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David bishop of Paipert (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God holding a medallion of Christ before her. Sigla: ΘΥ : Μή(τη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.

– + –
θκεR,θ,
δ̅α̅δεπισ
κοππα
ιπερτ

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) Δα(βί)δ ἐπισκόπῳ Παΐπερτ

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God holding a medallion of Christ before her. Sigla: ΘΥ : Μή(τη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.

– + –
θκεR,θ,
δ̅α̅δεπισ
κοππα
ιπερτ

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) Δα(βί)δ ἐπισκόπῳ Παΐπερτ

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1340
Diameter 22.0 mm; field: 18.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 4, no. 36.1. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 667. Other specimens are published in Zacos, Seals II, no. 443.

Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Δαβίδ ἐπισκόπ Παΐπερτ.

Mother of God, help David, bishop of Paipert.

Commentary

Today Bayburt, on the Çoruh river, Paipert is first listed as a suffragan bishopric of the metropolis of Trebizond in the tenth century (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 7, l. 560) and remained so until its last mention in the thirteenth century. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 502. List of bishops in Fedalto, HEO I, 403.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 4: The East (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)