Nicholas proedros (= archbishop) of Bizye (twelfth/thirteenth century)
Obverse
Virtually blank. Faint traces of a bust, possibly of the Virgin. No visible epigraphy. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription in four lines, cross above. Linear border.
.φραγ,
σοεδρ
ιζυησν
κολα
Σφραγὶς προέδρου Βιζύης Νικολάου
Obverse
Virtually blank. Faint traces of a bust, possibly of the Virgin. No visible epigraphy. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription in four lines, cross above. Linear border.
.φραγ,
σοεδρ
ιζυησν
κολα
Σφραγὶς προέδρου Βιζύης Νικολάου
| Accession number | BZS.1958.106.3812 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 23.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 1, no. 74.3. |
Translation
Σφραγὶς προέδρου Βιζύης Νικολάου.
Seal of the proedros of Bizye, Nicholas.
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)
- Les regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople, Vol. 1, Les regestes de 381 à 715 (Open in Zotero)
- Sigillographie de l’Empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Βυζαντιακὰ μολυβδόβουλλα τοῦ ἐν ἈΘήναις Ἐθνικοῦ Νομισματικοῦ Μουσείου (Open in Zotero)
- Μελέται περὶ τῆς διοικητικῆς διαιρέσεως καὶ τῆς ἐπαρχιακῆς διοικήσεως ἐν τῷ βυζαντινῷ κράτει (Open in Zotero)
- La Thrace Orientale et La Mer Noire: Géographie Ecclésiastique et Prosopographie (VIIIe-XIIe Siècles) (Open in Zotero)
- Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 2, Siegellegenden von Ny bis inklusive Sphragis (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
The inscription is a twelve-syllable verse. The specimen poses problems of dating. Laurent was inclined to place it at the end of the eleventh century, and Asdracha, Thrace orientale, 278, placed it ca. 1100; but the epigraphy, especially the letter Ζ and the ligature , suggests that it was struck considerably later. An archbishop of Bizye attended a synod in January 1192: in A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Ἀνάλεκτα Ἱεεροσολυμιτικῆς Σταχυολογίας I (St. Petersburg, 1891) 462, the name is transcribed τοῦ Βιζύης Νικόλαου, but in Sakkellion's prior edition of the same acts (Δελτίον τῆς Ἱστορικῆς καὶ Ἐθνολογικῆς Ἑταιρείας 3 [1890] 423), the name is read τοῦ Βιζύης Νικήτα (no mention of the conflict in Grumel, Regestes, no. 1180).
Bizye (modern Vize in Turkish Thrace) is northeast of Arkadioupolis. The city, a fortress [φρούριον] as described in Skylitzes, 39, line 37, has a long and distinguished history. In the ninth-tenth centuries, Bizye was the residence of a tourmarches, as attested by seals (DO Seals 1, no. 74.1 and Sig., 159 = Konstantopoulos, no. 31) and by the Life of St. Maria the Younger (d. 902): Zakythinos, Mélétai 22 (1952) 169-70. From the ecclesiastical point of view, Bizye was first a suffragan bishopric of Herakleia (5th century) and later, in the seventh century, an autocephalous archbishopric until it was elevated to a metropolis in the fourteenth century. The city, and its see, probably took on increased importance in 679/80, after the loss of Tomis and Odessa and the foundation of the Bulgarian state. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 635 and Asdracha, Thrace orientale, 230-31, 277-79.