Byzantine lead seals in Austria: Chruch, family and Christian names

The Byzantine lead seals are that group of historical sources, which offers the most important part of new and till now unrecorded information on historical, prosopographical, administrative, art historical and other data for the evolution of the Byzantine empire, for the development of Byzantine culture through the centuries. A great part of the material is unpublished, and many elder publications are not equal to modern standards. Only in the last 50 years there began some progress in the methodological area, the transcriptions became more trustworthy and secure, the datings became more narrow than before, and we try more and more to avoid elder mistakes like too quick identifications with persons known from other sources. The "promachoi" of modern sigillography worked hard to find and establish verifiable criteria in this respect, but nevertheless much more research has to be done today and in the future. The Byzantine Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences supports since 1971 a seals project, that became one of the centres of Byzantine sigillography. Of foremost importance is the well known photo collection of about 40.000 seals, the biggest in the world, and this material becomes systematically organized, so it can be of immense help for identifying similar or even parallel pieces or for the construction of different positions in the cursus honorum of single persons, even if they are not recorded in other sources. Another enterprise is the collecting of all available metrical inscriptions on seals (including much unpublished material), that can help reconstructing damaged or partially lost legends on other seals (as many seals follow more or less certain formulas). As the institute is also a, centre for Byzantine prosopography we intend to collect as much of prosopographical material as possible, as we are ready to support the third volume of the planned Prosopography of the Byzantine empire. Austrian collections own about 1200 Byzantine lead seats, a relativly modest number. A first volume (210 numbers) was published in 1978 by the initiator of this project, who later on focused on other research programs in his academic career, only partially in the sigillographic field. The second volume, the purpose of the now running project (ending in april 2002) deals with the seals of the central and provincial administration in the Byzantine empire (about 400 pieces). To continue and finish this enterprise we apply for a second three-years-term to publish all remaining groups of seals (about 600 pieces), esp. the seals of the Byzantine church (metropolitans, bishops, abbots, monks), the seals with family names, others only with a Christian name, the philologically important group of seals with metrical inscriptions (esp. dodekasyllabi), monograms, iconographic seals etc. The bulk of the work should be done by a young scholar, Dr. Alexandra-Kyriaki WASSILIOU, who became an expert in sigillography in the course of her excellent dissertation on metrical seals and esp. during the running project. The dissertation was a kind of preparatory work for at least some of the seals in question. Similar to the Dumbarton Oaks publications we intend to offer only a short and precise commentary to the single seals, and it should consider the relevant material in other collections, as much as possible. It is also our aim to construct sometimes a series of relative chronology.

The Byzantine lead seals are that group of historical sources, which offers the most important part of new and till now unrecorded information on historical, prosopographical, administrative, art historical and other data for the evolution of the Byzantine empire, for the development of Byzantine culture through the centuries. A great part of the material is unpublished, and many elder publications are not equal to modern standards. Only in the last 50 years there began some progress in the methodological area, the transcriptions became more trustworthy and secure, the datings became more narrow than before, and we try more and more to avoid elder mistakes like too quick identifications with persons known from other sources. The "promachoi" of modern sigillography worked hard to find and establish verifiable criteria in this respect, but nevertheless much more research has to be done today and in the future. The Byzantine Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences supports since 1971 a seals project, that became one of the centres of Byzantine sigillography. Of foremost importance is the well known photo collection of about 40.000 seals, the biggest in the world, and this material becomes systematically organized, so it can be of immense help for identifying similar or even parallel pieces or for the construction of different positions in the cursus honorum of single persons, even if they are not recorded in other sources. Another enterprise is the collecting of all available metrical inscriptions on seals (including much unpublished material), that can help reconstructing damaged or partially lost legends on other seals (as many seals follow more or less certain formulas). As the institute is also a, centre for Byzantine prosopography we intend to collect as much of prosopographical material as possible, as we are ready to support the third volume of the planned Prosopography of the Byzantine empire. Austrian collections own about 1200 Byzantine lead seats, a relativly modest number. A first volume (210 numbers) was published in 1978 by the initiator of this project, who later on focused on other research programs in his academic career, only partially in the sigillographic field. The second volume, the purpose of the now running project (ending in april 2002) deals with the seals of the central and provincial administration in the Byzantine empire (about 400 pieces). To continue and finish this enterprise we apply for a second three-years-term to publish all remaining groups of seals (about 600 pieces), esp. the seals of the Byzantine church (metropolitans, bishops, abbots, monks), the seals with family names, others only with a Christian name, the philologically important group of seals with metrical inscriptions (esp. dodekasyllabi), monograms, iconographic seals etc. The bulk of the work should be done by a young scholar, Dr. Alexandra-Kyriaki WASSILIOU, who became an expert in sigillography in the course of her excellent dissertation on metrical seals and esp. during the running project. The dissertation was a kind of preparatory work for at least some of the seals in question. Similar to the Dumbarton Oaks publications we intend to offer only a short and precise commentary to the single seals, and it should consider the relevant material in other collections, as much as possible. It is also our aim to construct sometimes a series of relative chronology.