Tabula ansata
A tabula ansata (Latin "table with handle", plural tabulae ansatae ) is a rectangular inscription board with triangular or pelten-shaped attachments on the narrow sides. Frames in the form of a tabula ansata were a popular stylistic device in Roman antiquity for the setting of inscriptions. These can be found primarily on stone monuments with relief, such as the Dativius-Victor arch in Mainz , but also on everyday objects such as dishes or weapons. Their function was to highlight the enclosed inscription.
Variations of the tabula ansata are:
- Approaches in flower form (ansae duobus floribus effectae)
- Approaches with Kymatia (ansae ex cymatiis compositae)
- Approaches with a stylized rose in the middle (ansae in medio eius rosa in formam geometricam redacta)
The oldest known tabula ansata was found in Larissa in Greece . It is a votive inscription to the god Enyalios from the 7th century BC. From the 6th century BC A tortured bronze plaque from Olympia is known. In the Roman Empire , tainted tablets were initially only used by the military and in the ritual and sacred area. The Trajan column shows, for example, Roman legionaries whose scuta are marked with tabulae ansatae , on which the unity is noted. Their use was increasingly profaned towards the end of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. It was widespread in the Reich until late antiquity .
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In the Renaissance, such anciently designed panels with handles were used again as memorials or epitaphs (with antique inscriptions) for honored persons, for example in the case of an epitaph for the monastery dean Engelhard Funck († 1513) from Neumünster in Würzburg or in Albrecht Dürer's work Ritter, Tod and devil .
The American Statue of Liberty holds a tabula ansata with the date of the American Declaration of Independence in her left hand .
literature
- Sean V. Leatherbury: Framing Late Antique Texts as Monuments. The Tabula Ansata between Sculpture and Mosaic. In: Andrej Petrovic, Ivana Petrovic, Edmund Thomas (eds.): The Materiality of Text - Placement, Perception, and Presence of Inscribed Texts in Classical Antiquity (= Brill Studies in Greek and Roman Epigraphy. Volume 11). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2019, ISBN 978-90-04-37550-5 , pp. 380-404.
- Stefan Schepp: Flawed writing. The Tabula Ansata. In: Hans-Joachim Schalles (Ed.): Marcus Caelius. Death in the Varus Battle. Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-89678-808-5 , pp. 114-117.
Web links
- Glossary of the online edition of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stefan Kummer : Architecture and fine arts from the beginnings of the Renaissance to the end of the Baroque. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes; Volume 2: From the Peasants' War in 1525 to the transition to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1814. Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1477-8 , pp. 576–678 and 942–952, here: pp. 577–579.