Skip to Content

Michael bishop of Basilinoupolis (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God holding the Child. No inscription visible. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Decorations above and below. Border of dots.

 + 
ΘΚΕ,Θ,
ΜΙΕΠΙΣ
ΚΟΠˊΑΣˊ
ΝΠΟΛˊ
 

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) Μιχ(αὴλ) ἐπισκόπ(ῳ) Βασ(ιλι)νουπόλ(εως)

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God holding the Child. No inscription visible. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Decorations above and below. Border of dots.

 + 
ΘΚΕ,Θ,
ΜΙΕΠΙΣ
ΚΟΠˊΑΣˊ
ΝΠΟΛˊ
 

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) Μιχ(αὴλ) ἐπισκόπ(ῳ) Βασ(ιλι)νουπόλ(εως)

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.323
Diameter 17.0 mm; field: 13.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 75.1. See also Laurent, Corpus V/2, no. 1587.

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

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Μιχαὴλ ἐπισκόπῳ Βασιλινουπόλεως.

Mother of God, help Michael, bishop of Basilinoupolis.

Commentary

It is also possible to read the place name as Βασ(ι)νουπόλ(εως). This see, a dependant of Nikomedia, was located at modern Bazar Köy, to the east of the lake of Nicaea, along the road to Kios (Laurent, Corpus V/2, 420). Its bishop was present at Chalcedon in 451, and the see is mentioned in notitiae episcopatuum until the twelfth century.

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)