Plica (sigillography)

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Plica on a deed of Charles IV. Listina Karel IV.jpg
Plica on a deed of Charles IV.

Plica (from Latin plica, meaning fold) is a term used in sigillography and related archival contexts for a reinforcement of the lower edge of a charter or deed, produced by folding up the bottom of the sheet of parchment to achieve a double thickness.

Latin Indo-European language of the Italic family

Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets and ultimately from the Phoenician alphabet.

Sigillography the study of seals attached to documents as a source of historical information

Sigillography, also known by its Greek-derived name, sphragistics, is the scholarly discipline that studies the wax, lead, clay, and other seals used to authenticate archival documents. It investigates not only aspects of the artistic design and production of seals, but also considers the legal, administrative and social contexts in which they were used. It has links to diplomatics, heraldry, social history, and the history of art, and is regarded as one of the auxiliary sciences of history.

Archive institution responsible for storing, preserving, describing, and providing access to historical records

An archive is an accumulation of historical records or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization. Professional archivists and historians generally understand archives to be records that have been naturally and necessarily generated as a product of regular legal, commercial, administrative, or social activities. They have been metaphorically defined as "the secretions of an organism", and are distinguished from documents that have been consciously written or created to communicate a particular message to posterity.

The purpose of the fold is to provide a more secure anchorage for the seal, and to guard against the parchment being torn. Slots were normally cut in the double thickness of parchment, a cord or tag of parchment threaded through them, and the seal attached to that.

Seal (emblem) Device for making an impression in wax or other medium

A seal is a device for making an impression in wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, a wrapper for one such as a modern envelope, or the cover of a container or package holding valuables or other objects.

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Codex book with handwritten content

A codex, plural codices, is a book constructed of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, papyrus, or similar materials. The term is now usually only used of manuscript books, with hand-written contents, but describes the format that is now near-universal for printed books in the Western world. The book is usually bound by stacking the pages and fixing one edge to a spine, which may just be thicker paper, or with stiff boards, called a hardback, or in elaborate historical examples a treasure binding.

Scytale

In cryptography, a scytale is a tool used to perform a transposition cipher, consisting of a cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it on which is written a message. The ancient Greeks, and the Spartans in particular, are said to have used this cipher to communicate during military campaigns.

Nictitating membrane

The nictitating membrane is a transparent or translucent third eyelid present in some animals that can be drawn across the eye from the medial canthus for protection and to moisten it while maintaining vision. Some reptiles, birds, and sharks have full nictitating membranes; in many mammals, a small, vestigial portion of the membrane remains in the corner of the eye. Some mammals, such as camels, polar bears, seals and aardvarks, have full nictitating membranes. Often called a third eyelid or haw, it may be referred to in scientific terminology as the plica semilunaris, membrana nictitans, or palpebra tertia.

Nasolacrimal duct carries tears from the lacrimal sac of the eye into the nasal cavity.

The nasolacrimal duct carries tears from the lacrimal sac of the eye into the nasal cavity. The duct begins in the eye socket between the maxillary and lacrimal bones, from where it passes downwards and backwards. The opening of the nasolacrimal duct into the inferior nasal meatus of the nasal cavity is partially covered by a mucosal fold. Excess tears flow through nasolacrimal duct which drains into the inferior nasal meatus.

Rhythmic mode

In medieval music, the rhythmic modes were set patterns of long and short durations. The value of each note is not determined by the form of the written note, but rather by its position within a group of notes written as a single figure called a "ligature", and by the position of the ligature relative to other ligatures. Modal notation was developed by the composers of the Notre Dame school from 1170 to 1250, replacing the even and unmeasured rhythm of early polyphony and plainchant with patterns based on the metric feet of classical poetry, and was the first step towards the development of modern mensural notation. The rhythmic modes of Notre Dame Polyphony were the first coherent system of rhythmic notation developed in Western music since antiquity.

Fimbriated fold of tongue

The fimbriated fold of tongue, also plica fimbriata is a slight fold of the mucous membrane on the underside of the tongue which runs laterally on either side of the frenulum. The free edge of the fimbriated fold occasionally exhibits a series of fringe-like processes..

Pompano en Papillote is a dish created by Jules Alciatore at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans for a banquet honoring the Brazilian balloonist Alberto Santos-Dumont. The dish was based in turn on a dish that Jules's father Antoine Alciatore had created—Pompano Montgolfier--honoring the brothers who had created the first balloons. A filet of pompano is baked in a sealed parchment paper envelope with a white sauce of wine, shrimp, and crabmeat. With a bit of luck the steam will puff up the parchment a bit, suggesting a hot air balloon.

Plica semilunaris of conjunctiva small fold of bulbar conjunctiva on the medial canthus of the eye

The plica semilunaris is a small fold of bulbar conjunctiva on the medial canthus of the eye. It functions during movement of the eye, to help maintain tear drainage via the lacrimal lake, and to permit greater rotation of the globe, for without the plica the conjunctiva would attach directly to the eyeball, restricting movement. It is the vestigial remnant of the nictitating membrane which is drawn across the eye for protection, and is present in other animals such as birds, reptiles, and fish, but is rare in mammals, mainly found in monotremes and marsupials. Its associated muscles are also vestigial. It is loose, thus eye movements are not restricted by it. Only one species of primate, the Calabar angwantibo, is known to have a functioning nictitating membrane.

Paravesical fossa

The peritoneum of the anterior pelvic wall covers the superior surface of the bladder, and on either side of this viscus forms a depression, termed the paravesical fossa, which is limited laterally by the fold of peritoneum covering the ductus deferens.

Charters of Freedom

The term Charters of Freedom is used to describe the three documents in early American history which are considered instrumental to its founding and philosophy. These documents are the United States Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. While the term has not entered particularly common usage, the room at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. that houses the three documents is called the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom.

Plica syndrome is a condition that occurs when a plica becomes irritated, enlarged, or inflamed.

Articular capsule of the knee joint

The articular capsule of the knee joint is wide and lax; thin in front and at the side; and contains the patella, ligaments, menisci, and bursae. The capsule consists of a synovial and a fibrous membrane separated by fatty deposits anteriorly and posteriorly.

The plica semilunaris is the thin upper part of the fold of mucous membrane in the supratonsillar fossa that reaches across between the two arches. A separate fold is called the plica triangularis which runs inferoposteriorly from the posterior surface of the palatoglossal arch to cover the inferior portion of the tonsil.

Tonsillar fossa

The tonsillar fossa is a space delineated by the triangular fold of the palatoglossal and palatopharyngeal arches within the lateral wall of the oral cavity..

En papillote

En papillote, or al cartoccio in Italian, is a method of cooking in which the food is put into a folded pouch or parcel and then baked. The parcel is typically made from folded parchment paper, but other material, such as a paper bag or aluminium foil, may be used. The parcel holds in moisture to steam the food. The pocket is created by overlapping circles of aluminum foil and parchment paper and then folding them tightly around the food to create a seal. A papillote should be opened at the table to allow people to smell the aroma when it opens.

Conservation and restoration of parchment

The conservation and restoration of parchment constitutes the care and treatment of parchment materials which have cultural and historical significance. Typically undertaken by professional book and document conservators, this process can include preventative measures which protect against future deterioration as well as specific treatments to alleviate changes already caused by agents of deterioration.

Plica may refer to:

Insulated glazing

Insulating glass (IG), more commonly known as double glazing, consists of two or three glass window panes separated by a vacuum or gas filled space to reduce heat transfer across a part of the building envelope.

Sublingua

The sublingua ("under-tongue") is a muscular secondary tongue found below the primary tongue in tarsiers and living strepsirrhine primates, which includes lemurs and lorisoids. Although it is most fully developed in these primates, similar structures can be found in some other mammals, such as marsupials, treeshrews, and colugos. This "second tongue" lacks taste buds, and in lemuriforms, it is thought to be used to remove hair and other debris from the toothcomb, a specialized dental structure used to comb the fur during oral grooming.

References

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.