What's an epigraph in writing?
Epigraphy
Epigraphy (, "inscription") is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the writing and the writers. Specifically excluded from epigraphy are the historical significance of an epigraph as a document and the artistic value of a literary composition.
English orthography
The same letter (or sequence of letters) may be pronounced in different ways when it occurs in different positions within a word. For instance, the digraph represents the sound at the end of some words, such as "rough" . At the beginning of syllables (i.e. the syllable onset), the digraph is pronounced , as in the word "ghost" (pronounced ). Conversely, the digraph is never pronounced in syllable onsets and is almost never pronounced in syllable codas (the proper name "Pittsburgh" is an exception).
Epigraphy
These are very numerous; and the custom of placing the name of the dedicator in a conspicuous place on the building was prevalent, especially in the case of dedications by emperors or officials, or by public bodies. Restoration or repair was often recorded in the same manner. In the case of small objects the dedication is usually simple in form; it usually contains the name of the god or other recipient and of the donor, and a common formula is D.D. ("dedit, donavit") often with additions such as L.M. ("libens merito"). Such dedications are often the result of a vow, and V.S. ("votum solvit") is therefore often added. Bequests made under the wills of rich citizens are frequently recorded by inscriptions; these might either be for religious or for social purposes.
Greek orthography
A digraph is a pair of letters used to write one sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters in sequence. The orthography of Greek includes several digraphs, including various pairs of vowel letters that used to be pronounced as diphthongs but have been shortened to monophthongs in pronunciation. Many of these are characteristic developments of modern Greek, but some were already present in Classical Greek. None of them is regarded as a letter of the alphabet.
Epigraphy
Another interesting phase of Greek religion known to us mainly from inscriptions is offered by the shrines of healing. The most notable of these is the precinct of Asclepius at Epidaurus. Here have been found, on large slabs of inscription, compiled, in all probability, from earlier documents, lists of the cures effected by Apollo and Asclepius. The cures are of the most varied kinds, from painful diseases or surgical cases to a lost boy and a broken cup. The formula is in almost all cases the same: the consultant come to Epidaurus, sleeps in the "abaton", has dreams or sees visions, and comes out whole. In later times, when such faith-healing had probably become less efficacious, elaborate prescriptions of diet and hygiene are recorded.
Epigraphy
Apart from numerals, the use of initials in the place of complete words was not common in early times. It became, however, very frequent in Roman inscriptions, which sometimes are made up almost entirely of such abbreviations and can only be understood by those familiar with the formulae. A list of the commonest of these will be found under list of classical abbreviations. Compendia or monograms also occur in later Greek and Roman times, and become very common and very difficult to interpret in early Christian and Byzantine inscriptions.
Epigraphy
A person using the methods of epigraphy is called an "epigrapher" or "epigraphist". For example, the Behistun inscription is an official document of the Achaemenid Empire engraved on native rock at a location in Iran. Epigraphists are responsible for reconstructing, translating, and dating the trilingual inscription and finding any relevant circumstances. It is the work of historians, however, to determine and interpret the events recorded by the inscription as document. Often, epigraphy and history are competences practised by the same person.
Monograph
A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author, and usually on a scholarly subject.
Hexagraph
A hexagraph (from the , "héx", "six" and γράφω, "gráphō", "write") is a sequence of six letters used to represent a single sound (phoneme), or a combination of sounds that do not correspond to the individual values of the letters. They occur in Irish orthography, and many of them can be analysed as a tetragraph followed by the vowels "e" or "i" on either side to indicate that the neighbouring consonants are palatalized ("slender"). However, not all Irish hexagraphs are analysable that way. The hexagraph "oidhea," for example, represents the same sound (approximately the vowel in English "write") as the trigraph "adh," and with the same effect on neighboring consonants.
List of Cyrillic digraphs and trigraphs
is a digraph or sequence of letters, depending on the language. It is used in many languages, such as Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, to write a sound or in Russian to write (In standard Russian pronunciation, this is two separate sounds rather than an affricate consonant.) In Karachay-Balkar it represents in the Karachay dialect and in the Balkar dialect.
Digraph (orthography)
The Indic alphabets are distinctive for their discontinuous vowels, such as Thai เ...อ in เกอ . Technically, however, these are diacritics, not full letters; whether they are digraphs is thus a matter of definition.
Paragraph
The oldest classical Greek and Latin writing had little or no space between words and could be written in boustrophedon (alternating directions). Over time, text direction (left to right) became standardized, and word dividers and terminal punctuation became common. The first way to divide sentences into groups was the original "paragraphos", similar to an underscore at the beginning of the new group. The Greek "paragraphos" evolved into the pilcrow (¶), which in English manuscripts in the Middle Ages can be seen inserted inline between sentences. The hedera leaf (e.g. ☙) has also been used in the same way.
In ancient manuscripts, another means to divide sentences into paragraphs was a line break (newline) followed by an initial at the beginning of the next paragraph. An initial is an oversized capital letter, sometimes outdented beyond the margin of the text. This style can be seen, for example, in the original Old English manuscript of Beowulf. Outdenting is still used in English typography, though not commonly.
Modern English typography usually indicates a new paragraph by indenting the first line. This style can be seen in the (handwritten) United States Constitution from 1787. For additional ornamentation, a hedera leaf or other symbol can be added to the inter-paragraph whitespace, or put in the indentation space.
Epyllion
An epyllion is, in its most basic definition, a narrative poem written in dactylic hexameters that is comparatively short. There is disagreement about whether the term should also be applied to works written in elegiac couplets. The exact meaning of "comparatively short" varies among modern scholars, with some considering Theocritus, "Idyll" 13 (75 lines) an epyllion, while Eratosthenes' "Hermes" is commonly classed as an example, even though at some 1,600 lines it would probably have taken up two papyrus rolls. A similar variation in lengths is found in epyllia that form episodes within larger works. Virgil's Nisus and Euryalus digression in the "Aeneid" totals 73 verses and is sometimes considered an epyllion, while the so-called Aristaeus-epyllion ("Georgics" 4.315–558) is considerably more substantial and reminiscent of independent epyllia from the Hellenistic period.
Letterform
The history of letterforms is discussed in fields of study relating to materials used in writing. Epigraphy includes the study of letterforms carved in stone or other permanent materials. Paleography is the study of writing in ancient and medieval manuscripts. Calligraphy treats the letterforms of decorative writing, usually in ink. Typography includes the arrangement of letterforms designed for metal print or computer. More broadly letterforms may be discussed wherever letters appear stylistically—in graffiti for example.
Epigraph (mathematics)
In mathematics, the epigraph or supergraph of a function "f" : R→R is the set of points lying on or above its graph:
Theodor Mommsen
Mommsen published over 1,500 works, and effectively established a new framework for the systematic study of Roman history. He pioneered epigraphy, the study of inscriptions in material artifacts. Although the unfinished "History of Rome", written early in his career, has long been widely considered as his main work, the work most relevant today is perhaps the "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum", a collection of Roman inscriptions he contributed to the Berlin Academy.
A bibliography of over 1,000 of his works is given by Zangemeister in "Mommsen als Schriftsteller" (1887; continued by Jacobs, 1905).
David Malcolm Lewis
Lewis was a scholar of Greek history. Much of his work was concerned with inscriptions, but he insisted (in particular in an address to the epigraphic conference in University of Cambridge in 1967) that epigraphy should not be an activity for initiates only, but should be one means among others to the end of understanding the ancient world as fully as possible. He took a particular interest in what could be learnt from texts which even those who venture into the world of inscriptions find intimidating, accounts of expenditure and inventories of temple treasures; and this interest was extended to oriental documents, in particular the fortification tablets from Persepolis.
Index of literature articles
Elegy
- Elision
- Emblematic poem
- English studies
- Epic
- Epigram
- Epitaph
- Epithalamium
- Essay
- Eulogy
- Exaggeration
- Excerpt
- Existentialism
- Exposition
- Expressionism
- Extended metaphor
- Eye rhyme
Epigraphy
The majority of inscriptions are of independent value and interest, the object on which they are cut being either provided for the purpose or utilised as convenient and suitable. Such inscriptions may be classified as "(a) Religious" and "(b) Political and Social". The distinction between the two is not always easy to draw; for in almost all ancient civilisations religion was a part of the established service of the State, and was under public control, or at least was closely bound up with political administration. It follows that many inscriptions relating to religious matters take the form of political decrees or state documents, and therefore might, especially as far as form is concerned, be included in either category; but it is usually possible to classify them according to their contents and intention.
Epigraphy
Some kind of punctuation is often found in inscriptions of all kinds. In Greek inscriptions a vertical line or a dot, or dots, sometimes indicates the separation between sentences or words, but words are seldom separated by spaces as in modern printing, so that the text is continuous and no division of words exists.This is particularly the case with Greek inscriptions of the best period. In Roman inscriptions it was usual to separate the words by dots. In certain inscriptions a cross () was used to indicate the beginning of an inscription, especially when its direction was erratic. Christian inscriptions sometimes begin with a cross, which doubtless had a symbolic meaning; and a leaf or other device was often placed at the end.
Writing
The major writing systems—methods of inscription—broadly fall into five categories: logographic, syllabic, alphabetic, featural, and ideographic (symbols for ideas). A sixth category, pictographic, is insufficient to represent language on its own, but often forms the core of logographies.
Epigraphy
About the end of the republic and the beginning of the empire, it became customary to head a tombstone with the letters D.M. or D.M.S. ("Dis Manibus sacrum"), thus consecrating the tomb to the deceased as having become members of the body of ghosts or spirits of the dead. These are followed by the name of the deceased, usually with his father's name and his tribe, by his honours and distinctions, sometimes by a record of his age. The inscription often concludes with H.I. ("Hic iacet"), or some similar formula, and also, frequently, with a statement of boundaries and a prohibition of violation or further use — for instance, H.M.H.N.S. ("hoc monumentum heredem non sequetur", this monument is not to pass to the heir). The person who has erected the monument and his relation to the deceased are often stated; or if a man has prepared the tomb in his lifetime, this also may be stated, V.S.F. ("vivus sibi fecit"). But there is an immense variety in the information that either a man himself or his friend may wish to record.
Émile Espérandieu
A pupil of the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr then a career soldier, Émile Espérandieu participated in the 1880–1881 campaign in Tunisia where he lived thereafter. In this country, he discovered historical epigraphy during his leisure and began in 1883 to write historical and archaeological communications. On his appointment as assistant professor at the military school of Saint-Maixent in 1886, he turned his epigraphist activity towards Gaul inscriptions and inventoried in 1893 the inscriptions of Corsica. In 1899 he became director of the "Revue épigraphique".
Epigram
Martial, however, is considered to be the master of the Latin epigram. His technique relies heavily on the satirical poem with a joke in the last line, thus drawing him closer to the modern idea of epigram as a genre. Here he defines his genre against a (probably fictional) critic (in the latter half of 2.77):
Epigraph (mathematics)
Similarly, the set of points on or below the function is its hypograph.
Latin
Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. About 270,000 inscriptions are known.
Greek Anthology
The art of occasional poetry had been cultivated in Greece from an early period—less, however, as the vehicle of personal feeling than as the recognized commemoration of remarkable individuals or events, on sepulchral monuments and votive offerings: Such compositions were termed epigrams, "i.e." inscriptions. The modern use of the word is a departure from the original sense, which simply indicated that the composition was intended to be engraved or inscribed.
Epigraphy
Inscriptions were commonly incised on stone, marble, metal, terracotta, or wood (though this last material has hardly ever survived, except in Egypt). In Egypt and Mesopotamia hard stones were frequently used for the purpose, and the inscriptions are therefore well preserved and easy to read. In Greece the favourite material, especially in Athens, was white marble, which takes an admirably clear lettering, but is liable to weathering of the surface if exposed, and to wear if rebuilt into pavements or similar structures. Many other kinds of stone, both hard and soft, were often used, especially crystalline limestones, which do not easily take a smooth surface, and which, therefore, are often difficult to decipher, owing to accidental marks or roughness of the material.
Letterform
A letterform, letter-form or letter form, is a term used especially in typography, paleography, calligraphy and epigraphy to mean a letter's shape. A letterform is a type of glyph, which is a specific, concrete way of writing an abstract character or grapheme.
Epigram
A major source for Greek literary epigram is the "Greek Anthology", a compilation from the 10th century AD based on older collections, including those of Meleager and Philippus. It contains epigrams ranging from the Hellenistic period through the Imperial period and Late Antiquity into the compiler's own Byzantine eraa thousand years of short elegiac texts on every topic under the sun. The "Anthology" includes one book of Christian epigrams as well as one book of erotic and amorous homosexual epigrams called the Μοῦσα Παιδικἠ (Mousa Paidike, "The Boyish Muse").
Dutch orthography
Acute accents may be used to emphasise a word in a phrase, on the vowel in the stressed syllable. If the vowel is written as a digraph, an acute accent is put on both parts of the digraph. Although that rule includes "ij", the acute accent on the j is frequently omitted in typing (resulting in íj instead of íj́), as putting an acute accent on a j is still problematic in most word processing software. If the vowel is written as more than two letters, the accent is put on the first two vowel letters – except when the first letter is a capital one. According to the Taalunie, accents on capital letters are used only in all caps and in loanwords. So, it is correct to write "één", "Eén", and "ÉÉN", but not to write "Één". The Genootschap Onze Taal states that accents can be put on capital letters whenever the need arises, but makes an exception for "Eén".
En (typography)
An en is a typographic unit, half of the width of an em. By definition, it is equivalent to half of the height of the font (e.g. in 16 point type it is 8 points). As its name suggests, it is also traditionally the width of an uppercase letter "N".
Epigraphy
Honorary inscriptions are extremely common in all parts of the Roman world. Sometimes they are placed on the bases of statues, sometimes in documents set up to record some particular benefaction or the construction of some public work. The offices held by the person commemorated, and the distinctions conferred upon him are enumerated in a regularly established order ("cursus honorum"), either beginning with the lower and proceeding step by step to the higher, or in reverse order with the highest first. Religious and priestly offices are usually mentioned before civil and political ones. These might be exercised either in Rome itself, or in the various municipalities of the empire. There was also a distinction drawn between offices that might be held only by persons of senatorial rank, those that were assigned to persons of equestrian rank, and those of a less distinguished kind. It follows that when only a portion of an inscription has been found, it is often possible to restore the whole in accordance with the accepted order.
Epigraphy
In addition to inscriptions which are concerned with the internal affairs of various cities, there are many others recording treaties or other agreements of an international character between various cities and states. These were incised on bronze or stone, and set up in places of public resort in the cities concerned, or in common religious centres such as Olympia and Delphi. The simplest form of treaty is merely an alliance for a certain term of years, usually with some penalty for any breach of the conditions. Often an oath was prescribed, to be taken by representatives on each side; it was also not unusual to appeal to the god in whose temple the treaty was exhibited. In other cases a list of gods by whom the two parties must swear is prescribed. Commercial clauses were sometimes added to treaties of alliance, and commercial treaties are also found, agreeing as to the export and import of merchandise and other things. In later days, especially in the time of the Hellenistic kings, treaties tend to become more complicated and detailed in their provisions.
Writing style
The most important unit of meaning in every literary work is the "paragraph". Although each sentence conveys a thought, a literary work is not just a sequence of, say, eighty thoughts; it is rather a development of one central thesis through certain steps. Those steps are paragraphs. Within an effective paragraph the sentences support and extend one another in various ways, making a single, usually complex, unfolding idea.
Richard Flecknoe
Much of Flecknoe's later poetry was epigrammatic, in the line of Ben Jonson, with aristocratic addressees, which led one critic to remark that he was "better acquainted with the Nobility than with the Muses". Flecknoe explains his taste for the epigram in a dedicatory epistle which is itself epigrammatic and paradoxical: “I write chiefly to avoid idleness, and print to avoid the imputation; and as others do it to live after they are dead, I do it only not to be thought dead whilst I can live.” Its lightness is the reason he chooses this form, “who love not to take pains in anything, and rather affect a little negligence than too great curiosity”. The separate section of “Epigrams Divine and Moral” in the 1670 edition is, however, indicative of a religious seriousness persisting from his first publication some 44 years before in the devotional "Hierothelamium".
Epigraphy
Inscriptions having a direct relation to the object, or representation, on which they are inscribed, vary greatly in their contents. Those relating to picture or relief chronicles of the victories or exploits of kings, as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, serve as a record of the events, and help to interpret the scenes. Such inscriptions are not common in Greek or Roman work; but frequently, especially in early Greek times, and on vases, the names of persons and even of objects are written beside them for the purpose of identification, and sometimes a speech issues from the mouth of the figure. On the carved wooden chest of Cypselus, of about 600 BC hexameter verses were written, curving about among figures, and giving a description of each scene. The bases of statues and reliefs often had inscriptions cut upon them for identification and record. This was particularly the case with honorary statues and tombstones. In other cases, where there is an evident relation between the artistic representation and the inscription, the figures are subordinate and seem merely to illustrate the text, as when a treaty between Athens and Samos has a relief at its head representing the goddess Athena and Hera clasping hands, as representatives of their respective cities. In other cases, the arms or device of a city is carved on an inscription, almost like a seal on a document. In all these cases the figures and the inscription are part of a common design, whether carried out by the same hand or not. But in the case of owners' marks or names cut on vases or other objects, or of the dedication of such objects, the inscription is not necessarily contemporary; it may indeed be misleading, as in the case, mentioned with disapproval by Cicero, of using again old Greek statues and placing new dedicatory inscriptions on them in Roman times, a sort of "recycling": for instance, one of the statues of Athenian knights of the 5th century BC placed at the entrance of the Acropolis, had a later inscription cut on its base to make it serve as an equestrian statue of Germanicus, probably in 18 AD when he visited Athens. In Egypt and Mesopotamia also it is not unusual to find the name of a later king of official cut upon an earlier work.
Epigraphy
These are probably the most numerous of all classes of inscriptions; and though many of them are of no great individual interest, they convey, when taken collectively, much valuable information as to the distribution and transference of population, as to trades and professions, as to health and longevity, and as to many other conditions of ancient life. The most interesting early series is that on the tombs of the Scipios at Rome, recording, mostly in Saturnian Metre, the exploits and distinctions of the various members of that family.
Epistle
The epistles of the New Testament canon are usually divided as follows:These are letters written by some very early Christian leaders, in the 1st or 2nd century, which are not part of the New Testament. They are generally considered to form part of the basis of Christian tradition. The ennobling word "epistle" is used partly because these were all written in Greek, in a time period close to when the epistles of the New Testament were written, and thus "epistle" lends additional weight of authority.In the context of a liturgy, epistle may refer more specifically to a particular passage from a New Testament epistle (the Pauline epistles and the General epistles)—sometimes also from the Book of Acts or the Revelation of John, but not the Four Gospels—that is scheduled to be read on a certain day or at a certain occasion.
Epigraph (literature)
Some writers use as epigraphs fictional quotations that purport to be related to the fiction of the work itself. Examples include:
Epigraphy
Among the most interesting of these is the ancient song and accompanying dance performed by the priests known as the Arval Brothers. This is, however, not in the form of a ritual prescription, but a detailed record of the due performance of the rite. An important class of documents is the series of calendars that have been found in Rome and in the various Italian towns. These give notice of religious festivals and anniversaries, and also of the days available for various purposes.
Bilingual inscription
In epigraphy, a bilingual is an inscription that is extant in two languages (or trilingual in the case of three languages, etc.). Bilinguals are important for the decipherment of ancient writing systems, and for the study of ancient languages with small or repetitive corpora.
Epigraphy
This class of inscription is in form not unlike the last, except that honours recorded are given for all sorts of services, private and public, to the State and to individuals. A frequent addition is an invitation to dine in the Prytaneum at Athens. Some are inscribed on the bases of statues set up to the recipient. In early times these inscriptions are usually brief and simple. The bust of Pericles on the Acropolis held nothing but the names of Pericles himself and of the sculptor Kresilas. Later it became usual to give, in some detail, the reasons for the honours awarded; and in Hellenistic and Roman times, these became more and more detailed and fulsome in laudatory detail.
John Weever
In late 1599 Weever published "Epigrammes in the Oldest Cut, and Newest Fashion", containing epigrams on Shakespeare, Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, Edmund Spenser, William Warner and Christopher Middleton, all of which are valuable to the literary historian. The epigram on Shakespeare is particularly interesting since it follows the typical Shakespearean sonnet form: this may indicate Weever had seen actual examples of Shakespeare's sonnets, which at that date circulated only in manuscript. Many other epigrams however relate to persons Weever knew at Cambridge and presumably were composed while he was still a student there. The book also has commendatory verses by some of Weever's Cambridge friends.
Typeface anatomy
The "strokes" are the components of a letterform. Strokes may be "straight", as in , or "curved", as in . If straight, they may be "horizontal, vertical," or "diagonal"; if curved, "open" or "closed". Typographers also speak of an "instroke," where one starts writing the letter, as at the top of , and an "outstroke," where the pen leaves off, as at the bottom of .
A main vertical stroke is called a "stem". The letter has three, the left, middle, and right stems. The central stroke of an is called the "spine". When the stroke is part of a lowercase and rises above the height of an (called the x height), it is called an "ascender".
Letters with ascenders are . A stroke which drops below the baseline is a "descender".
Letters with descenders are . An arching stroke is called a "shoulder" as in the top of an or sometimes just an "arch", as in . A closed curved stroke is called a "bowl" in ; has two bowls. A trailing outstroke, as in is called a "tail." The inferior diagonal stroke in is called a "leg". A short horizontal stroke, as in the center of and the middle stroke of , is called a "bar". Strokes that connect, as in and , or cross other strokes, as in , are also known as crossbars. A longer horizontal stroke at the top or bottom, as in , is called an "arm." 
The bottom of the two-story g is called a "loop"; the very short stroke at the top is called the "ear".
Angles of strokes are called "apices" if at the top and "vertices" if at the bottom. has one apex and two vertices; has one vertex.
Epigram (disambiguation)
Epigram may also refer to:
Epigraphy
The custom of putting inscriptions in Greek and in Latin on buildings and other monuments continued through medieval times, and is still customary, classical forms being frequently imitated. The latest dated inscription in the "Greek Corpus" records the building of a bridge in Sicily in AD 1121. The series of Byzantine inscriptions continues practically without interruption to the present day; and Latin retains its use as a universal language in religious, public and private inscriptions.
Typographic approximation
A typographic approximation is a replacement of an element of the writing system (usually a glyph) with another glyph or glyphs. The replacement may be a nearly homographic character, a digraph, or a character string. An approximation is different from a typographical error in that an approximation is intentional and aims to preserve the visual appearance of the original. The concept of approximation also applies to the World Wide Web and other forms of textual information available via digital media, though usually at the level of characters, not glyphs.
List of Latin-script digraphs
, capitalized , is used in French for the vowels and . The first element of the digraph, "œ", is itself is a ligature of "o" and "e", and may also be written as the trigraph .
Epigraphy
The metal most commonly used for inscriptions was bronze: flat tablets of this were often made for affixing to the walls of temples and other buildings. Occasionally such tablets were made of silver or gold; and inscriptions were often incised on vessels made of any of these metals. Inscriptions on metal were nearly always incised, not cast. An important class of inscriptions are the legends on coins; these were struck from the die. (cf. numismatics.) Clay was very extensively used for inscriptions in Mesopotamia and in Crete. In this case the symbols were incised or impressed on specially prepared tablets when the clay was soft, and it was subsequently hardened by fire. In Greece, many inscriptions on vases were painted before firing, in that case often having reference to the scenes represented, or incised after firing; potsherds ("ostraka") were often used as a cheap writing material. Inscriptions were also often impressed from a mould upon wet clay before firing, in the case of tiles, amphora handles, etc., and in these cases often supply valuable information as to the buildings to which they belong or the place from which they took their origin.
Religious text
Hierographology (Ancient Greek: ἱερός, "hieros", "sacred" or "holy"; γραφή, "graphe", "writing"; λόγος, "logos", "word" or "reason") (archaically also 'hierology') is the study of sacred texts.
Epigraphy
Other such series include the "Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum" (Etruscan inscriptions), "Corpus Inscriptionum Crucesignatorum Terrae Sanctae" (Crusaders' inscriptions), "Corpus Inscriptionum Insularum Celticarum" (Celtic inscriptions), "Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum" (Iranian inscriptions), "Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia" and "Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period" (Sumerian and Akkadian inscriptions) and so forth.
Epigram
The presence of wit or sarcasm tends to distinguish non-poetic epigrams from aphorisms and adages, which may lack them.
List of writing systems
Although a few pictographic or ideographic scripts exist today, there is no single way to read them, because there is no one-to-one correspondence between symbol and language. Hieroglyphs were commonly thought to be ideographic before they were translated, and to this day Chinese is often erroneously said to be ideographic. In some cases of ideographic scripts, only the author of a text can read it with any certainty, and it may be said that they are "interpreted" rather than read. Such scripts often work best as mnemonic aids for oral texts, or as outlines that will be fleshed out in speech.There are also symbol systems used to represent things other than language, or to represent constructed languages. Some of these are
Digraph (orthography)
English has both homogeneous digraphs (doubled letters) and heterogeneous digraphs (digraphs consisting of two different letters). Those of the latter type include the following:Digraphs may also be composed of vowels. Some letters are preferred for the first position, others for the second . The latter have allographs in English orthography.
In Serbo-Croatian:
Note that in the Cyrillic orthography, these sounds are represented by single letters (љ, њ, џ).
Epigraph (literature)
In a book, it is part of the front matter.
Epistrophe
Epistrophe (, "return") is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. It is also known as epiphora and occasionally as antistrophe. It is a figure of speech and the counterpart of anaphora. It is an extremely emphatic device because of the emphasis placed on the last word in a phrase or sentence.
When Colts Ran
Epigraph:
Epigraph (mathematics)
The epigraph can often be used to give geometrical interpretations of the properties of convex functions or to prove these properties.
Epigraphy
A temple was often a kind of religious corporation under the control of the State; and its accounts and details of administration were made public at frequent intervals, usually annually, by means of inscriptions, exhibited to public view in its precinct. Many such inscriptions have been found, and supply a great deal of information that can be obtained from no other source. Some great temples, such as that of Apollo on the island of Delos, held great amounts of property, both real and portable, the latter taking the form either of more or less precious offerings dedicated in the temple and its surrounding buildings, or of coined money. The inscriptions accordingly record gifts and acquisitions of landed property, leases and assignments, payments of rent and fines for default, loans and interest and many other business transactions suitable to a great landed proprietor or to a bank. They therefore throw much light upon the social and economic conditions of ancient life, such as are nowhere else recorded. Again, the lists of offerings dedicated in the temple and other buildings enable us to realise almost visually the appearance of their contents. These are described as being on the floor, on the walls, on shelves or in cases; they consisted of vases and other objects suitable for use in the temple service; ornaments and jewels; statuettes, mostly in gold and silver; weapons and tools; coined money; and bullion, mostly melted down from old offerings. The detailed care that was taken in this last case, to ensure that the full weight of these objects was preserved, whether made into a new vessel or not, is recorded in other inscriptions. These elaborate inventories were checked and revised by each successive board of administrators, and gave the best possible security against any robbery or peculation. In addition to such general lists, there are also innumerable records of various gifts and acquisitions, whether of land and houses, or of movable property of all sorts. Buildings and repairs are also recorded, sometimes by the State, sometimes by individuals, whose piety and generosity are suitably honoured. In form, these are often hardly to be distinguished from public works of a secular character, which must be mentioned later.
Paragraph (journal)
Paragraph is a peer reviewed academic journal that publishes essays and review articles which explore critical theory and its application to literature, other arts, and society. It is published three times a year, in March, July and November, by Edinburgh University Press.
Epigraphy
Epigraphy is a primary tool of archaeology when dealing with literate cultures. The US Library of Congress classifies epigraphy as one of the auxiliary sciences of history. Epigraphy also helps identify a forgery: epigraphic evidence formed part of the discussion concerning the James Ossuary.
Writing system
Logograms are sometimes called ideograms, a word that refers to symbols which graphically represent abstract ideas, but linguists avoid this use, as Chinese characters are often semantic–phonetic compounds, symbols which include an element that represents the meaning and a phonetic complement element that represents the pronunciation. Some nonlinguists distinguish between lexigraphy and ideography, where symbols in lexigraphies represent words and symbols in ideographies represent words or morphemes.
Apographa
Apographa refers to established copies or transcripts of certain texts, usually religious or ecclesiastical, rather than the original autographs by the original authors or writers.
Epigraph (mathematics)
A function is convex if and only if its epigraph is a convex set. The epigraph of a real affine function "g" : R→R is a halfspace in R.
Epigraphus
Epigraphus is a genus of beetles in the family Carabidae, containing the following species:
Autograph (disambiguation)
An autograph is a document written entirely in the handwriting of its author, or the term may refer to a person's signature.
Isopsephy
Also in the 1st century AD, Leonidas of Alexandria created isopsephs, epigrams with equinumeral distichs, where the first hexameter and pentameter equal the next two verses in numerical value. He addressed some of them to Nero:
Which translates to: "The muse of Leonidas of the Nile offers up to thee, O Caesar, this writing, at the time of thy nativity; for the sacrifice of Calliope is always without smoke: but in the ensuing year he will offer up, if thou wilt, better things than this." Here the sum of both the first and second distich is 5699. In another of his distichs, the hexameter line is equal in number to its corresponding pentameter:Which translates to: "One line is made equal in number to one, not two to two; for I no longer approve of long epigrams." Here each line totals 4111.
Epigraphy
The great majority of these fall into one of the classes already referred to. But there are some instances in which an inscription is set up merely as a record. For instance, a victor in athletic or other contests may set up a list of his victories. The most famous historical record is the autobiographical account of the deeds and administration of Augustus, which was reproduced and set up in many places; it is generally known as the Monumentum Ancyranum, because the most complete copy of it was found at Ancyra. The Marmor Parium at Oxford, found in Paros, is a chronological record of Greek history, probably made for educational purposes, and valuable as giving the traditional dates of events from the earliest time down.
Night writing
A character (or digraph or trigraph) was represented by two axes of dots, in which the first column had one to six dots denoting the row in the matrix, and the second had one to six dots denoting the column: e.g., 4–2 for "t" represented by
Ideogram
An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek "idéa" "idea" and "gráphō" "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred to as pictograms.
Epigraphy
Our information as to these is not mainly drawn from inscriptions and, therefore, they need not here be considered. On the other hand, the word "lex" (law) is usually applied to all decrees of the senate or other bodies, whether of legislative or of administrative character. It is therefore, best to consider all together under the heading of public decrees.
List of Cyrillic digraphs and trigraphs
is an uncommon digraph used in Russian to write the sound in the word дождь ('rain') and its derivatives (devoiced and palatalized to in the nominative singular of дождь). However, these words may also be pronounced with or as if were a simple sequence of letters, which is the case in all the other words with .
Hypergraphia
There are many accounts of patients writing in nonsensical patterns including writing in a center-seeking spiral starting around the edges of a piece of paper. In one case study, a patient even wrote backwards, so that the writing could only be interpreted with the aid of a mirror. Sometimes the writing can consist of scribbles and frantic, random thoughts that are quickly jotted down on paper very frequently. Grammar can be present, but the meaning of these thoughts is generally hard to grasp and the sentences are loose. In some cases, patients write extremely detailed accounts of events that are occurring or descriptions of where they are.
Epigraphical Museum
The Epigraphical Museum () of Athens, Greece, is unique in Greece and the largest of its kind in the world. Its collection comprises 14,078, mostly Greek, inscriptions, which cover the period from early historical times to the Late Roman period, primarily in Greece. It is situated in the south wing of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. It comprises an internal and external courtyard (atrium), a lobby, eleven rooms, a large hypostyle Pi-shaped corridor, a gallery, offices, a laboratory for the conservation of inscribed stone monuments and lavatories. Only the courtyards, lobby and four rooms are open to the public, while the rest is reserved for researchers. A full photographic archive of the collection is being assembled for future visitors.
Will Rogers
Rogers even provided an epigram on his most famous epigram:
When I die, my epitaph, or whatever you call those signs on gravestones, is going to read: "I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I dident like." I am so proud of that, I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved.
Ben Jonson
"Epigrams" (published in the 1616 folio) is an entry in a genre that was popular among late-Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences, although Jonson was perhaps the only poet of his time to work in its full classical range. The epigrams explore various attitudes, most from the satiric stock of the day: complaints against women, courtiers and spies abound. The condemnatory poems are short and anonymous; Jonson’s epigrams of praise, including a famous poem to Camden and lines to Lucy Harington, are longer and are mostly addressed to specific individuals. Although it is included among the epigrams, "On My First Sonne" is neither satirical nor very short; the poem, intensely personal and deeply felt, typifies a genre that would come to be called "lyric poetry." It is possible that the spelling of 'son' as 'Sonne' is meant to allude to the sonnet form, with which it shares some features. A few other so-called epigrams share this quality. Jonson's poems of "The Forest" also appeared in the first folio. Most of the fifteen poems are addressed to Jonson's aristocratic supporters, but the most famous are his country-house poem “To Penshurst” and the poem “To Celia” ("Come, my Celia, let us prove") that appears also in "Volpone".
Epigraph (mathematics)
The strict epigraph is the epigraph with the graph itself removed:
A Talent for Loving
The verse is found as an epigraph on a blank page five pages after the title page and four pages before the beginning of the text.
Monograph
The term "monographia" is derived from the Greek "mono-" ("single") and "grapho" ("to write"), meaning "writing on a single subject". Unlike a textbook, which surveys the state of knowledge in a field, the main purpose of a monograph is to present primary research and original scholarship ascertaining reliable credibility to the required recipient. This research is presented at length, distinguishing a monograph from an article. For these reasons, publication of a monograph is commonly regarded as vital for career progression in many academic disciplines. Intended for other researchers and bought primarily by libraries, monographs are generally published as individual volumes in a short print run.
Early Indian epigraphy
Indian epigraphy becomes more widespread over the 1st millennium, engraved on the faces of cliffs, on pillars, on tablets of stone, drawn in caves and on rocks, some gouged into the bedrock. Later they were also inscribed on palm leaves, coins, Indian copper plate inscriptions, and on temple walls.
Canadian Centre for Epigraphic Documents
The Centre has most recently issued a Call for Papers in the bid to establish a scholarly journal. The CCED Journal is set to be an open-access, peer-reviewed publication relating to epigraphic studies. Epigraphic studies is listed to include: historical or philological aspects of inscriptions; art historical aspects of inscriptions and their surrounding decorative motifs; digital humanities or information/library studies approaches relating to inscriptions; numismatics and sigillography. 
The CCED Journal especially welcomes articles on inscriptions from the CCED online collection and editions of unpublished inscriptions.
Epigraphy
A very large class of inscriptions deals with the institution of "proxenia". According to this a citizen of any State might be appointed "proxenos" of another State; his duties would then be to offer help and hospitality to any citizen of that other State who might be visiting his city, and to assist him in any dispute or in securing his legal rights. The office has been compared to the modern appointment of consuls, with the essential difference that the "proxenos" is always a citizen of the state in which he resides, not of that whose citizens and interests he assists. The decrees upon this matter frequently record the appointment of a "proxenos", and the conferring on him of certain benefits and privileges in return for his services; they also contain resolutions of thanks from the city served by the "proxenos", and record honours consequently conferred upon him.
Escagraph
The term "escagraph" was first used in the 1980s by Dr. Larry R. Smith to identify and describe the many forms, past and present, of "writing on food" and "letters as food". The term is a concatenation of "esca" (from Latin meaning "victuals" or "things to be eaten") and "graph" (after the Greek meaning: "mark" or the infinitive verb "to write").
Writing
In most of the alphabets of India and Southeast Asia, vowels are indicated through diacritics or modification of the shape of the consonant. These are called "abugidas". Some abugidas, such as Ethiopic and Cree, are learned by children as syllabaries, and so are often called "syllabics". However, unlike true syllabaries, there is not an independent glyph for each syllable.
Epigraphy
An institution as to which our knowledge is mainly derived from inscriptions is the ephebic system at Athens. There are not only records of lists of ephebi and of their guardians and instructors, but also decrees in honour of their services, especially in taking their due part in religious and other ceremonies, and resolutions of the ephebi themselves in honour of their officials. It is possible to trace in the inscriptions, which range over several centuries, how what was originally a system of physical and military training for Athenian youths from age of 18 to 20, with outpost and police duties, was gradually transformed. In later times there were added to the instructors in military exercises others who gave lectures on what we should now call arts and science subjects; so that in the Hellenistic and Roman times, when youths from all parts of the civilised world flocked to Athens as an intellectual centre, the ephebic system became a kind of cosmopolitan university.
Epigraphy
The ritual appropriate to different divinities and temples varied greatly from place to place; and it was, therefore, necessary or desirable to set up notices in all public places of worship for the information and guidance of worshippers. The commonest and most essential act of worship was sacrifice; an example of the simplest form of prescription is to be seen in the inscription on the relief from Thasos in the Louvre:— "To the Nymphs and to Apollo the leader of the Nymphs, the worshipper may, if he so choose, sacrifice a male and a female victim. It is not permissible to offer a sheep or a pig. No paean is sung. To the Graces it is not permissible to offer a goat or a pig."
Handwriting
Handwriting is the writing done with a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, in the hand. Handwriting includes both printing and cursive styles and is separate from formal calligraphy or typeface. Because each person's handwriting is unique and different, it can be used to verify a document's writer. The deterioration of a person's handwriting is also a symptom or result of certain diseases. The inability to produce clear and coherent handwriting is also known as dysgraphia.
Epigraphy
When there is any doubt about any ritual or procedure, divination is often resorted to, and the results of such divination are recorded in inscriptions as a guidance for the future; it was also a common practice to consult Delphi or some other oracle in doubtful or difficult cases; there the exact method of procedure is sometimes recorded, as well as the response of the oracle. Forms of worship are often prescribed or recorded, especially hymns, which are sometimes inscribed together with their musical notation. The performance of songs or hymns and dances are also matters of constant reference, especially in connection with lyrical or musical contests; the victorious band or performer often dedicated the prize in honour of the god. A special form of contest was that in dramatic performances, of which many records have survived, both from Athens and from many other parts of the Greek world. The regulation of athletic festivals, and the records of victors in their contests, also form a numerous class of inscriptions. As regards mysteries, though there are numerous regulations affecting the arrangement of celebrations and the conduct of those participating, there is, as was to be expected, very little concerning the actual performances.
Epigram
The first work of English literature penned in North America was Robert Hayman's "Quodlibets, Lately Come Over from New Britaniola, Old Newfoundland," which is a collection of over 300 epigrams, many of which do not conform to the two-line rule or trend. While the collection was written between 1618 and 1628 in what is now Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, it was published shortly after his return to Britain. 
In Victorian times the epigram couplet was often used by the prolific American poet Emily Dickinson. Her poem No. 1534 is a typical example of her eleven poetic epigrams. The novelist George Eliot also included couplets throughout her writings. Her best example is in her sequenced sonnet poem entitled "Brother and Sister" in which each of the eleven sequenced sonnet ends with a couplet. In her sonnets, the preceding lead-in-line, to the couplet ending of each, could be thought of as a title for the couplet, as is shown in Sonnet VIII of the sequence.
Epigraphy
This is by far the most numerous class of inscriptions, both Greek and Latin. In early times there is often no record beyond the name of the deceased in Athens, often with the name of his father and his deme. Sometimes a word or two of conventional praise is added, such as "a good and wise man". Occasionally the circumstances of death are alluded to, especially if it took place in battle or at sea. Such epitaphs were frequently in metrical form, usually either hexameter or elegiacs. Many of them have been collected, and they form an interesting addition to the Greek anthology. In later times it becomes usual to give more elaborate praise of the deceased; but this is hardly ever so detailed and fulsome as on more modern tombstones. The age and other facts about the deceased are occasionally given, but not nearly so often as on Latin tombstones, which offer valuable statistical information in this respect.
Epigraph (literature)
In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. The epigraph may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context.
Pictogram
Pictography is a form of writing which uses representational, pictorial drawings, similarly to cuneiform and, to some extent, hieroglyphic writing, which also uses drawings as phonetic letters or determinative rhymes. Some pictograms, such as Hazards pictograms, are elements of formal languages.
Epigraphy
Most of the forms of writing known to us originated in some system of picture-writing (cf. also pictography, which developed into a hieroglyphic system. Such systems appear to have originated independently in different parts of the world — in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, among the Hittites and in China and America. The evidence for all of these is mainly to be found in inscriptions. The development from Ideographs (or direct representation of an object or idea) to symbols of phonetic value, and so to syllabaries or alphabets, took place in many different systems to various degrees. But the first people to invent a completely alphabetic system of writing were the Phoenicians, from whom the Greeks borrowed (some scholars believe, but with no proving) it with certain modifications and improvements. From the Greeks was derived the Latin, and from the two all the alphabets of European peoples. It is still a matter of dispute whether the Phoenician was derived from the Egyptian.
The hieroglyphic symbols naturally tended to be conventionalised and simplified for convenience of cutting, in accordance with the materials and tools employed. In many cases they developed from a pictorial to a linear form. It is possible that some of these linear forms may not be derived from hieroglyphs, but from purely conventional geometrical forms. such as widely used at all periods and places as owners' or masons' marks. The tendency of linear forms to become wedge-shaped is most conspicuous in cuneiform, but as has been noticed, the same tendency occurs in Greek inscriptions incised on bronze.
Calligram
A calligram is a text visually arranged in a way that it forms an image associated with the text's contents. It can be a poem, a phrase, a portion of scripture, or a single word; the visual arrangement can rely on certain use of the typeface, calligraphy or handwriting, for instance along non-parallel and curved text lines, or in shaped paragraphs. The image created by the words illustrates the text by expressing visually what it says, or something closely associated; it can also, on purpose, show something contradictory with the text or otherwise misleading.
Epigraphy
Ancient writers state that the earliest laws of Athens were inscribed upon tablets of wood, put together in a pyramidal shape. These, owing to their material, have perished; but we have some very early codes of law preserved on stone, notably at Gortyna in Crete. Here an inscription of great length is incised on the slabs of a theatre-shaped structure in 12 columns of 50 lines each; it is mainly concerned with the law of inheritance, adoption, etc. Doubtless similar inscriptions were set up in many places in Greece. An interesting series of inscriptions deals with the conditions under which colonists were sent out from various cities, and the measures that were taken to secure their rights as citizens. A bronze tablet records in some detail the arrangements of this sort made when Locrians established a colony in Naupactus; another inscription relates to the Athenian colonisation of Salamis, in the 6th century BC.
English orthography
Sequences of letters may perform this role as well as single letters. Thus, in the word "ship" (pronounced ), the digraph (two letters) represents the sound . In the word "ditch", the trigraph represent the sound .
Book
When writing systems were created in ancient civilizations, a variety of objects, such as stone, clay, tree bark, metal sheets, and bones, were used for writing; these are studied in epigraphy.
Epigraphy
The study of inscriptions supplies an important contribution to the history of many lands and peoples. In some cases, as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, it forms almost the only source of information in the absence of literary records; in others, as in Greece and Rome, it offers a most valuable supplement and comment to what is otherwise recorded.
Epistolography
Epistolography, or the art of writing letters, is a genre of Byzantine literature similar to rhetoric that was popular with the intellectual elite of the Byzantine age.
Epigraphy
For us, accustomed as we are to a vast mass of books, newspapers and other printed or digital documents, it is difficult to realise the extensive use and great convenience assigned to inscriptions in ancient times. Not only were public announcements of all sorts, such as we should make known by advertisements or posters, thus placed before the public, but all kinds of records and enactments — codes of law and political decrees; regulations for all matters, civil and religious; accounts and contracts, public and private; treaties between states; records of public and private benefactions and dedications, and all matters of administration; honours to the living and to the memory of the dead. Many of these were intended to preserve for all time the records which they contained; but others must have been of only temporary interest. It seems, therefore, the more remarkable that they should have been incised on permanent material such as bronze, marble or stone — and incised in the first instance, with a care and perfection of technique which have led to their survival to the present day, so as to preserve for us invaluable evidence as to the life and institutions of the people who made them. Temporary and permanent value are therefore often combined in the same inscription. For instance, any Athenian citizen, visiting the Acropolis or the Agora, could satisfy themselves at first hand as to treaties or decrees of the people, public accounts or state income and expenditure. And at the same time these documents preserved for all time much history, both social and political.