D, or SI. According to the 1393 description, when the legend was still intact, it read + MYNDOUWE DEI GRA REX LITOWIE (Mindaugas by the grace of God King of Lithuania). Scholarship Already in the beginning of the 19th century, German historian Ernst Hennig raised doubts about authenticity of the act. These doubts were elaborated upon by Polish historian Juliusz Latkowski. He raised a theory that the act was forged around 1392–1393 during territorial disputes over Samogitia, but the seal was authentic – it was taken from another document by Mindaugas and affixed to the forged act. This hypothesis is bolstered by the fact that the wax used to fasten the seal to the parchment is of different color. Wojciech Kętrzyński paid special attention to the fact that seal's legend with Mindaugas's name and title is almost completely chipped off while the rest of the seal and the act are generally well-preserved. He arrived to the conclusion that the legend was destroyed on purpose. He further stipulated that the act was forged while Mindaugas was alive and that the seal belonged to a completely different person, perhaps Magnus III of Sweden or Andrew II of Hungary. Antoni Prochaska dismissed any doubts regarding authenticity based on the fact that the act was mentioned in a papal bull. Karol Maleczyński also rejected ideas about forgery and argued that at some point the seal fell off and was affixed anew thus explaining different color strings and wax used to fasten it. Lithuanian heraldic expert Edmundas Rimša analyzed heraldic aspects of the seal. He paid particular attention to the Gothic latticework, which appeared in European royal seals only in the 14th century. Rimša thus concluded that the seal is a forgery made at least 50 years after the supposed date of the act. References Seals (insignia) 13th century in Lithuania 1255 in Europe 13th century in the State of the Teutonic Order