Current Epigraphy

Posted on behalf of Chiara Lasagni.

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS

INSCRIBING SPACE

Topography & Communication in Attic Epigraphy

edited by Irene Berti, Chiara Lasagni, Daniela Marchiandi

The purpose of this book is to shed fresh insight into a theme not yet extensively addressed, that is, the relation between epigraphy and urban topography, with a special focus on the places of publication of Athenian public inscriptions.

In recent times, scholarly research in Greek Epigraphy has devoted an ever-increasing attention to the material and visual aspects of the inscriptions. It is now well accepted that epigraphic documents cannot be regarded as mere texts (although written on non-perishable materials), to be analysed, for the most part, through an essentially “philological” approach.

Conversely, inscriptions perform as actual communication media, speaking their own specific language as expression of their twofold nature as texts and as monuments. Inscriptions, in other terms, prove to be capable of conveying complex messages always combining textual and para-textual elements, both worth investigating in their complex interaction.

Among these para-textual elements, the place of publication plays no secondary role. Indeed, the choice of the place of display was never casual, but carefully planned in order to frame and enhance the communicative potential of the inscription within the polis-space.

The semantic relationship between public inscriptions and monumental landscape can be explored in two directions; on the one hand, from the point of view of the urban space, which complements – and at times enriches with further ideological or cultural overtones – the original message of the inscribed texts; on the other hand, from the point of view of the inscriptions, which, by means of their very presence in the city, change the nature of the space that surrounds them, producing a different sort of public space as “written space”. Consequently, an analysis of public inscriptions that focuses on their location in the polis-space can provide us with valuable information for the study of both epigraphy and topography, eventually improving our understanding of how public inscriptions were perceived and fruited in the ancient polis.

We kindly invite submission of original articles on this theme, focusing on, but not limited to, public epigraphy in the city of Athens from the Classical to Imperial periods. Articles devoted to study cases from Attica or from non-Athenian contexts will be also welcomed, to be collected in a special section of the volume.

www.epigraphiclandscape.unito.it