Skip to Content

Basil bishop of Tenos (eleventh century, second half)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Basil blessing and holding Gospels. On either side, the inscription: ||ΑΣ|Ι|Λ: ὁ ἅγιος Βασίλειος. Border of dots.

Σφραγὶς Βασιλείου

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΣΦΡ
ΓΙΣΣΙ
ΛΕΙΕΠΙ
ΣΚΟΠΟΥ
ΤΙΝ

ἐπισκόπου Τίνου

Obverse

Bust of St. Basil blessing and holding Gospels. On either side, the inscription: ||ΑΣ|Ι|Λ: ὁ ἅγιος Βασίλειος. Border of dots.

Σφραγὶς Βασιλείου

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΣΦΡ
ΓΙΣΣΙ
ΛΕΙΕΠΙ
ΣΚΟΠΟΥ
ΤΙΝ

ἐπισκόπου Τίνου

Accession number BZS.1955.1.5009
Diameter 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 57.1b.
Cf. Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1774. See also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2344.

Translation

Σφραγὶς Βασιλείου ἐπισκόπου Τίνου.

Seal of Basil, bishop of Tenos.

Commentary

Two six-syllable verses. Cf. DO Seals 1, no. 52.1 and 57.3.

Tenos, an island, a suffragan bishopric of Rhodes, is attested as such in all the notitiae. It seems that it was also a military center, for we know the seal of one topoteretes of Tenos (SBS 2 [1990] 256; Zacos-Veglery, no. 1708). See Laurent, Corpus V/3, 122; Fedalto, 223; Malamut, Iles, 213, 312.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)