Seals and Status belongs to an informal series of miscellany volumes on seals recently published in English. Others are Good Impressions: Image and Authority in Medieval Seals, ed. No€el Adams, John Cherry and James Robinson (London, 2008), and Seals and their Context in the Middle Ages, ed. P. Schofield (Oxford, 2015). Its context also includes the major research projects ‘Imprint. A Forensic and Historical Investigation of Fingerprints on Medieval Seals’ (University of Lincoln, in progress), and ‘Seals in Medieval Wales 1200-1550’ (Aberystwyth University, 2009-2012), one fruit of which was Seals and Society: Medieval Wales, the Welsh Marches and their English Border Counties, ed. P. Schofield et al. (Cardiff, 2016). This is worth pointing out on the grounds that some of the academic interest of any publication lies in its relation to the wider discourse on its topic. The spike in interest in seals, which is not simple to explain, represents a simultaneous deepening and expansion of scholarly approach. This is evident in Seals and Status, which contains sixteen short chapters by distinguished scholars, each of which is well illustrated and equipped with its own bibliography. While some of the chapters are devoted to fresh analysis of familiar objects or topics, others (chapters 2 and 13–16 particularly) discuss non-European material in a self-conscious attempt to diversify the usual Eurocentric focus. This globalising is not just tokenism. The editors view the similarities in a range of sealing cultures as an opportunity for future research, and advertise them accordingly. They have also included a chapter (5) about the materials used for sealing in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries which involves chemical and cross-sectional analysis. Their selection has produced stimulating results. The whole text is divided into three parts, respectively titled ‘Conception’ (chapters 1–5), ‘Function’ (6–10) and ‘Afterlife’ (11–16). These headings are permeable, and do not have a crucial function in relation to the whole. The disposition of the chapters is generally elastic. Chronological, geographical, and social organisation are set aside. One effect of this is positively to encourage the reader to choose his or her own sequence of chapters. For example, one might read chapters 13–16 and 2 in that order, as a block of work on non-European seals, and chapters 6, 4, 9, 11 and 12 as contributions that address broad and mainly medieval English themes. The art historian might be inclined towards chapters 4, 1, 3, 6. All of the book’s chapters are worth reading, but some tackle more important subjects than others. The most versatile in Reviews

中文翻译：

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印章与地位：物体的力量

印章和地位属于最近以英语出版的非正式系列杂记卷。其他是好的印象：《中世纪印章中的形象和权威》，编辑。No Adamel，John Cherry和James Robinson（伦敦，2008年），以及Seals及其在中世纪的语境，第1版。P.斯科菲尔德（牛津大学，2015年）。它的上下文还包括主要的研究项目'版本说明。对中世纪海豹的指纹进行法医和历史调查（林肯大学，正在进行中）和“海豹突击队在威尔士中世纪1200至1550年”（阿伯斯威斯大学，2009-2012年），其中一项成果是海豹与社会：威尔士中世纪，威尔士进行曲及其英格兰边境县，主编。体育斯科菲尔德等。（加的夫，2016）。值得指出的是，任何出版物的某些学术兴趣都在于它与有关该主题的广泛论述之间的关系。对海豹的兴趣激增（这不容易解释）代表着学术方法的同时深化和扩展。这在《封印与地位》中很明显，其中包括杰出学者的十六个短篇章，每章都有很好的说明，并配有自己的书目。尽管有些章节专门介绍了熟悉的对象或主题，但另一些章节（特别是第2章和第13-16章）讨论了非欧洲材料，以自我意识地尝试使通常以欧洲为中心的关注点多样化。这种全球化不仅仅是象征主义。编辑者认为，各种密封文化之间的相似之处是未来研究的机会，并相应地做广告。它们还包括一章（5），涉及十二世纪和十三世纪英国用于密封的材料，涉及化学和横截面分析。他们的选择产生了令人振奋的结果。全文分为三部分，分别为“概念”（第1-5章），“功能”（6-10）和“来世”（11-16）。这些标题是可渗透的，相对于整体而言没有关键作用。这些章节的设置通常具有弹性。按时间顺序，地域和社会组织保留。这样做的积极作用是鼓励读者选择自己的章节顺序。例如，作为非欧洲印章工作的一部分，可以依次阅读第13–16和2章，以及第6、4、9章。11和12是针对广泛且主要是中世纪英语主题的贡献。艺术史学家可能倾向于第4、1、3、6章。本书的所有章节均值得一读，但有些章节比其他章节更重要。评论中功能最全的