The seal of Oumbert the protoproedros Grisinos

The seal from the Moscow private collection which is published here, has a following legend: “… help to you slave Oumpert, the protoproedros Grisin”. It also has an image: two figures coming to each other and reaching out the hands to each other. As judged by the title, the owner of this seal was a “frank”, who entered into service in Byzantium in the end of the XI century. The patronymic “Grisin” (О ГРICHNOC) is, probably, derived from the placename of the West-European origin. We don’t find the name of protoproedros Oumbert Grisin in written sources; it is not traced in published materials of byzantine sigillography. I. Jordanov mentions two seals with the name of Oumbert in Dumbarton Oaks Collection, and suggests that their owner was one person – a possible father of Constantine Oumbertopoulos, one of brothers-in-arms of Emperor Alexios I. Both seals are dated third quarter of the XI century. First one (DO. 55.1.2359) calls Oumbert the patrikios, strategos and domestikos, and the second one (DO. 55.1.2374) – vestes and strategos. It is possible, that all the three seals belonged to one person – father of Constantine Oumbertopoulos. Both seals from Dumbarton Oaks Collection have on their face side the halflength image of St Nicholas. The scene on the face side of the Moscow specimen can be identified as a ἀσπασμός, or “The meeting of the Apostles Peter and Paul”. This subject is rare in byzantine sphragistics and its out-spread in Byzantium is associated with western influences in XI–XII centuries. These influences originate in Italy. Against this background we have an additional (although an indirect) acknowledgement of the Moscow seal owner identification with the Italian “frank” (Norman)