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John metropolitan of Klaudioupolis (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. John Chrysostom holding a book in his left hand. Visible at right: |σο|.|τ : [Ὁ ἅ(γιος) Ἰω(άννης) ὁ] Χρ(υ)σό[σ]τ(ομος). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a decoration below. Border of dots.

κ̅εR,θ,
τσ
Ι̅ο..
λ,κλα...
ουπολ

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οή)θ(ει) τῷ σῷ δ(ούλῳ) Ἰω(άννῃ) μη(τ)ρο[πο]λ(ίτῃ) Κλα[υδι]ουπόλ(εως)

Obverse

Bust of St. John Chrysostom holding a book in his left hand. Visible at right: |σο|.|τ : [Ὁ ἅ(γιος) Ἰω(άννης) ὁ] Χρ(υ)σό[σ]τ(ομος). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines, a decoration below. Border of dots.

κ̅εR,θ,
τσ
Ι̅ο..
λ,κλα...
ουπολ

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οή)θ(ει) τῷ σῷ δ(ούλῳ) Ἰω(άννῃ) μη(τ)ρο[πο]λ(ίτῃ) Κλα[υδι]ουπόλ(εως)

Accession number BZS.1955.1.4816
Diameter 25.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 4, no. 7.3b.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Ἰωάννῃ μητροπολίτῃ Κλαυδιουπόλεως.

Lord, help your servant John, metropolitan of Klaudioupolis.

Commentary

This seal and BZS.1958.106.2127 are very similar but do not come from the same boulloterion because this seal is larger. They are otherwise identical. Also compare with BZS.1955.1.4815.

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 XIth c. (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)