A Proposal for a Dating of the De Septem Sigillis of Joachim of Fiore

De septem sigillis plays an important role in comprehending the evolution of Joachim of Fiore’s thought. This brief apocalyptic treatise represents a quick model to summarize the hermeneutical efforts that the Calabrian abbot carried out in his previous works. By placing De septem sigillis within Joachim’s corpus, we can reach a broader knowledge of the development of the Calabrian theologian’s reflection. The structure of this treatise is based on a sevenfold model borrowed from the seven seals of the Apocalypse. Thanks to a binary concordia between the persecutions that took place in the Old and in the New Testament, Joachim tries to outline in this treatise the events that the Christian people will have to face before the final judgment. After having confronted the content of this text with the other works in which the same structure is presented, we have reasonable grounds to support that this apocalyptic treatise is a late product, written between 1196 to 1198, immediately before his most important work Expositio in Apocalypsim.