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Isaac Komnenos (twelfth century, second half)

 
 

Obverse

Image of St. George, standing, his left hand resting on his shield, his right hand holding a spear. Line border. On either side, the sigla (the letters on the left are arranged in the shape of a cross): ο|α|Γ|Ι ΟΣ  γε|γι|οσὁ ἅγιος Γεώργιος.

Reverse

An inscription consisting of three twelve-syllable verses, engraved in eight lines.


..μνηνο
δουκοπιδα
τροπτροθεν
ισκιονοσσε
οκρτορ
θυγτροπισγμ
ροστεμρτυσ
μεσκεποισ
  

[Κο]μνηνοδουκόπαιδα μητροπατρόθεν Ἰσαάκιον ὃς σεβαστοκρατόρων θυγατρόπαις γαμβρός τε, μάρτυς, με σκέποις

Obverse

Image of St. George, standing, his left hand resting on his shield, his right hand holding a spear. Line border. On either side, the sigla (the letters on the left are arranged in the shape of a cross): ο|α|Γ|Ι ΟΣ  γε|γι|οσὁ ἅγιος Γεώργιος.

Reverse

An inscription consisting of three twelve-syllable verses, engraved in eight lines.


..μνηνο
δουκοπιδα
τροπτροθεν
ισκιονοσσε
οκρτορ
θυγτροπισγμ
ροστεμρτυσ
μεσκεποισ
  

[Κο]μνηνοδουκόπαιδα μητροπατρόθεν Ἰσαάκιον ὃς σεβαστοκρατόρων θυγατρόπαις γαμβρός τε, μάρτυς, με σκέποις

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.532
Diameter 43.0 mm; field: 36.0 mm
Previous Editions

Zacos, Byzantine Lead Seals, no. 2736; cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 1116.

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

Translation

Κομνηνοδουκόπαιδα μητροπατρόθεν Ἰσαάκιον ὃς σεβαστοκρατόρων θυγατρόπαις γαμβρός τε, μάρτυς, με σκέποις.

Martyr, watch over me, Isaac, a descendant of the Komnenoi and Doukai through my mother and father, the son of a sebastokrator's daughter and brother-in-law to another.

Commentary

This seal should be dated to the years before 1185. The owner has been identified as Isaac Komnenos Doukas, grandson (on his mother's side) of Isaac Komnenos, the elder brother of the emperor Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180). His father was an unknown member of the Doukas-Kamateros line. The Isaac of this seal is famous for having proclaimed himself emperor of Cyprus in 1184 (or the next year) in defiance of Andronikos I Komnenos. His reign ended in 1191 when he was defeated by Richard the Lionhearted, dying in imprisonment shortly afterwards. Similar seals, with slightly different epigraphy, also exist; but it is noteworthy that the seals Isaac struck while emperor (despotes) of Cyprus show St. Theodore rather than St. George. See Jordanov, Byzantine Seals from Bulgaria, vol. 2, no. 350; Metcalfe, Seals from Cyprus, no. 412.

Bibliography

  • Les bulles métriques dans la sigillographie byzantine (Open in Zotero)
  • Byzantine Lead Seals, Vol. 2 (Open in Zotero)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)