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Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118)

 
 

Obverse

Christ seated on a high-back throne, wearing a tunic and himation and holding the right hand in blessing and a book in the left. His feet rest on a dais. He has a nimbus cruciger; each arm contains a decoration consisting of one pellet. Sigla at left and right: ισ̅χσ̅ : (ησοῦ)ς Χ(ριστό)ς. Border of dots.

Reverse

The emperor Alexios I bearded standing on a dais, wearing a crown (with a cross?) and a loros, an end of which is draped over the left wrist. He holds a labarum in the right and an uncommonly large globus cruciger in the left. Circular inscription along the circumference beginning in the lower left. Border of dots.

αλεξιωδεσποτ,τωκο.....

Ἀλεξίῳ δεσπότ() τῷ Κο[μνηνῷ]

Obverse

Christ seated on a high-back throne, wearing a tunic and himation and holding the right hand in blessing and a book in the left. His feet rest on a dais. He has a nimbus cruciger; each arm contains a decoration consisting of one pellet. Sigla at left and right: ισ̅χσ̅ : (ησοῦ)ς Χ(ριστό)ς. Border of dots.

Reverse

The emperor Alexios I bearded standing on a dais, wearing a crown (with a cross?) and a loros, an end of which is draped over the left wrist. He holds a labarum in the right and an uncommonly large globus cruciger in the left. Circular inscription along the circumference beginning in the lower left. Border of dots.

αλεξιωδεσποτ,τωκο.....

Ἀλεξίῳ δεσπότ() τῷ Κο[μνηνῷ]

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1685
Diameter 32.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 6, no. 88.25.

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

Translation

Ἀλεξίῳ δεσπότ τῷ Κομνηνῷ.

Alexios Komnenos, despotes.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 6, Emperors, Patriarchs of Constantinople, Addenda (Open in Zotero)