Palermo (Sicily) Parchment charter Queen Constance of Sicily 1196

    Seal of Queen Constance affixed to a charter in Latin ordering the restitution of property to a certain Rainaldo. The seal is in red wax in a wooden disc, bound to the parchment with a red silk ribbon. It depicts the empress on the throne with the insignia of power. The titles given her in the legend associate references to the twofold legitimacy of the deeds of Constance of Hauteville, both empress by marriage and queen of Sicily by inheritance: "Constance, by the grace of God, empress of the Romans, perpetual Augustus and queen of Sicily".

Dimensions of the object
38 x 34,5 cm

Bibliography
- "L'età normanna e sveva in Sicilia", catalogo della mostra a Palazzo dei Normanni a Palermo, organizzata dall'Assemblea Regionale Siciliana, Palermo, 1994.

Location
Palermo, Tabularium of the Cathedral

Photography
G. Cappellani