A major French archival collection holding thousands of historical seals—from the Middle Ages right up to modern times—has finished its full digitization. The collection is now freely available online and features a striking 1285 royal parchment sealed in red wax that once belonged to Marguerite de Bourgogne, Queen of Sicily and Jerusalem.
The Côte-d’Or Departmental Archives in Burgundy partnered with France’s national seal database, SIGILLA, to photograph sealed documents, seals, and counter-seals. Completed last summer, the project lets researchers study high-resolution images of these centuries-old, fragile items without ever touching the originals.
A Queen’s Personal Seal from 1285
One of the collection’s highlights is a parchment issued in 1285 in the name of Marguerite de Bourgogne. Attached at the bottom is a red wax seal showing the queen standing inside an arched frame that echoes Gothic architecture.
The document deals with the will of her grandfather, Duke Hugh IV of Burgundy. In it, Marguerite formally confirms that she inherits one-third of his properties located in Autun and various places across Burgundy.
Nearly 20,000 Seals Still Guarded in France
The Côte-d’Or Departmental Archives hold one of the country’s richest collections of historical seals. According to the institution’s research guide, roughly 20,000 seal impressions are preserved there, many of them linked to medieval documents.
These seals do far more than authenticate legal acts. They capture the art, clothing styles, heraldic symbols, and social ranking of their era. The figures, coats of arms, and Latin inscriptions on royal and noble seals give historians clear windows into political alliances and everyday power structures of the Middle Ages.
This latest digitization does not cover every seal in the archives, but it completes the online image set for the sealed-documents collection—making a crucial portion of the holdings far more accessible.
Protecting Fragile History Through Digital Means
Launched in 2013, the SIGILLA project set out to gather historical seals kept in archives and museums all over France onto one shared digital platform. Multidisciplinary teams of researchers, archivists, and restoration specialists carefully record both images and historical data for each item.
In Côte-d’Or, specialists used dedicated photographic and digitization equipment to avoid any risk of damage to the delicate parchments and wax seals. The resulting images strengthen the archives’ own inventory work and add valuable new material to the national SIGILLA database.
Findings from the project will be presented at a conference hosted by the archives on 13 October 2026. By moving these documents into the digital realm, France is safeguarding tangible evidence of medieval legal and political life for future generations while opening wider access for researchers around the world.
Cover Image: The 1285 royal parchment issued in the name of Marguerite de Bourgogne, Queen of Sicily and Jerusalem, with its original red wax seal still attached. Reference: B 304 / PS 437, Côte-d’Or Departmental Archives.