Titulus (inscription)
- See also Titulus (Roman Catholic) for Roman churches called tituli, or titulus (disambiguation)for more meanings.
Titulus (Latin "inscription" or "label", the plural tituli is also used in English) is a term used for the labels or captions naming figures or subjects in art, which were commonly added in classical and
Eastern Orthodox icons. In particular the term describes the conventional inscriptions on stone that listed the honours of an individual[1] or that identified boundaries in the Roman Empire. A titulus pictus is a merchant's mark
or other commercial inscription.
The sense of "title", as in "book title", in modern English derives from this artistic sense, just as the legal sense derives from plainer inscriptions of record.[2]
Use in Western art
The increasing reluctance of the art of the West to use tituli was perhaps because so few people could read them in the
Banderoles were a solution that became popular in the later Middle Ages, and in Northern Europe in the 15th century were sometimes used very extensively for speech, rather as in modern comics, as well as tituli. These were abandoned as old-fashioned in the Renaissance
, but increased respect for classical traditions led to continued use of Ancient Roman-style tituli where they were considered necessary, including on portraits.
Examples of tituli
- In the context of the INRI and Titulus Crucis.
- At the recovery of the coffin of Giraldus Cambrensis, redoubled the pilgrimages to the Abbey.
Gallery
-
14th-century Italian titulus records the identity of Bonamico Taverna, known only from this donor portrait -
The 11th-centuryHAROLD REX ANGLORUM" and "STIGANT ARCHIEPS". -
Two "Saint Theodore"s are distinguished by tituli in the Byzantine Harbaville Triptych -
Extensive tituli, and "speech-bubbles" onbanderoles in this early 16th-century tapestry
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Notes
References
- ISBN 978-0064300322
- Schiller, Gertud, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I, 1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, ISBN 0-85331-270-2
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray.
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