Lead, 41.44 grams, 39.93 mm dia, approx 4 mm thickness. 1243 - 1254 AD. A lead seal from a document issued by Pope Innocent IV. The iconography of papal bullas has not altered since the time of Pope Pasquale II (1099-1118) - one face bears the name of the issuing Pope and the other the opposed profile heads of SS. Peter and Paul with a cruciform emblem between and a form of the identifying abbreviated legend SPESPA (Sanctus Petrus Sanctus Paulus 'Saint Peter, Saint Paul') on the other. The present example shows on the recto the two faces, heavily stylized, beneath the legend '[S]PA:SPE'. On the verso is the legend 'INNO/CENTIVS/PPIIII' within a beaded border. Reference: Pateman, B. Collecting Seals page 134-135. Fine/very fine. Provenance: from an old English collection.

The early life of Sinibaldo Fieschi is unrecorded, but he had become an authority on canon law by 1226 and was summoned to the Roman Curia where he was Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church for two years and subsequently held several other offices. His immediate predecessor as pope was Celestine IV (elected October 25, 1241) whose reign lasted only fifteen days; prior to this the papal throne had been occupied by Gregory IX (1227-1241), who had been embroiled in plans to regain lands seized by the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II. When Celestine died unexpectedly, the long-standing difficulty of dealing with this issue resurfaced and a successor could not be agreed for over a year as the various factions contended to have their prefered candidate elected. Innocent's position was precarious as public opinion in Italy swung against him, and he resorted to the French city of Lyons to convene a church council which reluctantly excommunicated the Emperor and relieved his subjects of the duty to obey him. Frederick's death in 1250 allowed a relaxation of the political tensions, the return of the papacy to Rome and normalization of political relations. Nevertheless, Innocent IV saw himself as the Vicar of Christ and was not reluctant to intervene in secular affairs: he wrote to the Emperor of the Tartars demanding that he become Christian and cease his wars against Europe, but needless to say the Emperor was reluctant to obey and instead insisted that all European rulers should submit to the Khan. Innocent IV died at Naples in 1254 while campaigning against Manfred, the illegitimate son and successor of Frederick II.