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Nikephoros Anzas, vestes, protonotarios of the Petrion and judge of the Islands (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding the Child. Sigla: ΘΥ: Μή(τη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Indeterminate border.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Indeterminate border.

.ικηφορ
εστηΑν.
ταριτπ.
τρικριτη
τννησν
τανζα

[Ν]ικηφόρῳ βέστῃ, (πρωτο)ν[ο]ταρίῳ τοῦ Π[ε]τρίου (καὶ) κριτῇ τῶν Νήσων τῷ Ἀνζᾷ

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin holding the Child. Sigla: ΘΥ: Μή(τη)ρ Θ(εο)ῦ. Indeterminate border.

Reverse

Inscription of six lines. Indeterminate border.

.ικηφορ
εστηΑν.
ταριτπ.
τρικριτη
τννησν
τανζα

[Ν]ικηφόρῳ βέστῃ, (πρωτο)ν[ο]ταρίῳ τοῦ Π[ε]τρίου (καὶ) κριτῇ τῶν Νήσων τῷ Ἀνζᾷ

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.1320
Diameter 22.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 43.3.

Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore.

Translation

Νικηφόρῳ βέστῃ, πρωτονοταρίῳ τοῦ Πετρίου καὶ κριτῇ τῶν Νήσων τῷ Ἀνζᾷ.

Nikephoros Anzas vestes, protonotarios of the Petrion, and judge of the Islands.

Commentary

The Petrion was a Constantinopolitan asylum for old people, founded by the empress Helen, wife of Constantine VII in tenth century. It became a financial euages oikos in the 11th (Oikonomides, Évolution, 139). Nikephoros Anzas is known only from seals (see PBW : Nikephoros 20161). At an earlier stage in his career, while already attached to the Petrion in the capacity of protonotarios, he held the inferior dignity of patrikios and exercised the function of symponos (Sig., 156 = Laurent, Corpus II, no. 1081; cf. no. 1082).

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)
  • L’évolution de l’organisation administrative de l’empire byzantin au XIe siècle (1025–1118) (Open in Zotero)
  • Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 1 (Open in Zotero)
  • Molivdovuly grečeskogo Vostoka (Open in Zotero)