Rare medieval papal bulla of Pope Urban IV. The obverse depicts the busts of St Peter and St Paul each within an inverted pear shaped compartment defined by pellets, and below, the inscription SPA SPE (SPA = Sanctus Paulus, SPE = Sanctus Petrus).
 
The reverse is inscribed over three lines VR.BANVS.PP.IIII.
 
1261 to 1264 AD.
 
Very Fine condition.
Diameter 38.2 mms (1.5 ins).
Weight 43.23 grams
 
Provenance: From a Norfolk collection.
 
The bulla was so named because they were attached to Papal documents or Bulls. They were sent from the offices of the Pope in Rome and the seal signified that the document was issued with the Pope's authority.
 
Before his papacy, Urban IV was known as Jacques Pantaléon. He was born as the son of a cobbler around 1195 in Troyes, Champagne, then a part of the Kingdom of France. He was one of only a few popes that did not hold the position of Cardinal prior to the papacy.
 
In England Urban's collectors of money were exceedingly busy. He supported Henry III against the barons. He absolved the king from his promise to observe the Provisions of Oxford, declared oaths taken against him to be unlawful, and condemned the rising of the barons.
 
Urban IV was an influential pope, but amongst his lesser known achievements; he established the Feast of Corpus Christi, a major Roman Catholic holiday; he started the construction of the Basilica of St. Urbain, which is in his hometown of Troyes; and he agreed to change the succession laws in Denmark to allow women to inherit the throne (although the dispensation he issued was not resolved before his death).