Skip to Content

(The monastery of) the Theotokos Peribleptos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God orans. At left and right: ΜΡ̅ΘΥ̅ : Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines preceded by decoration. Border of dots.

  
σφρα
γισανασ
σηστησ
περι.λε
πτου
   

σφραγὶς ἀνάσσης τῆς Περι[β]λέπτου

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God orans. At left and right: ΜΡ̅ΘΥ̅ : Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines preceded by decoration. Border of dots.

  
σφρα
γισανασ
σηστησ
περι.λε
πτου
   

σφραγὶς ἀνάσσης τῆς Περι[β]λέπτου

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.899
Diameter 30.0 mm; field: 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 5 no. 55.2; Laurent, Corpus 5.2: no. 1178 (with misreading). See also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2335b.

Translation

σφραγὶς ἀνάσσης τῆς Περι[β]λέπτου.

The seal (of the monastery) of [our] Lady Peribleptos

Commentary

Laurent read lines 4 and 5 (reverse): Περ(ι)βλέπτο[υ]. The present reading assumes that an iota is present and that it was followed by a beta, now missing. The inscription on the reverse probably ended with the word μονῆς, as in the case of Laurent, Corpus 5.2: nos. 1175 and 1179. Cf. the Addenda to Laurent, Corpus 5.3:301. The final element in line 5, however, may have been a cross; it is possible as well that there was a decoration below line 5.

The monastery is a foundation of Emperor Romanos III Argyros (1028–1034) and it was here that he was buried (Skylitzes, 392.10–12). The monastery was a center of resistance against the Bogomils: ODB 2:1629, and Janin, Églises, 218–22. An eleventh-century hegoumenos named Theodore is known from seals (Laurent, Corpus 5.2: nos. 1179 and 1180).

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)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis historiarum (Open in Zotero)
  • Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Open in Zotero)
  • La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantin, Vol. 1, Le siège de Constantinople et le patriarcat oecuménique, Pt. 3, Les églises et les monastères (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)