Byzantine Seal of Saint John / The Virgin with Medallion of Infant Christ

[Joe Sermarini]

I have a couple questions about this seal I am working on and hope for some help.

The obverse inscription is Θ over IW left (St. John, I believe, at least the beginning). On the right is, I believe Δ and four more letters the second in the column maybe P. Anyone know what the right side says?

Is this Saint John the Baptist? (That is what I think).

This seal, and many more I have handled, does not name an individual. For some reason, I did not think about this before, but... How were such seals used and who used them? Without a name they seem to lack at least part of the purpose of a seal.

[iolkia]

Hello,

Indeed St. John the baptist. Depicted on the obverse is St John the baptist holding a staff cross.
It should read:          :Greek_Omicron:C    ὁ ἅ(γιος) Ἰω(άννης) ὁ Πρόδρομος. (Saint John the forerunner).

On the obverse, bust of the mother of God.   
It is an anonymous seal. Perhaps from a monastery? Or the owner was a namesake of St John?

Regards
Iolkia

[Joe Sermarini]

Thanks Iolkia. I think the inscription for St. John must be abbreviated a bit more. Perhaps it is Θ IW - ΠPΔOM?

[iolkia]

Absolutely. I wrote what the reading as a whole should be. I am not sure about the exact abbreviation. I found some seals with the forerunner with different abbreviations. Perhaps the five visible letters on the right are: "ΔΡΜΟC" or as you say, "ΠΡΔΟΜ".

[Gert]

To at least partly answer your question about these anonymous seals: they could belong to a person with the same name as the saint, but not necessarily. If you look at the seals with names, you will see that only a small percentage of them have matching Saints & owner's names, and there is no reason to assume that with anonymous saints this would have been different. As you said, these seals served the sealing purpose, not the declaration of the sender. The name of the sender would have been in the document to which the seal was attached. This is evidenced by a large of number of seals saying this in the form of a verse: "Observe the document to see whose seal I am" or "The document clearly reveals the writer" etc.
Regards
Gert

[Joe Sermarini]

Thanks Gert.