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(The monastery of) the Anargyroi of Kosmidion (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Half-length depictions of St. Kosmas (left) and St. Damian (right), each blessing with his right hand and holding a rotulus in his left. Inscription in four columns (three visible). In the center:  : ὁ ἅ(γιος). At right: Δ|α|μι|α|ν, : Δαμιαν(ός). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

σφραγ,
τνανα
ργυρν
τκοσ
μιδ,

σφραγ(ὶς) τῶν Ἀναργύρων τοῦ Κοσμιδ(ίου)

Obverse

Half-length depictions of St. Kosmas (left) and St. Damian (right), each blessing with his right hand and holding a rotulus in his left. Inscription in four columns (three visible). In the center:  : ὁ ἅ(γιος). At right: Δ|α|μι|α|ν, : Δαμιαν(ός). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

σφραγ,
τνανα
ργυρν
τκοσ
μιδ,

σφραγ(ὶς) τῶν Ἀναργύρων τοῦ Κοσμιδ(ίου)

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.281
Diameter 30.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 5 no. 39.1a; Laurent, Corpus 5.2: no. 1145. Similar specimens published by Zacos, Seals II, no. 604; Seibt–Zarnitz, no. 5.3.7 (second-third quarter of eleventh century); and G. Schlumberger, RN 9 (1905): 323, no. 207 (with drawing). The Schlumberger example is now in the St. Petersburg Collection (=M 5566). In publishing the Fogg specimen, Laurent printed the legend on the reverse of the Schlumberger specimen, but he reproduced the Fogg seal in the plate album.

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

Translation

σφραγὶς τῶν Ἀναργύρων τοῦ Κοσμιδίου.

Seal (of the monastery of) the Anargyroi of Kosmidion.

Commentary

According to Janin (Églises, 286) the extramural church of the Kosmidion was built by a certain Paulinus, an intimate of Thedosios II. He places the Kosmidion on the western side of Eyüp, on the hillside bordering the sea. Mango, however, is dubious (see his "on the Cult of the Saints Cosmas and Damian at Constantinople," 189–192). In line with the sources (see the Chronicon pashale, Bonn ed., 713.9–10), he places it ἐν Βλαχέρναις. Since the Blachernae and the Kosmidion shared a healing bath (lousma), he favors locating the church of the Kosmidion on a hill just outside the Blachernae walls. He is inclined to attribute the construction of the church to about 480 and to Paulina, the mother of the usurper Leontios (484–488). The Avars destroyed the church in the siege of 626.

When the monastery was erected is not known. Janin places it in the sixth century. This seal shows that a monastery at Kosmidion was functioning in the eleventh century. It may belong to the period when Michael IV (1034–1041) added a bath and had the grounds renewed with a garden. He refurbished the church and had it adorned with marbles and mosaics (Janin, Églises, 287).

This seal has a twelve-syllable verse. The second A of the columnar inscription on the obverse at right is followed by an unnecessary suspension mark. Laurent incorrectly read the obverse columnar inscription at left as Δ - Α - ΜΙ - Α - ΟΝ.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Volume 5: The East (continued), Constantinople and Environs, Unknown Locations, Addenda, Uncertain Readings (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
  • Das byzantinische Bleisiegel als Kunstwerk: Katalog zur Ausstellung (Open in Zotero)
  • La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantin, Vol. 1, Le siège de Constantinople et le patriarcat oecuménique, Pt. 3, Les églises et les monastères (Open in Zotero)
  • On the Cult of Saints Cosmas and Damian at Constantinople (Open in Zotero)