Book contents
- The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs
- The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Hidden Writing
- Part II Legible Signs
- Seven Marking and Writing in an Egyptian Workmen’s Community
- Eight The Semiotics of Signa and the Significance of Signs in Roman Stamps
- Nine Late Antique and Early Medieval Monograms
- Ten Crests and Familial Identity in Medieval Japan
- Eleven Where Credit’s Due
- Twelve From Modeling to Destruction
- References
- Index
Ten - Crests and Familial Identity in Medieval Japan
from Part II - Legible Signs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2021
- The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs
- The Hidden Language of Graphic Signs
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Hidden Writing
- Part II Legible Signs
- Seven Marking and Writing in an Egyptian Workmen’s Community
- Eight The Semiotics of Signa and the Significance of Signs in Roman Stamps
- Nine Late Antique and Early Medieval Monograms
- Ten Crests and Familial Identity in Medieval Japan
- Eleven Where Credit’s Due
- Twelve From Modeling to Destruction
- References
- Index
Summary
Monograms originated in the classical world as producers’ marks, but their use became much more widespread in late antiquity, when they not only appeared in various new material media but also developed into more sophisticated and aesthetically appealing visual devices, encoding personal names and titles as well as various ritualistic phrases. This chapter surveys these newly acquired functions, turning them into liminal graphic devices and visual tokens of social power, as well as various messages conveyed by such monogrammatic devices. Since late antique and early medieval monograms communicated their linguistic and symbolic messages by means of a dual-coding system, they should be viewed in the context of this volume as phenomena situated in between hidden writing and semasiography.
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- The Hidden Language of Graphic SignsCryptic Writing and Meaningful Marks, pp. 214 - 232Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021