Skip to Content

Kosmas bishop of Proussa (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of St. Michael holding scepter and globus. On either side barely visible: ΜΧ: Μ(ι)χ(αήλ). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

+ΚΕ,Θ
ΚΟΣΜΑ
Ε.ΗΣ..
ΠΠΡ.
ΣΗΣ

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οή)θ(ει) Κοσμᾷ ἐ[π]ησ[κό]πῳ Πρ[ού]σης

Obverse

Bust of St. Michael holding scepter and globus. On either side barely visible: ΜΧ: Μ(ι)χ(αήλ). Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

+ΚΕ,Θ
ΚΟΣΜΑ
Ε.ΗΣ..
ΠΠΡ.
ΣΗΣ

Κ(ύρι)ε β(οή)θ(ει) Κοσμᾷ ἐ[π]ησ[κό]πῳ Πρ[ού]σης

Accession number BZS.1958.106.289
Diameter 21.0 mm; field: 16.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 67.1.
Laurent, Corpus, V/1, no. 383.

Translation

Κύριε βοήθει Κοσμᾷ ἐπησκόπῳ Προύσης.

Lord, help Kosmas, bishop of Proussa.

Commentary

Proussa (modern Bursa at the foot of Mount Olympus in Bithynia), a suffragan of Nikomedeia (but situated in the Opsikion theme), was represented at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and is mentioned as such in all notitiae until the twelfth century. In early times, it was also called Θεούπολις: cf. Zacos-Veglery II, no. 1096. After its conquest by the Turks in 1326, it became a metropolis (about 1359). See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 273; Janin, Grands centres, 174-75; ODB III, 1750. 

We note that St. Michael is usually represented on the seals of the bishops of Proussa, allowing us to hypothesize that the episcopal church of the city may have been dedicated to the Archangel. Cf. SBS 4 (1994) 22.

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)