Skip to Content

Basil bishop of Phyteianoi (eleventh/twelfth century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God orans with the medallion of Christ before her. Sigla preserved at right: ΘΥ . [Μ(ήτη)ρ] Θ(εο)ῦ. No visible border.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

ΘΚΕ,Θ,
.ΑΣΙΛΕΙ
ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΝ
ΤΟΝΦΥΤ,

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) [Β]ασιλείῳ ἐπίσκοπον τον Φυτ(ειανῶν)

Obverse

Bust of the Mother of God orans with the medallion of Christ before her. Sigla preserved at right: ΘΥ . [Μ(ήτη)ρ] Θ(εο)ῦ. No visible border.

Reverse

Inscription of four lines. Border of dots.

ΘΚΕ,Θ,
.ΑΣΙΛΕΙ
ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΝ
ΤΟΝΦΥΤ,

Θ(εοτό)κε β(οή)θ(ει) [Β]ασιλείῳ ἐπίσκοπον τον Φυτ(ειανῶν)

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.444
Diameter 19.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 96.1. See also Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 537 (with a revised date in second half of the eleventh century in Corpus V/2, corrigenda, p. 456). Cf. Laurent, Orghidan, no. 379; Seyrig, no. 264.

Translation

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Βασιλείῳ ἐπίσκοπον τον Φυτειανῶν.

Mother of God, help Basil, bishop of the people of Phyteia.

Commentary

Laurent quite plausibly identified the owner of the present seal as Basil of Phyteia, known from the works of Nicholas of Andida.

The spelling of the last word of the inscription is imposed by the definite article, which requires a genitive plural, and by the late Roman inscription ὅροι Φυτεανῶν, which was discovered in Kemerkaya and helped to locate the bishopric. We assume that this was the local appellation which appeared on the seal, whereas the more Greek and more official form Φυτείας prevailed in all the notitiae. We think that this detail on our seal supports the identification of the bishopric with the place where the above mentioned inscription was found.

Identified with Kemerkaya (previously Çoğu), Phyteia was throughout history a suffragan bishopric of Synada and appears as such in all notitiae episcopatuum. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 397-398; Phrygien und Pisidien, 361-62.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Documents de sigillographie byzantine: La collection C. Orghidan (Open in Zotero)
  • Les sceaux byzantins de la Collection Henri Seyrig (Open in Zotero)
  • Phrygien und Pisidien (Open in Zotero)