Gisburne (Guisborough)

Nat.Archives: SC 13/R 23.
13th century.

The BVM sits enthroned with the Christ child on her left knee, under an arch and church canopy; around her the legend:  AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA.  To her left (possibly mirrored to her right, but the seal is incomplete) is a canon kneeling in prayer, in a separate arch.  The trefoil windows with tracery underneath on the canopy recall the east end of Guisborough, so perhaps this seal was actually based on the priory, and not just a flight of gothic fancy.

The legend on the rim (incomplete):  SIL. PRIORAT. BEATE MARIE DE GYSEBURNE.

Above the canopy are censing angels, similar to the ones on the Canterbury second seal (which you can see and read about here) or Norwich's seal.  There's a nod perhaps to Merton's seal; there's also perhaps a nod to Walter Giffard's seal, with the full-length figures in niches, although this wasn't uncommon.
PS.  Gisburne Part II.  I've just discovered Charles Clay's 1928 paper on 'The Seals of the Religious Houses of  Yorkshire', in Archaeologia (online! Hurrah!).  He gives the counterseal to this seal (pictured left).  It has the same architecture, but with a rather fat St Augustine in the middle, on a similar seat - but beneath that is an arcade of pointed arches; the BVM has one of fleurs-de-lys.  His staff is in his left hand, and his right hand is in benediction, and he is vested for mass, as befits a bishop (cf. Augustine on Merton's seal, or Nicholas on Drax's).  Around him are the words ORA P[RO] NOBIS BE[ATE] AVGV[STINE].  Dexter, beneath a crocketed canopy, a kneeling canon, with a crescent above him (cf the star above the kneeler on the seal); sinister, the remains of a corresponding canopy and presumably another figure.  The inscription is very incomplete.
Compare this with Anthony Bek's seal (right).  Bek was the first bishop of the 13th century to sit, and the compositional similarities are striking - he has Oswald and Cuthbert either side of him.  Bek's seal is extraordinary for its aesthetic innovations, its workmanship and its sheer effrontery - he's asserting himself as quasi-royal; at once holy and, with his heraldic chasuble, a massive temporal power.  Gisburne's seal-maker and/ or commissioner surely knew Bek's seal.

Clay also showed Gisburne's previous, 12th-century, seal.  It's much less architectural, but not necessarily less ornate.  It's a pointed oval, 2 ½ x 1 ¾", and has the BVM in conventual dress, seated on a chair ornamented with round arches, reading a book on a lectern, with a star of eight points in front of her on the dexter.  The inscription reads:  + SIGILLVM • SANCTE • MARIE • DE • GISEBVRNC [he gives the last letter as C, but it's a weird C.  Perhaps it's N?]  I'll have to look up the BVM (and other saints) reading.  It's the Word, but does it also show the importance of learning?  All this is on a dainty carved corbel.


Clay describes two counterseals to this: 1) Pointed oval,1 5/8”. A bird.* SIGILLUM : SECRETI :  2) BVM and Child; below, a kneeling figure. AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA DOMINUS TECUM.