Monastery of the Mother of God Peribleptos

Monastery of the Mother of God Peribleptos, 11th century. Seal (Lead, 31 mm, 18.92 g, 12 h). MHP ΘV The Mother of God, nimbate, both hands half-raised before her, palms outward. Rev. +CΦPA/ΓIC AN[A]/CCHC THC / ΠEPIRΛЄ/ΠTU MO/N ("Seal of the monastery of the Lady Peribleptos") in six lines, last line flanked by decorations. Unpublished with this obverse iconography. Cf. Laurent, Corpus V/2, 1175-1177 and Wassiliou-Seibt, Corpus 2335. An interesting new seal type for this monastery. About very fine.


Several seal types are preserved from the Peribleptos monastery in Constantinopolis. The earliest have a simple legend with a standing Hodegetria (DO Seals V 55.1), while three types have the metric legend as appears on our seal. These are paired with different depictions of the Mother of God: a Hodegetria Dexiokratusa (Christ on the right arm), a Blachernitissa (orans), and an Episkepsis (orans with medallion of Christ). Our seal adds a fourth type: a Mother of God praying with her hands raised before her, sometimes called the "Minimalorantengestus".

The Peribleptos church and monastery were founded by the emperor Romanos III Argyros (AD 1028-1034) and its splendour was noted by travelers from all over the world. Romanos III was buried there, as well as several other Byzantine emperors. After the fall of Constantinopolis, the monastery became the seat of the Armenian patriarchate, but it fell to ruins in the 17th century. New structures were raised upon the old, and today the location houses the Armenian church of St. George of Samatya.

Leu Web 18 Lot 4036
17.12.2021