A Seal of Bishop Ephraim of Perstlaba / Titular Metropolitan of Pereslavl

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to attribute and introduce into scientific circulation the lead seal with the name of Bishop Ephraim of R(osia) Perstlaba, which exists in two imprints from a private collection. Author attribute this seal to St. Ephraim of Pechersk (the second half of the XI century), a prominent Church figure of pre-Mongolian Russia and titular metropolitan of Pereyaslavl’ Russian. The validity of this attribution is proved by the text of the Greek-language legend on the reverse side, containing the name and rank of the owner, as well as the image of the Archangel Michael on the front, confirming the Church connection of the owner of seal with Pereyaslavl’ Russian. Author proposed to consider as a comparative material the seal of Ephraim metropolitan, also attributed to Ephraim of Pereyaslavl’ Russian by A. Nazarenko (Nazarenko, 2009, 231) contrary to the original attribution of V. Yanin (Yanin, 1970, no 42). The problem statement of coordination of Church titulature of the common (?) owner of these seals of St. Ephraim-Bishop and (or) titular metropolitan.

Keywords

• византия, древняя русь, переяславль, сфрагистика, подвесная печать