Viewing texts: Word as image and ornament in medieval inscriptions

这个网络的目的是将文本作为艺术来审视。它将重点放在中世纪经常刻在或画在建筑纪念碑上的铭文上。在地中海周围的基督教和伊斯兰教纪念碑上发现了长长的、突出的铭文。这些文本是众所周知的，过去经常被学者们研究，他们试图利用其中包含的信息来帮助确定纪念碑的日期或确定其赞助人或建设者。然而，这样的文本并没有被视为艺术。然而，在许多情况下，铭文的书写方式意味着它们不太可能被设计成简单地被观看它们的人当作大块的文本来阅读。所使用的文字的大小，易读性，位置（通常在高处或偏僻的地方），或者仅仅是文字的长度都表明，实际的文本内容只是构成和设计铭文的一个因素。相反，这些文本服务于一系列不同的目的，而这个项目的目的是探索文本的非文学用途。在未来两年的一系列研讨会中，该项目将汇集一批学者，他们从事从西欧到东部高加索的中世纪研究的各个领域：他们的专业知识涵盖拉丁欧洲、拜占庭、亚美尼亚和格鲁吉亚、土耳其塞尔柱王朝、法蒂玛王朝和阿尤布王朝的埃及和叙利亚。他们都对碑文感兴趣，但从不同的角度看待碑文；然而，所有人都对观看和阅读文本有着共同的兴趣。该网络将分享其对文本视觉用途的研究，这些研究目前分散在不同的文化和宗教部门中，这些部门将人文学科的研究分开。小组的核心成员（已经非正式地接触过他们是否愿意参与）将被邀请参加三个研讨会，讨论这个研究项目的不同方面。第一个工作坊将考察文本作为装饰品的方法，并考虑如何将它们视为建筑物的装饰，而不仅仅是阅读。第二次会议将考虑文本与它们所出现的纪念碑之间的相互作用。它将探索文本的表演方面——文本的布局和排列如何影响人们对建筑物的看法以及人们在建筑物周围移动的方式。它还将通过将特定文本放在特定位置来考虑文本在公共空间中制度化和影响社区记忆的方式。最后的研讨会将考虑多语言文本可以被观看而不是阅读的方式：观众如何对那些他们无法阅读或识别的文字和语言的文本作出反应，以及对非正式文本的反应，例如影响其所贴建筑外观和解释的涂鸦。这个网络的另一个目的是探索中世纪基督教和穆斯林世界之间的相互作用。鉴于这些主要信仰之间最近的紧张关系，我们认为更详细地探讨它们的文化交流历史是很重要的。这两种信仰都以神的话语为基础，在他们的建筑中使用文字的方式是这种关系的一个重要方面。特别是在地中海周围，几个世纪以来，这些不同的宗教生活在相同的领土上，通过使用文本来装饰和编排建筑的方式分享经验，这是探索中世纪文化之间有许多共同的元素，通过他们利用文本的非文本方面的方式。像这样的一个项目需要广泛的专业知识，没有一个学者能够掌握，因此特别适合一个网络。

The aim of this network is to examine texts as art. It will focus on the inscriptions that were frequently inscribed or painted on monuments of architecture in the middle ages. Long, prominent inscriptions are found on Christian and Islamic monuments from around the Mediterranean. These texts are well known and have often been examined by scholars in the past, who have sought to exploit the information they contain to help date monuments or identify their patrons or builders. Such texts have not, however, been viewed as art. Yet in many cases, the way in which the inscriptions were written means it is unlikely that they were ever designed to be read simply as blocks of text by those that viewed them. The size of the script used, the (lack of) legibility, the location (often high up or in out-of-the way locations), or simply the length of the text all indicate that the actual textual contents were only one element in the make-up and design of the inscription. Instead such texts served a series of different purposes, and the aim of this project is to explore those non-literary uses of texts.In a series of workshops over the next two years, this project will bring together a group of scholars who work on all fields of medieval studies from western Europe through to the Caucasus in the east: their expertise covers Latin Europe, Byzantium, Armenia and Georgia, Seljuq Turkey, and Fatimid and Ayyubid Egypt and Syria. They all have interests in monumental inscriptions, but have viewed them from different perspectives; all, however, have a shared interest in the viewing as much as the reading of texts. The network will share its research into the visual uses of text, which is currently dispersed among the different cultural and religious divisions which separate research in the humanities. The core members of the group (who have all been approached informally for their willingness to participate) will be invited to three workshops at which different aspects of this research project will be discussed. The first workshop will examine ways of approaching texts as ornaments, and consider how they can be viewed as decoration on a building rather than simply being read. The second meeting will consider the interaction between the texts and the monuments they appear on. It will explore performative aspects of texts - how the layout and arrangement of texts affects the ways in which buildings are viewed and in which people move around them. It will also consider the ways in which texts institutionalise and affect communities' memories in public spaces, by putting particular texts in particular places. The final workshop will consider the ways in which multi-lingual texts can be viewed rather than read: how viewers would react to those texts in scripts and languages they could not read or recognise, and also at informal texts, such as graffiti which affect the appearance and interpretation of the buildings to which they are affixed.A further aim of this network is to explore the medieval interactions between the Christian and Muslim worlds. In the light of recent tensions between these major faiths, we believe it is important to explore the history of their cultural exchanges in more detail. The ways in which these faiths,both of which are based around the Word, have used writing in their buildings is an important aspect of this relationship. In particular around the Mediterranean there have been many centuries when these different religions have lived in the same territorial regions and shared experiences in the ways texts have been used to ornament and orchestrate buildings are an important means of exploring how There are many elements that were shared between medieval cultures over the ways in which they exploited the non-textual aspects of texts.A project such as this requires a broad range of expertises that no single scholar could master, and so is particularly suitable for a network.