La poétique de l'image. Entre littérature classique et épigraphie médiévale

Abstract

The study of the relationships between text and image has been very fashionable in medievalism, but it did not really concern the epigraphic world; neither did it allow the clarification of the conditions of the coexistence of both semiotic systems, nor show the functioning of writing within the image. We thus largely ignore today whether the practice of writing in medieval monumental image owes something to Roman epigraphy, and, if that is the case, what were the vectors of these influences or the conditions of its survival. In this article presenting a panorama of the questions connected to epigraphy in the image, traces of the Roman epigraphic practice in the medieval one only appear diffusely; however, they bear witness to number of constants which could contribute to defining the foundations of graphic praxis in Western Middle Ages.