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Basil archipoimen (=metropolitan) of Larissa (twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

St. Achillios standing, blessing (r. hand) and holding a book (l. hand). On either side a cruciform inscription: Ο|ΑΓΙ|Ο|ΣΑ|ΛΛΧΟΣ|Ι to be read first vertically and then horizontally, much in the way that the sign of the cross is made in the Orthodox church: ὁ ἅγιος Ἁχίλλιος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines followed by a row of dots. Border of dots.

ΕΠΙ
ΣΦΡΑΓΙΖΟΙΣ
ΤΑΣΓΡΑΦΑΣ
ΑΣΙΛΕΙΤ
ΤΗΣΛΑΡΙΣΣΗΣ
ΑΡΧΙΠΟΙΜΕ
ΝΟΣΜΑΚΑΡ

Ἐπισφραγίζοις τὰς γραφὰς Βασιλείου τοῦ τῆς Λαρίσσης ἀρχιποίμενος, μάκαρ

Obverse

St. Achillios standing, blessing (r. hand) and holding a book (l. hand). On either side a cruciform inscription: Ο|ΑΓΙ|Ο|ΣΑ|ΛΛΧΟΣ|Ι to be read first vertically and then horizontally, much in the way that the sign of the cross is made in the Orthodox church: ὁ ἅγιος Ἁχίλλιος. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of seven lines followed by a row of dots. Border of dots.

ΕΠΙ
ΣΦΡΑΓΙΖΟΙΣ
ΤΑΣΓΡΑΦΑΣ
ΑΣΙΛΕΙΤ
ΤΗΣΛΑΡΙΣΣΗΣ
ΑΡΧΙΠΟΙΜΕ
ΝΟΣΜΑΚΑΡ

Ἐπισφραγίζοις τὰς γραφὰς Βασιλείου τοῦ τῆς Λαρίσσης ἀρχιποίμενος, μάκαρ

Accession number BZS 1958.106.11
Diameter 37.0 mm; field: 31.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 17.1; Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 676. See also Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 772.

Translation

Ἐπισφραγίζοις τὰς γραφὰς Βασιλείου τοῦ τῆς Λαρίσσης ἀρχιποίμενος, μάκαρ.

Blessed one, may you add your seal to the letters of Basil, metropolitan of Larissa.

Commentary

The inscription consists of two twelve-syllable verses. On the second last line of the reverse, an extra letter sigma (Σ) may be evidence that this specimen is overstruck.

The see of Larissa (same name today) dates from the 4th century and is mentioned as a metropolis with its suffragans in all the notitiae. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 508 ff (and Lihačev, Molivdovully, 178, no. 5); Avramea, 124 ff, 191 ff; Koder-Hild, Hellas, 198-99; Fedalto, 458-60.

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)
  • Molivdovuly grečeskogo Vostoka (Open in Zotero)
  • Μολυβδόβουλλα με γνωστή προέλευση από τις συλλογές του Νομισματικού Μουσείου Αθηνών (Open in Zotero)
  • Hellas und Thessalia (Open in Zotero)
  • Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)