1-647-192 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Seal of the 'King' of the Basoche, 16th century, (1870). The Basoche was the guild of legal clerks of the Paris court system under the pre-revolutionary French monarchy. The assembly of clerks was called the parliament and each year they elected a 'king' as their leader. In the 16th century, they had to rename their leader, henceforth calling him a chancellor, reputedly by order of Henry III. A 19th century version of an original 16th century illustration, From The Arts of the Middle Ages and at the Period of the Renaissance by Paul Lacroix (London, 1870).