my hopes and yearnings will be cruelly crushed!!

Anyway, I have a bit of a coin collection. It's not much by any means, but granduncle said he'd like to have a look at it and would bring in some of his coins for me to see. He's been collecting things of interest to him for well on 50 years now, and while he has never had a structured approach and has too diverse a collection of things to have any real expertise, he had accumulated quite a few bits and bobs. He brought in some items that he thought might interest me today, and whilst going through them I saw the item below. He thought it was a coin, but I immediately saw that it wasn't. I'mve studied medieval history and papal history from that period, so I saw pretty quickly that it was related to the papacy. The reverse has INNOCENTIUS PP III which I thought referred to Innocent III. I was getting pretty excited at this stage, and so I google a bit more information and found that the obverse bore the images of SS Peter and Paul, and that I held in my hand a medieval papal bulla. It was the last thing I ever expected to find in my uncle's collection. I looked about for more information, but apart from some general info, there was nothign really to go on.

As he was leaving, he offered it to me. I nearly took his hand off.:) I have no idea how rare these things are, or their value (I'm not looking to sell it), or even if it's authentic. It seems a tad too good to be true that something like this would turn up in my uncle's shed afterall! However, it seems quite genuine, has quite a heft to it, ad he says that he got it from someone who claimed to have received it from a good soure years ago.

I was just wondering then, if anyone here would know more about my little artefact, whether it looks like a forgery, or maybe some advice on what to do next.

Thanks,
Einhard.

coylemj

Can we see the other side and what's it's provenance?

Einhard

coylemj wrote: »

Can we see the other side and what's it's provenance?

Wow that was fast!

coylemj

It looks more like Innocent IV (IIII) to me, he was Pope for eleven years, from 1243 to 1254.

The SPASPE refers to St PAulus and St. PEtrus i.e. SS. Peter and Paul.

Looks genuine ok based on a few minutes research on the web. Without the actual vellum document though it may not be worth a whole lot.

Einhard

coylemj wrote: »

It looks more like Innocent IV (IIII) to me, he was Pope for eleven years, from 1243 to 1254.

The SPASPE refers to St PAulus and St. PEtrus i.e. SS. Peter and Paul.

Looks genuine ok based on a few minutes research on the web. Without the actual vellum document though it may not be worth a whole lot.

Would you know if it's in any way rare?

coylemj

Wouldn't have a clue as to rarity. There is an interesting document here, not sure if your bulla is possibly a copy of the one in the National Library...

http://sources.nli.ie/Record/PS_UR_052326/Details

coylemj

There is a crowd in the UK selling this one for £285. The price isn't displayed on the first page but if you click 'buy' and then go to 'checkout', you can see the price....

http://www.time-lines.co.uk/pope-innocent-iv-saints-peter-and-paul-papal-bulla-020299-30564-0.html

Einhard

Thanks for the replies coylemj.

I don't know how I managed to miss it, but the Bulla from the papacy of Innocent IV, hence IIII instead of III.

It's nice to be able to handle something that's beena round for so long, and imagine the people through the ages who have also handled it.