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Niketas proedros (= metropolitan) of Rhodes (twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin orans with the medallion of Christ before her. Remains of the usual sigla: ΡΥ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. No border visible.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΣΦΡΑΓΙ.
ΝΙΚΗΤΑΤΟ.
ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΥ
ΤΗΣΡΟΔ
ΟΥ

Σφραγὶς Νικήτα το προέδρου τῆς Ῥόδου

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin orans with the medallion of Christ before her. Remains of the usual sigla: ΡΥ: Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. No border visible.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΣΦΡΑΓΙ.
ΝΙΚΗΤΑΤΟ.
ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΥ
ΤΗΣΡΟΔ
ΟΥ

Σφραγὶς Νικήτα το προέδρου τῆς Ῥόδου

Accession number BZS.1955.1.5023
Diameter 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 54.3.
Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1771; see also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden II, no. 2680.

Translation

Σφραγὶς Νικήτα τοῦ προέδρου τῆς Ῥόδου.

Seal of Niketas, the metropolitan of Rhodes.

Commentary

Dodecasyllabic. In the Synodikon of Rhodes one finds mention of two (or three) metropolitans named Niketas and belonging roughly to the 12th century (Gouillard, Synodikon, 113); one metropolitan Niketas is attested in 1144 (Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1771, commentary). Note that the seal BZS.1955.1.5022, which was published by Laurent, Corpus V/3, no. 1772, in reality belongs to a bishop of Makre.

The metropolis of Rhodes kept its rank throughout the centuries, but the number of its suffragans varied. We have the list of the metropolitans of this see, the Synodikon. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 528; Fedalto, 203-5; Malamut, Iles, passim, esp. 242-44, 281-83, 300, 323, 325, 359, 365, 506; Gouillard, Synodikon, 113, 278-79; ODB III, 1791-92.

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)
  • Le Synodikon de l’orthodoxie: Édition et commentaire (Open in Zotero)
  • Mélanges d’archéologie byzantine (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
  • Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)