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Leo Semnos archithytes (=metropolitan) of Naupaktos (twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, holding Christ in her right arm. On either side, the sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅: Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines, decorations above and below. Border of dots.


ΑΡΧΙΘΥΤ
ΛΕΟΝΤΑΝΑΥ
ΠΑΚΤΟΥΣΚΕΠΟΙΣ
ΣΕΜΝΗΜΕΣΕΜΝΟ
ΝΗΠΑΝΥ
ΤΟΣΚΟΡΗ

Ἀρχιθύτην Λέοντα Ναυπάκτου σκέποις, σεμνή με Σεμνόν, ἡ πανύμνητος Κόρη.

Obverse

The Mother of God standing, holding Christ in her right arm. On either side, the sigla: ̅ΘΥ̅: Μ(ήτη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines, decorations above and below. Border of dots.


ΑΡΧΙΘΥΤ
ΛΕΟΝΤΑΝΑΥ
ΠΑΚΤΟΥΣΚΕΠΟΙΣ
ΣΕΜΝΗΜΕΣΕΜΝΟ
ΝΗΠΑΝΥ
ΤΟΣΚΟΡΗ

Ἀρχιθύτην Λέοντα Ναυπάκτου σκέποις, σεμνή με Σεμνόν, ἡ πανύμνητος Κόρη.

Accession number BZS.1958.106.1
Diameter 37.0 mm; field: 33.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 6.1. Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 680. Cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 145.

Translation

Ἀρχιθύτην Λέοντα Ναυπάκτου σκέποις, σεμνή με Σεμνόν, ἡ πανύμνητος Κόρη.

Revered and all-hymned Virgin, may you watch over me, Leo Semnos, metropolitan of Naupaktos.

Commentary

The inscription consists of two dodecasyllabic verses. Note the play on words in the owner's name, Semnos ("revered," "august," "holy") and the epithet used of the Virgin.

Laurent rightly identified the owner as the metropolitan of Naupaktos Leo who signed a synodic letter of 5 May 1172 (Grumel, Regestes, no. 1125). He had not deciphered the family name, Semnos, which is also attested in an inscription set up in Naupaktos by this same metropolitan Leo (cf. Νέον Ἀθήναιον 4 [1963] 153). The metropolitan church of Naupaktos was dedicated to the Virgin and this may explain the choice of iconography of the obverse: cf. B. Katsaros, in Byzantina 13/2 (1985) 1522-26.

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 regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople, Vol. 1, Les regestes de 381 à 715 (Open in Zotero)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • Nikopolis und Kephallenia (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)