Lead Seals

dfsdfSeal of Nicolò da Ponte

Lead seal of the Venetian doge (Nicolò da Ponte, 1578-1585), found during underwater research in 2014, Av. (photo: S. Govorčin)

Seal of Nicolò da Ponte

Noteworthy among the new finds is a lead stamp bearing an image of Nicolò da Ponte, the eighty-seventh Venetian doge (1578-1585). The obverse contains the figures of St. Mark and the doge, who is receiving from the latter a banner accompanied by the inscription DVX. The edge of the stamp bears the inscription NIC(OLAUS).DE PONTE = DUX = S(ANCTUS).M(ARCUS).VENETI(ARUM) with the abbreviated names of the doge, St. Mark and Venice. The inscription on the reverse reads: NICO/LAVS.DE/PONTE.DEI/GRA.DVX.VENETIAR/ET, meaning “Nicolò da Ponte, by God’s mercy the doge of Venice, etc.”. The stamp was certainly used for the goods that the Doge himself shipped.

dfsdfSeals of textile merchants

Lead seals found in 2014 (drawing: S. Cule)

Seals of textile merchants

In the vessel’s stern section, in the space where the doge’s stamp was found, a high concentration of pins, glass beads, small buckles and lead seals, used by cloth merchants to stamp their goods, were discovered. All of this indicates the possible storage of various fabrics which we know accounted for a considerable share of the ship’s cargo. The overall number of lead seals bearing various symbols that have yet to be more thoroughly studied and linked to specific merchants has thus grown to about twenty.