TIPARI

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The prosphora, namely the special breads offered at church during various feasts and memorial services, were habitually prepared at home and then stamped with a special, wood carved seal, the tipari, which is still being used today.

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The typical form of the tipari was a large-sized rounded seal with a vertical handle at the centre of its backside. The flat sealing surface was fully covered with embossed figures, which included various religious abbreviations and decorative motifs.

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The tipari of the Bee and Embroidery Museum has a sealing surface that is divided in nine panels, of which the three vertical panels repeat the abbreviation IC XC NIKA (Jesus Christ Conquers). The panel to the right of the central panel bears the letters ΜΘ (Mother of God, namely the Virgin Mary), while the panel on the left is filled by triangles. The rest of the quadrant-shaped panels are filled with radial lines. The abbreviation IC XC NIKA (Jesus Christ Conquers) is also repeated in the smaller sealing surface at the square handle of the tipari.

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The prosphora were made of excellent quality, white flour of fine wheat or semolina. After the wheat was sieved twice to increase its whiteness, the women prepared the dough and formed the rounded loafs. Next, they hand-polished the upper surface of the prosphora to increase lustre and carefully sealed them at the centre with the tipari. Sometimes, the periphery of the prosphoron was formed by hand into small pinched protrusions called tsimpin or tsimpes (pinches).