Key research themes
1. How can digital ontologies and methodological frameworks improve the documentation and analysis of medieval and early modern graffiti?
This research area focuses on developing structured, interoperable approaches to documenting and analyzing the multifaceted nature of medieval and early modern graffiti. It addresses challenges in integrating textual, pictorial, and contextual data to enhance scholarly understanding and foster cross-disciplinary research.
2. What social, cultural, and devotional significances are revealed by medieval ship graffiti and pictorial inscriptions in maritime and ecclesiastical contexts?
This theme investigates the iconography, spatial distribution, and social context of ship graffiti and related inscriptions on medieval monuments, emphasizing their roles as expressions of identity, devotion, and socio-economic transformations in maritime communities and religious settings.
3. How do medieval graffiti function as markers of social identity, religious devotion, and cultural interaction in ecclesiastical and funerary contexts across Europe and the Mediterranean?
This theme explores the epigraphic and pictorial graffiti within churches and necropolises, examining how these inscriptions encode personal names, prayers, heraldic symbols, and cultural narratives that reveal diverse patterns of religious devotion, pilgrimage, identity construction, and interethnic relations during the medieval and late antique periods.