Viewing Inscriptions in the Late Antique and Medieval World

Antony Eastmond is A. G. Leventis Reader in the History of Byzantine Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. He has written extensively on the art and culture of medieval Georgia and its relations with Byzantium. He also works on Byzantine ivories. He is the author of The Glory of Byzantium and Early Christendom (2013), as well as Art and Identity in Thirteenth-Century Byzantium: Hagia Sophia and the Empire of Trebizond (2008) and Royal Imagery in Medieval Georgia (1998). He has published articles in the Art Bulletin, Art History, Dumbarton Oaks Papers and Speculum. He currently holds a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship and is working on a study of cultural interaction in eastern Anatolia on the eve of the Mongol invasions.

• Introduction: viewing inscriptions Antony Eastmond; 1. Text, image, memory, and performance: epigraphic practices in Persia and the ancient Iranian world Matthew P. Canepa; 2. Prayers on site: the materiality of devotional graffiti and the production of early Christian sacred space Ann Marie Yasin; 3. Erasure and memory: Aghlabid and Fatimid inscriptions in North Africa Jonathan Bloom; 4. Textual icons: viewing inscriptions in medieval Georgia Antony Eastmond; 5. Pseudo-Arabic 'inscriptions' and the pilgrim's path at Hosios Loukas Alicia Walker; 6. Arabic inscriptions in the Cappella Palatina: performativity, audience, legibility, and illegibility Jeremy Johns; 7. Intercession and succession, enlightenment and reflection: the inscriptional and decorative program of the Qaratay Madrasa, Konya Scott Redford; 8. Remembering Fernando: multilingualism in medieval Iberia Tom Nickson; 9. Displaying the word: words as visual signs in the Armenian architectural decoration of the monastery of Noravank (fourteenth century) Ioanna Rapti; 10. Written in stone: civic memory and monumental writing in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa Stefania Gerevini; 11. Place, space, and style: craftsmen's signatures in medieval Islamic art Sheila S. Blair; Afterword: re-viewing inscriptions Antony Eastmond.

'This volume tidily bridges the gap between textual and visual studies, and shows the functionality of inscriptions as more than just a literary device throughout various periods of history. It is a welcome addition to the study of space, place and communication in the medieval world.' Brittany Thomas, Medieval Archaeology