Nicholas metropolitan of Athens (1160-75)
Obverse
Bust of the Virgin holding Christ. Vertical inscriptions on either side: ̅ΘΥ̅ and Η|ΑΘ|ΝΑΙ|Σ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ ἡ Αθηναΐς. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of four lines, decoration above. Border of dots.
σφρα
γισαν
οιμενοσ
νικολα
Σφραγὶς Ἀθηνῶν ποιμένος Νικολάου
Obverse
Bust of the Virgin holding Christ. Vertical inscriptions on either side: ̅ΘΥ̅ and Η|ΑΘ|ΝΑΙ|Σ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ ἡ Αθηναΐς. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of four lines, decoration above. Border of dots.
σφρα
γισαν
οιμενοσ
νικολα
Σφραγὶς Ἀθηνῶν ποιμένος Νικολάου
| Accession number | BZS.1955.1.5007 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 29.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 2, no. 9.7. |
Translation
Σφραγὶς Ἀθηνῶν ποιμένος Νικολάου.
The seal of Nicholas, metropolitan of Athens.
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)
- A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (Open in Zotero)
- Seals of the Byzantine Empire (Open in Zotero)
- Le Synodikon de l’orthodoxie: Édition et commentaire (Open in Zotero)
- Tὰ χαράγματα τοῦ Παρθενῶς (Open in Zotero)
- Obit des deux métropolites d’Athènes Léon Xéros et Georges Bourtzès d’après les inscriptions du Parthénon (Open in Zotero)
- Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
- Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
- Die Tarchaneiotai: Eine prosopographisch-sigillographische Studie (Open in Zotero)
- Hellas und Thessalia (Open in Zotero)
- Realities of Byzantine Provincial Government: Hellas and Peloponnesos, 1180-1205 (Open in Zotero)
- La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantin, vol. 2, Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins (Open in Zotero)
- Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
- Athen in Byzanz: Traum und Realität (Open in Zotero)
- Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
Dodecasyllabic verse. Only one metrpolitan with the name of Nicholas appears in the synodikon (Gouillard, Syndikon, 180); thus our specimen can be attributed with certainty to Nicholas Hagiotheodorites, the successor of George Bourtzes (who died in 1160; see no. 9.5 above). Nicholas is attested as a metropolitan of Athens in March 1166, and he died in 1175 (Orlandos-Branouses, no. 48); June; Darrouzès, "Obit des deux méetropolites d'Athènes," REB 20 [1962] 196: August 11; cf. also REB 23 [1965] 158). We have a second, similar seal of the same metropolitan, from a different boulloterion (Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 604).