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Michael bishop of Oreoi (twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

The Virgin standing, raising her hands toward the Hand of God. Sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅ : and the vertical inscription: ΗΑ|ΓΙΟΣΟΡΙ|ΤΗ|ΣΑ: Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ ἡ Ἁγιοσορίτησα. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a cross above. Border of dots.


ΣΦΡΑΓ,
ΜΙΧΑΗΛ
ΡΕΝ
ΕΠΙΣΚΟ
Π

Σφραγὶς Μιχαὴλ Ὠρεῶν ἐπισκόπου

Obverse

The Virgin standing, raising her hands toward the Hand of God. Sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅ : and the vertical inscription: ΗΑ|ΓΙΟΣΟΡΙ|ΤΗ|ΣΑ: Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ ἡ Ἁγιοσορίτησα. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a cross above. Border of dots.


ΣΦΡΑΓ,
ΜΙΧΑΗΛ
ΡΕΝ
ΕΠΙΣΚΟ
Π

Σφραγὶς Μιχαὴλ Ὠρεῶν ἐπισκόπου

Accession number BZS.1958.106.154
Diameter 27.0 mm; field: 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 19.1b. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 614; Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2638.
Cf. a similar specimen in Konstantopoulos, no. 70a.

Translation

Σφραγὶς Μιχαὴλ Ὠρεῶν ἐπισκόπου.

Seal of Michael, bishop of Oreoi.

Commentary

Dodecasyllabic. Zacos (Seals II, no. 783) has published a 12th century seal of a bishop of Oreoi named Michael with the same metrical inscription but with a different representation of the Virgin (half length, orans with medallion).

Modern Oreos or Oreoi in the north of Euboia. A bishop of Oreos was in attendance at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, and the bishopric appears in episcopal lists in the early 10th century (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 7, line 501) as a suffragan of Athens. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 458, and Koder-Hild, Hellas, 228; Fedalto, 516.

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)
  • Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα τοῦ ἐν ἈΘήναις Ἐθνικοῦ Νομισματικοῦ Μουσείου (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Hellas und Thessalia (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)