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© Museu Comarcal de l'Urgell-Tàrrega
Omeka ID 1247
Procedència desconeguda
Medieval and modern

Isaac Abismel seal

MCUT 2891

Object type
seal stamp
Production date
1300 / 1400
Fabric
medieval goldsmith
Museum
Museu Comarcal de l'Urgell-Tàrrega
Culture
Medieval and modern
Discovery location
Procedència desconeguda
Materials
copper
Township
Tàrrega (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Lleida, Urgell)
Technique
casting, carving
Where is it?
Exposició permanent
Dimensions
20 x 9 mm
Description
Personal seal in a copper alloy (possibly bronze), circular, with an emblem in the middle consisting of a horned quadruped looking left, surrounded by a legend framed by lines. At the back, a ring that allows a dual function: firstly, to carry it hung, and secondly, to make pressure in use. Although the collection of Hispano-Hebraic seals is numerically irrelevant, this personal seal belongs to the largest typology. Without being the smallest, it is of modest dimensions. The seal was used to validate a document to ensure its authenticity or to indicate ownership of something. Its owner, then, can be considered a person of certain importance within the community. The inscription begins with a six-pointed star, as is common in the epigraphic bands of seals, with the text: .Isaac Abismel, may D.u preserve him. ( יצחקאביסמעל†י״א†). The final formula that appears after the name is very rare in inscriptions, although interestingly it also figures on the seal of Astruc Isaac Rosell located near Tarragona (MILL.S, 1966: 103). Friedenberg (1987: 30), on the other hand, it is interpreted in the sense of "long live!", which was commonly applied behind the father's name to indicate he was still alive. It was not possible to identify the character of our seal among the names of Jews in the province of Lleida. He was probably from the same family as Abraham Avizmel documented in 1356 in Cervera (Secall, 1985: 287). Muntaner. (2007: 105, note 6) suggests that Abinçamel and Abnasmel, names that appear in the documentation relating to Jews and Tarrega (and, therefore, closer), could belong to the same family. The choice of the symbolic element corresponds to the desire to illustrate the name. In this case, the figure of the emblem resembles a ram, and evokes the sacrifice of Isaac, the owner's name. Iconographically, it is very similar to the one on the seal of Isaac bar Jacob (BEDOS, 1980, cat. 2,23, 14, p. 224, fig. 23), dated to the beginning of the fourteenth century.

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