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Onomastics, gender, office and images on Byzantine lead seals: a means of investigating personal piety*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

John Cotsonis
John Cotsonis*
Affiliation:
The Archbishop lakovos Library, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
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Abstract

Based upon a database of 7,390 lead seals that bear religious figural imagery in conjunction with the names and official titles of their owners, this paper investigates the contribution of lead seals to our understanding of the choice of various religious images as an expression of personal piety. The study examines the roles of homonymity, gender, family names and official titles in individuals’ selections of sacred images for their seals. Tables and figures display the numerical and statistical results that are compared to trends found in other media.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , 2008 , pp. 1 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2008

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Annemarie Weyl Carr for her insightful comments regarding an earlier version of the material related to gender. Special appreciation is also extended to John Nesbitt for his helpful discussions throughout the preparation of this paper as well as to the two anonymous readers. Funds for the accompanying photographs were kindly provided by Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.

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