Hi Mao,
SInce no Researcher has taken this on, maybe because it is hard to
support from the web, I will take a commenter's liberty of posting an
unauthenticated, non-paper "document". :)
As you probably know, seals were once used to verify the authenticity
of documents, before paper, on clay tablets down in Mesopotamiaa and
elsewhere.
Later, on paper and parchment, they were still used, impressed on wax
on the document, or on major documents of state by large seals on
large pieces of wax in which the ends of cords were imbedded that had
been laced through the document.
Back then, signatures didn't mean much, and often the rulers or
persons in authority could not write. (Charlemagne's signature was an
elaborate pattern, nothing like our modern scrawl, and I believe it is
surmised that he only added the last bit to it.)
Into the 20th century, private persons who had a coat of arms and
signet ring (or only a ring with intials engraved) might seal their
envelopes with it, but by then documents between mere commoners
without a coats of arms were common, so that the signature alone was
the authentication for private documents.
If these persons could not write, they would "make their mark", often
an X or two, and someone else would verify that it was that person's
mark, just as a notary does today on documents in the States and
elsewhere. In Tibet I saw pilgrims from India cashing travellers
checks by "signing" with their thumbprint.
Government documents, however, in many or most countries are still
authenticated with a rubber stamp - and the official's signature,
which may be in ink of a different color (for example for the Indian
visa in a passport - another story).
This stamp on minor documents - like my jaywalking summons in
Australia in 1971 - may be printed on the form (and the signature was
a rubber stamp of the official's handwritten signature, something only
his office staff could use, so like the seals 3000 years earlier).
Here is an interesting site found with seals documents on google pictures:
http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/graphics/documents/bull/bull.jpg&imgrefurl=http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/whyread/diploma.htm&h=340&w=225&sz=15&tbnid=EciBKgSMVUAJ:&tbnh=115&tbnw=76&hl=de&start=58&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dseals%2Bdocuments%26start%3D40%26hl%3Dde%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official_s%26sa%3DN
You may have to search for it yourself.
This brings us back to your question: a standardized document that is
printed provides a measure of authentication. It can be inspected,
ink and paper controlled, maybe special paper made for the issuer with
a unique water mark.
AND, bureaucracy being what it is, the issuer of a document, or all
the parties to a document, must have a copy thereof, thus a comparison
of these and the abilitiy or necessity of both sides to present the
document give an additional control when there is a dispute about the
agreement.
These day, official documents can be authenticated with hologram
seals, common to travellers on visas that are in the form of a
"sticker" pasted in their passport.
Oh yes, "red tape". The preverbial red tape of English bureaucracy
really existed, did exist when I worked in a bank in Australia in
1971. From my experience - and the saying* - it is not used to seal
documents but rather to tie up folders of documents, to be archived or
to be passed on to someone else, such as the British soliciter passing
the docs for a case to the barrister.
Hence the saying: "The hardest part of a case is untying the red
tape" - i.e., actually starting to look at the case, but perhaps
these could have been sealed.
Envelopes are stilled sealed with wax occasionally, at least one can
find advertisements for seals and sealing wax, though I expect that it
something that appeals more to teen-aged girls. I have seen large
envelopes with documents that had wax seals on all the paper edges of
the envelope.
Anything else that I forgot?
Yes, multi-page documents will often be bound together by a string
through holes in the pages, the ends being sealed together by glueing
them under a paper wafer bearing the lawyer's embossed seal, which
reminds me, that these embossed seals have replaced wax seals, and
they are securer, since even if the wafer is lost, the seal is still
embossed in the paper.
OK? Cheers,
Myoarin :-9 (his mark) |
