John bishop of Kokkos (?) (eleventh century)
Obverse
Bust of the Mother of God orans holding a medallion of Christ before her. Sigla visible at right: ..ΘΥ̅ : [Μ(ήτη)ρ] Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.
ι
επησκ
ποσκο
κ
Ἰω(άννης) ἐπήσκ[ο]πος Κό[κ]κου
Obverse
Bust of the Mother of God orans holding a medallion of Christ before her. Sigla visible at right: ..ΘΥ̅ : [Μ(ήτη)ρ] Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.
ι
επησκ
ποσκο
κ
Ἰω(άννης) ἐπήσκ[ο]πος Κό[κ]κου
| Accession number | BZS.1955.1.4647 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 16.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 5 no. 123.1. Parallel specimen (misread) in Sig., 209, no. 1 (= Laurent, Corpus 5.1: no. 867). |
Translation
Ἰωάννης ἐπήσκοπος Κόκκου.
John bishop of Kokkos.
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)
- Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
- Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
Line 3 and 4 (reverse): Schlumberger read: Κερκού[ρ(ων)]. Laurent replaced the horseshoe ligature with the usual omicron-upsilon ligature.
One major object to both readings is that Kerkyra had been an archbishopric since the ninth century and accordingly the simple title of bishop is inappropriate. On our specimen the key letter, the omicron, at the end of line 3, is partically corroded, but it appears to have a curved side at right and see we prefer to read the line as Κόκκου. Laurent has published another seal of Kokkos, that of the bishop Nikephoros, which he dates to the eleventh century (Corpus 5.1: no. 497).
Kokkos first appears in Notitia 10 (Darrouzès, Notitiae, 317.243) in sixth place among the suffragans of Neokaisarea. Laurent would assign the date of that Notitia to the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (Corpus 5.1:364–65; see DHGE, no. 13, col. 180, and Darrouzès, Notitiae, 116–17).