n its first yearof existence, 1614, the Svea Court of Appeal had a Iseal made for use on its documents. The main motif on the seal was a shield with a representation of the sword and scales of justice. The motif was slightly altered in 1818, a version which is still in use as the coatof-arms of the court. My aim with this article is to analyse how the motif of the seal should be interpreted. I will relate the iconography of the seal to that of the seal of the High Council of ErikXIV, which was a precursor to the Svea Court of Appeal in the 1560s, discuss the alterations made in 1818, and analyse the significance of the fact that the Court of Appeal had a seal with its own coat-of-arms. Firstly, I will discuss the iconography of the relevant seals and the inscriptions of the legends. The seals that will be primarily relevant are the seal of the High Council of the 1560s, the great seal of the Svea Court of Appeal of 1614, two smaller seals of the Svea Court of Appeal from the eighteenth century, and the great seal of the Svea Court of Appeal of 1818. Some reference will bemade to the seals of the other seventeenth-century courts of appeal and to similar foreign courts of the period. Secondly, I analyse the iconography of the seals. This analysis addresses three questions. Firstly, does the seal of 1614 mark distance or continuity in relation to the seal of the High Council? Secondly, what significance do the differences in the positions of crowns, coronets and – above all – the scales have? Thirdly, what significance does it have that the Court of Appeal had a seal with its own coat-of-arms and not the coat-of-arms of the king – does it represent independence or subordination? The only discussion of the seals in the existing research in relation to the identity of the court is by Johan Sandeman in a manuscript from 1699.1036 Sandeman was appointed to collect the case-law of the court, and insignia of independence – martin sunnqvist 357 1036 Johan Sandeman, “Kortt Extract af det, som passerade på Rijkzdagen i Örebro d. 12 Januarij 1614 Angående Kongl. HoffRättens inrättande och inauguration,”manuscript, Introduction
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