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The proedros (archbishop) of Bizye and synkellos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

The Virgin standing frontally, holding Christ before her. Sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.

·
ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΠΡΟΕ
ΔΡ.ΙΖΥ
ΗΣΚΑΙΣΥ
ΓΚΕΛΛ
·

Σφραγὶς προέδρου Βιζύης καὶ συγκέλλου

Obverse

The Virgin standing frontally, holding Christ before her. Sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines preceded and followed by decoration. Border of dots.

·
ΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΣΠΡΟΕ
ΔΡ.ΙΖΥ
ΗΣΚΑΙΣΥ
ΓΚΕΛΛ
·

Σφραγὶς προέδρου Βιζύης καὶ συγκέλλου

Accession number BZS.1955.1.5029
Diameter 22.0 mm; field: 18.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 74.4.
Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1807; see also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2753.

Translation

Σφραγὶς προέδρου Βιζύης καὶ συγκέλλου.

Seal of the proedros of Bizye and synkellos.

Commentary

The inscription is a twelve-syllable verse. As Laurent, above, and Asdracha, Thrace orientale, 278, noted, this seal would have been issued before 1092, the date of the suppression of the title of synkellos. Asdracha observed that since a Leo was archbishop in 1072 and is known to have been still in office in 1092, the DO specimen should be assigned to the middle decades of the eleventh century.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 1: Italy, North of the Balkans, North of the Black Sea (Open in Zotero)
  • La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα τοῦ ἐν ἈΘήναις Ἐθνικοῦ Νομισματικοῦ Μουσείου (Open in Zotero)
  • Μελέται περὶ τῆς διοικητικῆς διαιρέσεως καὶ τῆς ἐπαρχιακῆς διοικήσεως ἐν τῷ βυζαντινῷ κράτει (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)