Introductory study tion of Jews in Germany. Even so, the sovereign’s effort prepared suitable conditions for 45 the organic integration of Jewish settlers in Brno into the city administration." In Bohemia and Moravia, we are so far lacking convincing evidence of the use of seals by the Jewish population as a legal means of proving authenticity of a document and an element precluding its falsification. Nevertheless, based on foreign analogies it is possible to assume the appearance of Jewish seals in the domestic milieu. This is particularly supported by the preserved evidence of private seals of Jews in Regensburg, Vienna and Wroclaw. These three cities maintained close trade and other contacts espe- cially with Prague’s Jewish community. The use of seals by the Jewish population in the domestic milieu could possibly be indicated by some entries in the Bretholz edition and in the formulary collection Codex Jacobi,4 as well as the latest archaeological finds. In connection with that, we can point out the previously-mentioned signet ring of the Jew Moses, son of Solomon, which was recently discovered at Náměstí republiky (Square of the Republic) in Prague and which can be dated between the end of the 12th and the middle of the 13th centuries (Nr. 245). Some researchers assume that among the Jews, who were mostly literate, the signature in their own hand was generally valid all over the Middle Ages.47 That apparently was the case until the middle of the 13th century, during which the first decrees begin to appear (for instance in Schwabenspiegel) allowing Jews to use their own seals. Abroad, we also rarely encounter the seals of Jewish communities. In the signet field, the most frequent symbol was that of the relevant town, or a Jewish hat. This was also depicted on the banners which the Jews carried during Moses’s speech to the Israelites in the Bible of Wenceslas IV.48 In later periods, the Jews regularly rallied 45) FLODR 2001, p. 126. 46) FRIEDENBERG 1987, pp. 308-309; of. KREJČÍK 1998, pp. 272-275. 47) Cf. BRUCCERſKEIL/LICHTBLAU/LIND/ STAUDINCER 2006, p. 161. 48) KREJČÍK 1998, p. 274; cf. MATĚJKOVÁ/STEHLIKOVÁ 2010, pp. 10-11. Some characteristic Jewish attributes also came into use in Christian heraldry, in particular the use of the Jewish hat and its modifications, mentioned in the first half of the 14h century by Dalimil (Nr. 44). The veracity of his story in connection with the defamation of the Jewish girl by the noble Vojslav can justifiably be doubted, but it is indubitable that by this time Dalimil's contemporaries did not wonder at the use of a Jewish hat as the symbol of a noble person. Although this symbol was not very widespread, we know from the domestic milieu also other evidence of its usage. The most famous is the set of five drinking cups that come from the Gothic house in Kutná Hora. It is supposed that they were made between 1310 and 1335 in Prague. There is one symbol depicted on the bottom of each cup (FAJT ed. 2006, Nr. 103, p. 286). According to the latest interpretation by Eva Matějková and Dana Stehliková, the depiction of three pointed hats with bobbles and a knot can for the moment be understood as a symbol of the Windish mark. If they are correct, then this heraldic figure is not necessarily connected exclusively with Jews (of. MATEJKOVA/STEHLIKOWA 2010, pp. 10�12). The drinking set later came into the ownership of an unknown Jew, who had a (perhaps his own?) Hebrew name written on one of the cups - Ze�ev, or Woolf. The analyses so far indicate that this took place in the second half of the 14h century, and therefore this drinking set is not included in our edition (of. FAJT ed. 2006, Nr. 103, p. 286). An overview of aristocratic family seals using a (Jewish) hat was collated by August Sedláček (RUŽEK ed. 2001, pp. 149- 153). LI