ABSTRACT
The Latomos image has commanded attention for its beauty, its theological complexity and its recurrence in four different media – mosaic, text, wall-painting and icon – in a particular part of the Balkans, over 900 years. Charles Diehl's remark that it was unusual to see a prayer which translates the thought of a worshipper or a donor, suggests that he had confused the two inscriptions within the mosaic, since the donor’s prayer is repeated on the codex held by the right-hand prophet, not on the scroll held by Christ. The last part of the donor inscription adopts a formula which is found quite widely in Thessaloniki and elsewhere in Macedonia. Diehl knew of examples from the mosaics at St Demetrios which were lost in the 1917 fire, and there is another example from the Acheiropoietos. With regard to her level of education, Amelia Brown offers an interesting discussion of the likely level of women’s literacy in the Early Church.
