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Michael (metropolitan) of Neai Patrai (eleventh/twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin orans. Sigla on either side: Μ̅Θ̅ : Μ(ήτηρ) Θ(εοῦ). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΑΧΡΑΝ
ΤΕΜΙΧΑΗ
ΝΕΝΠΑ
ΤΡΝΣΚΕ
ΠΟΙΣ

Ἄχραντε, Μιχαὴλ Νέων Πατρῶν σκέποις

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin orans. Sigla on either side: Μ̅Θ̅ : Μ(ήτηρ) Θ(εοῦ). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΑΧΡΑΝ
ΤΕΜΙΧΑΗ
ΝΕΝΠΑ
ΤΡΝΣΚΕ
ΠΟΙΣ

Ἄχραντε, Μιχαὴλ Νέων Πατρῶν σκέποις

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1057
Diameter 16.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 18.2; Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 760. Cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 174.

Translation

Ἄχραντε, Μιχαὴλ Νέων Πατρῶν σκέποις.

Immaculate One, may you watch over Michael (metropolitan) of Neai Patrai.

Commentary

Dodecasyllabic with misplaced caesura, resulting in two six-syllable verses; see E. McGeer, "Discordant verses on Byzantine metrical seals,"SBS 4 (1995), 63-69.

Neai Patrai is today Hypate. Originally (4th and 5th centuries) the bishopric had the name Hypate. But the name changed before the 9th century, as did the rank: the metropolis of Neai Patrai appears probably in a late 9th-century notitia and certainly from the beginning of the 10th onward (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 4, line 491 [?], and no. 7, line 685). See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 581; Avramea, 199-201; Koder-Hild, Hellas, 223-24; Fedalto, 467-68.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Μολυβδόβουλλα με γνωστή προέλευση από τις συλλογές του Νομισματικού Μουσείου Αθηνών (Open in Zotero)
  • Hellas und Thessalia (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)