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John metropolitan of Chalcedon (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Euphemia, her head covered by a veil, holding a martyr's cross. Sigla: Η|Α|Γ,Ε|Υ|Φ|Η|Μ, : ἡ ἁγ(ία) Εὐφημ(ία). Within a border of dots, the remains of a circular inscription.

ΚΕ.....ΕΙΤΣΔΛ

Κ(ύρι)ε [βοήθ]ει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ 

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, decorations above and below. Border of dots. 

  
ΙΑΝΝΗ
ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟ
ΛΙΤΗΧΑ.
ΚΗΔ,ΝΟΣ
  

Ἰωάννῃ μητροπολίτῃ Χα[λ]κηδ(ό)νος

Obverse

Bust of St. Euphemia, her head covered by a veil, holding a martyr's cross. Sigla: Η|Α|Γ,Ε|Υ|Φ|Η|Μ, : ἡ ἁγ(ία) Εὐφημ(ία). Within a border of dots, the remains of a circular inscription.

ΚΕ.....ΕΙΤΣΔΛ

Κ(ύρι)ε [βοήθ]ει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ 

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, decorations above and below. Border of dots. 

  
ΙΑΝΝΗ
ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟ
ΛΙΤΗΧΑ.
ΚΗΔ,ΝΟΣ
  

Ἰωάννῃ μητροπολίτῃ Χα[λ]κηδ(ό)νος

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.939
Diameter 20.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 77.3b. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 401.

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

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Ἰωάννῃ μητροπολίτῃ Χαλκηδόνος.

Lord, help your servant John, metropolitan of Chalcedon.

Commentary

Laurent was inclined to date the seals of this owner to the second half of the tenth century, but the decorations on the reverse point to an eleventh century date. On Chalcedon and the seals of the churchmen active there, see BZS 1958.106.35.

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)
  • La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantin, vol. 2, Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins (Open in Zotero)