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Thomas bishop of Lampsakos (eleventh/twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Parthenios blessing and holding a book. On either side, a vertical inscription: |ΠΑ|ΡΘ|Ε|ΝΙ,|Σ: ὁ ἅ(γιος) Παρθένι(ο)ς. Βorder of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Decoration above. Border of dots.


ΗΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΘΜΑ
ΛΑΜΨΑΚ̅
ΕΠΙΣΚΟ
ΠΟΥ

Ἡ σφραγὶς Θωμᾶ Λαμψακω(ν) ἐπισκόπου

Obverse

Bust of St. Parthenios blessing and holding a book. On either side, a vertical inscription: |ΠΑ|ΡΘ|Ε|ΝΙ,|Σ: ὁ ἅ(γιος) Παρθένι(ο)ς. Βorder of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Decoration above. Border of dots.


ΗΣΦΡΑ
ΓΙΘΜΑ
ΛΑΜΨΑΚ̅
ΕΠΙΣΚΟ
ΠΟΥ

Ἡ σφραγὶς Θωμᾶ Λαμψακω(ν) ἐπισκόπου

Accession number BZS.1958.106.287
Diameter 20.0 mm; field: 15.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 54.2a; Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 359. See also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 855.

Translation

Ἡ σφραγὶς Θωμᾶ Λαμψακω(ν) ἐπισκόπου.

The seal of Thomas, bishop of Lampsakos.

Commentary

Dodecasyllabic. Both this seal and BZS.1958.106.2067 appear to be from the same boulloterion and are edited jointly.

Lampsakos (modern Lapsaki, oppiste Gallipoli on the east bank of the Dardanelles) was the site of a bishopric, suffragan of Kyzikos, from at least the 4th century (Laurent, Corpus V/1, 255). It is listed in all the notitiae until the beginning of the fourteenth century. The city was the cult center of St. Parthenios, a 4th-century saint and bishop, who appears on the seal of Bishop Thomas published below (54.2). See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 256; Janin, Grand centres, 206. ODB II, 1172.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantin, vol. 2, Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)