In 1088, Hosios Christodoulos, one of the most prominent figures of Byzantine asceticism, founded on the island of Patmos the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian. With the chrysobull the emperor Alexios I Comnenos ceded to him the entire island as well as neighboring islands. It contains the longest surviving list of tax exemptions, mirroring the esteem in which the emperor held Christodoulos and the importance of the Monastery.
The document survives in prototype and in six copies. The emperor's signature, in cinnabar, is at the bottom and the golden imperial seal is preserved. The document exhibits thirty-five horizontal foldings.
The archive of Byzantine documents in the Monastery started forming after the foundation in 1088, the chrysobull standing at its core. These impressive documents, written carefully, with decorative letters and bearing the emperor's signature in large letters with cinnabar at the end, were cylindrical scrolls, measuring up to three meters in length, with the gold seal of the emperor on the bottom. They were the most formal imperial documents issued by Byzantine emperors.
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