Le "inscriptiones parietariae ad memoriam Apostolorum", tracciate in un momento storico di grande importanza per le antiche comunità cristiane (260ca.-330ca.), sono esito di una frequentazione - essenzialmente urbana - che ancora si esprime in linea con i concetti e le modalità del culto funerario della tradizione romana.. Sembra che gli apostoli Pietro e Paolo siano ricordati nella "triclia" non solo in quanto martiri o santi, ma soprattutto in quanto "antenati" della comunità cristiana di Roma, che proprio in questi decenni basa la propria identità ed il suo prestigio nella sua genesi dalla coppia apostolica.

Is an inscription always a 'displayed writing'? The answer should be 'yes', if we consider the theoretical reflections of many epigraphers and the title itself of the conference. We can formulate a different answer to this 'ontological' question for the discipline of epigraphy, analyzing some cases of 'strange inscriptions' pertaining to Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, found in Apulia and in other places. They are surely not 'displayed writings', because consciously disposed inside the tombs, where no one could have viewed and/or read them. The results of the research are essentially two. First: this particular 'epigraphic habit' is not an original product of the Latin West (traditionally this praxis has been considered as typical of Lombards and Carolingians in Northern Italy in VIII-IX cent.); rather, it has its first examples in Byzantine areas, as Balkans, Greece, Sicily, Apulia, from where this praxis should spread also among the Lombards and in Northern Italy. The second result of the enquiry is the answer to the initial question. The main goal of an inscription is surely the publicitas, but not always. The aim of these 'not displayed writings' is to win against the flow of time to guarantee in aeternum the safety of both the tomb and the deceased, and also to reach the Final Resurrection, according to a Christian "individual" vision of the sepulchre, by now very very different from the "social" notion of the tombs in the Roman era.

Studying Greek and Latin cultural heritage has always been considered essential to the understanding of important aspects of the roots of current European societies. However, only a small fraction of the total production of texts from ancient Greece and Rome has survived up to the present, leaving many gaps in the historiographic records. Epigraphy, which is the study of inscriptions (epigraphs), helps to fill these gaps. In particular, the goal of epigraphy is to clarify the meanings of epigraphs; to classify their uses according to their dating and cultural contexts; and to study aspects of the writing, the writers, and their “consumers.” Although several research projects have recently been promoted for digitally storing and retrieving data and metadata about epigraphs, there has actually been no attempt to apply data mining technologies to discover previously unknown cultural aspects. In this context, we propose to exploit the temporal dimension associated with epigraphs (dating) by applying a data mining method for novelty detection. The main goal is to discover relational novelty patterns—that is, patterns expressed as logical clauses describing significant variations (in frequency) over the different epochs, in terms of relevant features such as language, writing style, and material. As a case study, we considered the set of Inscriptiones Christianae Vrbis Romae stored in Epigraphic Database Bari, an epigraphic repository. Some patterns discovered by the data mining method were easily deciphered by experts since they captured relevant cultural changes, whereas others disclosed unexpected variations, which might be used to formulate new questions, thus expanding the research opportunities in the field of epigraphy

Classical Greek and Latin culture is the very foundation of the identity of modern Europe. Today, a variety of modern subjects and disciplines have their roots in the classical world: from philosophy to architecture, from geometry to law. However, only a small fraction of the total production of texts from ancient Greece and Rome has survived up to the present days, leaving many ample gaps in the historiographic records. Epigraphy, which is the study of inscriptions (epigraphs), aims at plug this gap. In particular, the goal of Epigraphy is to clarify the meanings of epigraphs, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the writing and the writers. Indeed, they are a kind of cultural heritage for which several research projects have recently been promoted for the purposes of preservation, storage, indexing and on-line usage. In this paper, we describe the system EDB (Epigraphic Database Bari) which stores about 40,000 Christian inscriptions of Rome, including those published in the Inscriptiones Christianae Vrbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores, nova series editions. EDB provides, in addition to the possibility of storing metadata, the possibility of i) supporting information retrieval through a thesaurus based query engine, ii) supporting time-based analysis of epigraphs in order to detect and represent novelties, and iii) geo-referencing epigraphs by exploiting a spatial database.

The Epigraphic Database Bari project (EDB), started in 1988, specializes in the epigraphic documents by Christians of Rome between III-rd and VIII-th cent. CE in the framework of the Electronic Archive of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (EAGLE), to whom it participates as founding-member - with EDH and EDR - since 2004. Most of these epigraphic documents were published in the Inscriptiones Christianae Vrbis Romae, nova series, voll. I-X, Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, in civitate Vaticana 1922-1992 (ICVR). EDB plains to update ICVR and to collect also the other Christian inscriptions from Rome and its suburbium published elsewhere*. The total amount of Christian inscriptions from Late Ancient Rome is estimated to be around 40,000, although this number is increasing continually. Currently, EDB has 40815 items (online: 40566; awaiting approval: 249) and 7445 images. Every epigraphic document is accompanied by data about bibliographical informations, contexts, material, graphical and linguistic elements. The transcription of texts is obviously offered as well, and the entire document is accompanied by its estimated date of production (if possible) and short comments, when necessary. Based an agreement established between the EDB and the Papal Commission of Sacred Archeology (PCAS), a dynamic link to the Archive of the PCAS allows the visualization of pictures - if existing - of the documents. The interrogation of the database features more research criteria, both within the texts (various possibilities for textual research are featured, included a thesaurus finalized to search also aberrant forms) and in relation to the other descriptive elements of the documents. Research on the texts in Latin and Greek, within which the figurative apparatus is also described (signa Christi, symbols, various representations) can be made in combination with the other provided data. (2018, March) *In agreement with the Vatican and Italian authorities in charge of protection and conservation of the Christian inscriptions from Rome.

Corpora of inscriptions are fundamental collections of the epigraphic material, and they display in the best manner of their times all that was thought to be important about every single written content. From a modern point of view, the perception of inscriptions is, besides the pure text, very much enlarged by its context, in our sense the archaeological, topographical or architectural context being the position in the specific situation, where the inscription was written and subsequently meant to be read (or simply to be). In the last years, with the ongoing digitalisation of scientific approaches, the collections of epigraphic material could benefit from this development as well, adding specific information about the physical position and the topographical context to the inscriptions. As a case study, in this paper we would like to present the inscriptions of the catacomb of Domitilla, at Rome, and the benefits that one can have by considering not only the texts but also using the topographical context for their interpretation. On the one hand, the catacomb itself was recently documented with a 3D-laserscanner, while on the other hand all inscriptions still in situ were stored in the EDB. Our approach is now to combine the 3D data with the epigraphic data base and to create interactive catacomb plans, in order to better understand the topographical and chronological developments and also to re-contextualise the epigraphic remains in their original placement. Displayed in this way, the inscriptions offer their entire value as epigraphic monuments more clearly.

Delle circa 800 epigrafi cristiane in cui compaiono citazioni dirette di testi biblici, comprese tra il IV e l'VIII secolo, già racoclte nel corpus "Biblia Epigraphica" (Bari, 2006), più della metà sono pertinenti a contesti di uso pubblico. Con questa espressione si intende riferirsi a quelle epigrafi che hanno come primo obiettivo - per posizionamento, tipologia, qualità, scrittura - la visibilità e la leggibilità del pubblico più vasto possibile. Si considera il cd. “epigraphic adornment” (W.M. .Ramsay) degli spazi e degli edifici pubblici, prima di tutto - ma non solo - nelle chiese e in contesti cultuali o in genere religiosi. Attraverso esemplificazioni sia dell'Occidente sia dell'Oriente dell' "orbis christianus antiquus", dalla fine del IV secolo ai primi decenni dell'VIII, obiettivo del contributo è illustrare l'uso e la ricezione dei testi biblici attraverso epigrafi confezionate per un pubblico che cambia profondamente dalla Tarda Antichità all'Alto Medioevo alla prima età bizantina.

The use of the Biblical texts in ancient Christian inscriptions is a very rare phenomenon (around 800 documents in all the so-called orbis christianus antiquus) and only a few of these inscriptions are in a funerary context: a little less than 200 units. Among these documents, expressions connected with the idea of hope are the most common ones, but we must keep in mind that they are effectively only 70 inscriptions, in five hundred years, both in the East and in the West. This is a very limited documentary base but nonetheless very interesting. It has to remark that these expressions of Christian faith coexist with a relevant and complex range of other needs, themes and formulas, deriving from the ancient classical tradition.

Il lavoro prende in esame la documentazione epigrafica di lingua latina del territorio dell'attuale regione pugliese tra il VII secolo ed il X; la delimitazione alla documentazione latina determina la obbligata esclusione della penisola salentina, priva per il periodo esaminato di documenti latini. Dall'analisi della documentazione considerata (da cui sono stati volutamente esclusi, in quanto documentazione dalle caratteristiche peculiari e proprie, i graffiti devozionali del santuario micaelico del Gargano) - emerge un addensamento della documentazione - essenzialmente funeraria - in singoli siti, nel VII ancora concentrati nel nord della regione, nei secoli seguenti spostati sempre più verso sud e lungo la fascia costiera, in evidente sincronia con le fasi dell'occupazione longobarda e della relativa riorganizzazione socioeconomica del territorio. L'epigrafia di apparato, nell'intero arco cronologico considerato, segue il medesimo itinerario, ma è attestata da episodi che, pur rilevanti, sono isolati e di importazione dotta, evidentemente connessi alla volontà mirata di singoli piuttosto che esiti di una prassi consolidata e diffusa nel territorio pugliese.

The aim of the paper is to delineate the chances, using Epigraphic Database Bari (www.edb.uniba.it), to analyze the peculiar repertoire of images and figures in the Christian inscriptions of Rome. Today we can only summarize general trends an the special role played by the so-called "signa Christi", that seem substitute some early signs, as especially the ancora, that after IIIrd century has a very low frequency.

The VIIIth volume of the Inscriptiones Christianae Italiae (ICI), dedicated to the Christian inscriptions of Beneventum in the Augustan regio II (Apulia et Calabria) was published two decades ago; this paper offers an update of our knowledge of the Christian epigraphic documents of this important city in Southern Italy from the IVth to VIth centuries (before its conquest by Lombards in 578). Six new fragments must be added to the established repertoire of the twenty-five Beneventan Christian inscriptions; in this paper these are considered from different points of view, in direct connection with the latest archaeological acquisitions about history and topography of Beneventum in Late Antiquity. An acclamation must be added to the documents already edited in the VIIIth volume of ICI. The acclamation, surely Christian, is written on one of the sides of a base re-used for an honorary inscription dedicated to a vir spectabilis, consularis Campaniae. The progressive osmosis between traditional and Christian formulas in monumental epigraphic expression during Vth and VIth centuries is attested by an inscribed architrave (already published in ICI VIII, but analyzed here more deeply), which might result from influences of epigraphic praxis in Byzantine Africa.

The paper has the aim to explain the "raison d'être" of the 6th Congress of the Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy). The event was intended to address the issues which arise in digitizing inscriptions characterised by ‘unusual’ features in comparison with the epigraphic norm. Here are presented the issues from several ongoing digital projects raising questions and proposing solutions regarding encoding inscriptions – from the Archaic period to the Middle Ages and beyond, even in languages other than Greek and Latin – which do not fall within those labelled as standard. In the paper the focus mainly on the class of the 'graffiti', particularly representative of these issues, because they are problematic in their definition, function, use and writing/drawing.