Innovation and Resistance: Sacred Epigraphy in Medieval Arezzo (twelfth-thirteenth centuries)

Most of the information that each of us can acquire, walking through a modern city, comes to us through the reading of alphabetic messages. This finding, for us quite obvious, must not make us forget that the information is characterized by types of writing that, in most cases, use letters chosen with the intention to draw our attention even before communicating a certain message. Writings in general, but especially those exposed and therefore subject to reading by multiple people, are characterized by non-random choices of graphical models. To fully understand this phenomenon, present in all periods, and especially in the Middle Ages, one will have to take into account not only the classic inscriptions of stone and marble but also writings, artifacts and inscriptions on windows or painted wood, products of the cultural context which desired, commissioned and produced such testimonies. In this regard, and particularly concerning medieval writings, it is interesting to observe the exposed production from the Arezzo area of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Especially in those places of the city which are most representative, such as those tied to the sacred, the Arezzo artifacts show an evolution characterized by graphic tradition and innovation aiming to communicate symbolic and representative ideas.