Skip to Content

Basil poimenarches (= metropolitan) of Corfu (Kerkyra) (twelfth/thirteenth century)

 
 

Obverse

Saints Peter and Paul standing; St. Peter holds a scepter over his shoulder and two keys. St. Paul blesses and holds a book. Between their haloes, the letter Ο; on one side the inscription: Π|Ε|Τ|Ρ|Ο|Σ. On the right: Π|Α|Υ|Λ|Ο|Σ: ὁ ἅγιος Πέτρος - ὁ ἅγιος Παῦλος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines, beginning with a cross (obliterated). Decoration below. Border of dots.

ΣΟ
Φ..ΞΥΝ
ΡΙΣΤΑΠΟ
ΟΛΝΣΚΕΠΟΙΣ
ΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΝΣΟΝ
ΠΟΙΜΕΝΑΡΧ
ΚΕΡΚΥΡΑΣ

σοφ[ῶν] ξυνωρὶς πρωταποστόλων σκέποις Βασίλειον σὸν ποιμενάρχην Κερκύρας

Obverse

Saints Peter and Paul standing; St. Peter holds a scepter over his shoulder and two keys. St. Paul blesses and holds a book. Between their haloes, the letter Ο; on one side the inscription: Π|Ε|Τ|Ρ|Ο|Σ. On the right: Π|Α|Υ|Λ|Ο|Σ: ὁ ἅγιος Πέτρος - ὁ ἅγιος Παῦλος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines, beginning with a cross (obliterated). Decoration below. Border of dots.

ΣΟ
Φ..ΞΥΝ
ΡΙΣΤΑΠΟ
ΟΛΝΣΚΕΠΟΙΣ
ΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΝΣΟΝ
ΠΟΙΜΕΝΑΡΧ
ΚΕΡΚΥΡΑΣ

σοφ[ῶν] ξυνωρὶς πρωταποστόλων σκέποις Βασίλειον σὸν ποιμενάρχην Κερκύρας

Accession number BZS.1958.106.439
Diameter 36.0 mm; field: 28.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 5.3; Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1795. See also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2251.

Translation

Σοφῶν ξυνωρὶς πρωταποστόλων σκέποις Βασίλειον σὸν ποιμενάρχην Κερκύρας.

May you, pairing of the wise and first among the apostles, watch over your servant Basil, metropolitan of Corfou.

Commentary

Two dodecasyllabic verses. Laurent may well be correct that the owner was the rhetor Basil Pediadites who mounted the throne of Corfou before 1202 and died about 1219. But it must be admitted that the high quality of the engraving points to a 12th- rather than a 13th-century date.

The present specimen is not a seal (it has no channel) but rather a beautifully executed tessera or medallion, the purpose of which we can only surmise.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Sceaux byzantins du musée de Constantinople (Open in Zotero)
  • Recherches sur l’administration de l’empire byzantin aux IX-XIème siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzance et la mer: La marine de guerre, la politique et les institutions maritimes de Byzance aux VIIe–VXe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Nikopolis und Kephallenia (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)