37.99.9% HARVARD COLL FEB 19 1895 Sowell fund. ( II, 3.) GLASGOW PRINTED BY STRATHERN AND FREEMAN 145 WEST Nile street BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON HISTORIES OF INVENTIONS AND BOOKS OF SECRETS. FIRST SUPPLEMENT. BY JOHN FERGUSON, LL.D., LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. :0: PAGE EARLY SEAL OF THE BURGH OF RUTHERGLEN 247 v GROUND PLAN OF THE OLD WESTERN TOWERS OF GLASGOW CATHEDRAL 262 MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSOS. PLATE I. RESTORATION OF THE MAUSOLEUM. FROM A WATER COLOUR DRAWING BY PROFESSOR 288 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GLASGOW ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. No. XV. THE ANCIENT SEAL OF THE BURGH OF RUTHERGLEN: BY THE MOST REVEREND ARCHBISHOP EYRE, D.D., LL.D. [Read at a Meeting of the Society held on 19th January, 1893.] THE illustration which accompanies this paper is taken from an early seal of Rutherglen burgh. In Mr. Laing's Catalogue of Ancient Scottish Seals he describes the two ancient seals of Rutherglen, i.e., the burgh seal and its counter-seal. He says, "This, as well as the "counter-seal, seems to have been a very fine "seal, but, unfortunately, is in bad preserva"tion. The design is a galley with two men, one engaged in rowing, the other furling the sails. The inscription seems to "be Sigillum communitatis de Rugleninse," vol. i., No. 1181, p. 214. The counter-seal represents "the Virgin with the Infant Jesus, and at each side an angel waving the thurible. The inscription is ..... is... tria rataram ". . . . me . . . A.D. 1493,'" No. 1182, p. 214. He took his cast of this seal from an impression in the General Register House. 66 6 Our attention will now be confined to the seal in the illustration. The original brass matrice of this seal is now in private hands. It would seem that there were formerly two different seals. The second one described by Laing has no galley upon it, and the inscription is different from that on the seal now before us, which is Sigillum Burghi de Rutherglen. This seal combines the galley of the more ancient burgh seal with the emblem of its counter-seal, i.e., the Divine child on His mother's knee and the two angels, with the legend of the former changed into the Sigillum Burghi de Rutherglen. The emblems on the seal are three-(1) The Divine Child in the arms of the Blessed Virgin, who is seated; (2) Two angels waving the thurible or censer; and (3) a ship, or galley, with sails furled. We have looked through the descriptions of the various Scottish seals in Laing's two volumes, amounting to 2608 seals, and we find only five seals in which there is a representation of the Divine Infant in His mother's arms, with angels waving thuribles. The other four are (1) The burgh seal of Dundee; (2) a Dunkeld Bishop's seal; (3) a Kelso seal; and (4) another Kelso seal. The burgh seal of Dundee has "the Virgin and Infant Jesus seated; at each "side is an angel waving the thurible. The legend is Sigillum commune Ville "de Dundee," L. ii. No. 1211, p. 215. The seal of Matthew, Bishop of Dunkeld, A.D. 1289-1305, has "the Virgin and Infant Jesus, with the Apostles St. Peter "and St. Paul at the sides, and two angels with thuribles above"; the date is c. 1335; L. i. No. 891, p. 152. The Kelso seal, with these emblems, is a seal of the Abbot of Kelso, of the early date of 1292. It has "a full length figure "of the Blessed Virgin suckling the Infant Jesus, and at each side is an angel "kneeling and waving the thurible. The inscription is Virgo tuum natum "lactans fac me sibi gratum," L. i. No. 1061, p. 190. A second Kelso seal, that of Patrick, Abbot of Kelso, of more than 100 years later date, has a similar design and inscription, with the difference that the figure of the Virgin is only half length, and the angels at the sides are also half length, L. i. No. 1062, p. 191, plate xxv., fig. 3; of these five seals, two are burghal and three ecclesiastical seals. Amongst Scottish seals we sometimes find representations of the Divine Infant in His mother's arms, with angels on each side, but without thuribles. The counter-seal of Crail, a royal burgh in Fife, has "the Virgin and Infant "Jesus, with angels worshipping," L. ii. No. 1205, p. 214. The seal of John, Bishop of Dunkeld (A.D. 1356-1369) has a "half-length figure of the Virgin "and Infant Jesus, and figures of angels adoring," L. i. No. 892, p. 152. The seal of the Dean of Aberdeen has angels with scrolls on each side of the B. Virgin who is seated with the Infant Saviour in her arms, L. i. No. 972, p. 171. On the seal of the Abbot of Arbroath, of date 1371, are angels kneeling and adoring on each side of the Divine Infant on the knees of the B. Virgin seated, L. i. No. 978, p. 172. |