Skip to Content

(The monastery of) St. John Prodromos of Ganos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Poorly preserved bust of (most probably) St. John the Baptist holding a long cross and scroll. No inscription visible. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.


Ι̅Ο
ΠΡΟΔ,
ΤΓ.
ΝΟΥ

ὁ ἅ(γιος) Ἰω(άννης) ὁ Πρόδ(ρομος) τοῦ Γ[ά]νου

Obverse

Poorly preserved bust of (most probably) St. John the Baptist holding a long cross and scroll. No inscription visible. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.


Ι̅Ο
ΠΡΟΔ,
ΤΓ.
ΝΟΥ

ὁ ἅ(γιος) Ἰω(άννης) ὁ Πρόδ(ρομος) τοῦ Γ[ά]νου

Accession number BZS.1947.2.88
Diameter 17.0 mm; field: 10.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 1, no. 51.3.
Laurent, Corpus V/2, no. 1232 (with inaccuracies; dated to the 10th century).

Translation

ὁ ἅγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Πρόδρομος τοῦ Γάνου.

St. John the Prodromos of Ganos.

Commentary

This is obviously the seal of a monastery of Ganos dedicated to St. John the Baptist. We disagree with Laurent's hypothesis that this monastery was also the seat of the the protos. The inscription might possibly be a very poor fifteen-syllable verse.

Mount Ganos was a monastic center situated north of the Propontis and attested from the tenth to the fourteenth century. See Laurent, Corpus V/2, 152. It was composed of several monasteries and, like Mount Athos, was administrated by an (elected?) protos, attested as early as the eleventh century.

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)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)