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John metropolitan of Klaudioupolis (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. John Chrysostom blessing with his right hand and holding a book in his left hand. Inscription: |ι̅ω|ο-: Ὁ ἅ(γιος) Ἰω(άννης) ὁ Χρ(υσόσ)τ(ομος). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, followed by an ornament. Border of dots.

κ̅εR,
τσδ
ι̅μ̅ροπο
λ,κλαυδι
πολ,

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δ(ούλῳ) Ἰω(άννῃ) μ(ητ)ροπολ(ίτῃ) Κλαυδιουπόλ(εως)

Obverse

Bust of St. John Chrysostom blessing with his right hand and holding a book in his left hand. Inscription: |ι̅ω|ο-: Ὁ ἅ(γιος) Ἰω(άννης) ὁ Χρ(υσόσ)τ(ομος). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, followed by an ornament. Border of dots.

κ̅εR,
τσδ
ι̅μ̅ροπο
λ,κλαυδι
πολ,

Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δ(ούλῳ) Ἰω(άννῃ) μ(ητ)ροπολ(ίτῃ) Κλαυδιουπόλ(εως)

Accession number BZS.1955.1.4815
Diameter 23.0 mm; field: 16.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 4, no. 7.3a.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Ἰωάννῃ μητροπολίτῃ Κλαυδιοπόλεως.

Lord, help your servant John, metropolitan of Klaudioupolis.

Commentary

Laurent published (with photo and minor misreadings) a parallel specimen from the Vienna Collection (Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 475 [pl. 65]). See also BZS.1955.1.4816 and BZS.1958.106.2127.

According to Constantine VII, Klaudioupolis (the modern Bolu) was the second-ranked city of the theme of the Boukellarioi (De thematibus, 71). It was the seat of a tourma. Klaudioupolis, which may have declined in the eleventh century (Mikra Asia them., 250), was also the seat of the metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Honorias until the XIIIth century, when the city was destroyed by the Turks and the ecclesiastical authority moved to neighboring Pontoherakleia. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 348; Paphlagonien, 235-237. List of metropolitans in Fedalto, HEO I, 90-91.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 4: The East (Open in Zotero)
  • De Thematibus (Open in Zotero)
  • Η Μικρά Ασία των θεμάτων. Ἐρευνες πάνω στην γεωγραφική φυσιογνωμία και προσωπογραφία των βυζαντινών θεμάτων της Μικράς Ασίας (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Paphlagonien und Honorias (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)