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Nikephoros (bishop) of Pyrgion (eleventh/twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God orans. On either side the sigla: ΘΥ : Μή(τη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

θκεR,θ,
νικηφ
ρπυρ
γιο

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) Νικηφώρῳ Πυργί{ο}ου

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God orans. On either side the sigla: ΘΥ : Μή(τη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

θκεR,θ,
νικηφ
ρπυρ
γιο

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) Νικηφώρῳ Πυργί{ο}ου

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.2867
Diameter 23.0 mm; field: 16.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 31.3. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 295.

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

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Νικηφώρῳ Πυργίου.

Mother of God, help Nikephoros (bishop) of Pyrgion.

Commentary

This inscription consists of two seven-syllable hemistichs (cf. E. McGeer, "Discordant Verses on Byzantine Metrical Seals," SBS 4 [1995] 63-69); this Kunstprosa approach may be the reason for which this bishop of Pyrgion does not use the epithet ἐλάχιστος on his seal, as did the two previous ones. Contrary to Laurent, we feel that the present specimen is considerably later than the previous one, probably belonging to a different bishop Nikephoros.

Pyrgion is the modern Birgi at the foot of the Tmolos. The see was first named Dios Hieron, later (seventh century) Christoupolis, finally Pyrgion, with this name appearing first on seals and only in the late twelfth century in literary sources. Its first known bishop is attested in 451. It was a suffragan of Ephesos, until the late twelfth century, when it was raised to the status of metropolis. Conquered by the Turks in 1307, it became the capital of the emirate of Aydin. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 207-8; Culerrier, Suffragants d'Ephèse, 155 (episcopal list).

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Les évêchés suffragants d’Ephèse aux 5e-13e siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Discordant Verses on Byzantine Metrical Seals (Open in Zotero)