John bishop of Servia (ninth/tenth century)
Obverse
Bust of the Virgin holding medallion of Christ before her. Sigla: ..ΧΥ̅: Μήτηρ Χριστοῦ. Circular inscription, beginning at 6 o'clock, between two borders of dots.
ΘΕΟΤ.ΚΕΟ......ΣΔΟΥΛ
Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Obverse
Bust of the Virgin holding medallion of Christ before her. Sigla: ..ΧΥ̅: Μήτηρ Χριστοῦ. Circular inscription, beginning at 6 o'clock, between two borders of dots.
ΘΕΟΤ.ΚΕΟ......ΣΔΟΥΛ
Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ
Reverse
Inscription of four lines, decoration below. Border of dots.
ΙΑΝ
ΗΕΠΗΣ
ΚΟΠΟ..
ΡΙΟΝ
Ἰωάνῃ ἐπησκόπο Σερβίον
Accession number | BZS.1955.1.4650 |
---|---|
Diameter | 20.0 mm |
Previous Editions | DO Seals 1, no. 25.1. |
Translation
Θεοτόκε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Ἰωάνῃ ἐπησκόπο Σερβίον.
Theotokos, help your servant John bishop of Servia.
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)
- Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα. Ἡ συλλογὴ Ἀναστασίου Κ. Π. Σταμούλη (Open in Zotero)
- Μελέται περὶ τῆς διοικητικῆς διαιρέσεως καὶ τῆς ἐπαρχιακῆς διοικήσεως ἐν τῷ βυζαντινῷ κράτει (Open in Zotero)
- A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
The portrait of the Virgin is practically a replica of the one on the seal of Sabas, metropolitan of Athens, attested between 879/80 and 913; Oikonomides, Dated Seals, no. 56. One should also note the appellation μήτηρ Χριστοῦ; it shows that the formula μήτηρ Θεοῦ was not completely generalized, not to mention the Nestorian/iconoclastic trait that it reveals.
Servia (modern Servia), southwest of Berroia, was established as a suffragan see of Thessalonica by the turn of the tenth century (Darrouzès, Notitiae, 278), if not earlier (see DO Seals 1, no. 25.1); cf. Laurent, Corpus V/3, 84-85. A strategos was also set up in Servia shortly before 1001; cf. Kekaumenos, 174, 433-35; Konstantopoulos, Stamoules, no. 85; Zakythinos, Mélétai 17 (1941) 226-27.