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John (metropolitan) of Thebes (twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

The Virgin standing and holding Christ. On either side the inscription: ̅ΘΥ̅ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

.ΆΝ
ΜΕΤΌΝΘΗ
.́ΝΚΌΡΗ
ΣΚΕΠΌΙΣ

ωάννην με τὸν Θηβῶν, Κόρη, σκέποις

Obverse

The Virgin standing and holding Christ. On either side the inscription: ̅ΘΥ̅ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

.ΆΝ
ΜΕΤΌΝΘΗ
.́ΝΚΌΡΗ
ΣΚΕΠΌΙΣ

ωάννην με τὸν Θηβῶν, Κόρη, σκέποις

Accession number BZS.1958.106.471
Diameter 21.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 21.1b. Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1786. Cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 981.

Translation

Ἰωάννην με τὸν Θηβῶν, Κόρη σκέποις.

Virgin, may you protect me, John (metropolitan) of Thebes.

Commentary

From different boulloterion but parallel to BZS.1958.106.470.

Dodecasyllabic verse. Inscription has accents, one of which is misplaced. Laurent attributes this specimen to the John of Thebes who occupied the throne before 1166 and even perhaps after 1182 (cf. Corpus V/1, 594). He also re-edited another seal with the same name and titles which he attributed to this same prelate (Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 775).

Thebes of Boeotia was an important administrative center, residence of the strategos of Hellas (early 10th century), and of an archon (Konstantopoulos, no. 63; Laurent, Orghidan, no. 236). Thebes became an autocephalous archbishopric (toward the end of the 8th century: Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 2, line 79; cf. Seyrig, no. 270) and was raised to a metropolis between 968 and 997. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 591; Koder-Hild, Hellas, 269-71; Fedalto, 523-25; ODB III, 2032; and J. Darrouzès in REB 47 (1989) 226-31.

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)
  • Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Les sceaux byzantins de la Collection Henri Seyrig (Open in Zotero)
  • Hellas und Thessalia (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)