This book considers the visual qualities of inscriptions from a cross-cultural perspective focusing on the period from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages.

Introduction: viewing inscriptions Antony Eastmond; 1. Text, image, memory, and performance: epigraphic practices in Persia and the ancient Iranian world Matthew P. Canepa; 2. Prayers on site: the materiality of devotional graffiti and the production of early Christian sacred space Ann Marie Yasin; 3. Erasure and memory: Aghlabid and Fatimid inscriptions in North Africa Jonathan Bloom; 4. Textual icons: viewing inscriptions in medieval Georgia Antony Eastmond; 5. Pseudo-Arabic 'inscriptions' and the pilgrim's path at Hosios Loukas Alicia Walker; 6. Arabic inscriptions in the Cappella Palatina: performativity, audience, legibility, and illegibility Jeremy Johns; 7. Intercession and succession, enlightenment and reflection: the inscriptional and decorative program of the Qaratay Madrasa, Konya Scott Redford; 8. Remembering Fernando: multilingualism in medieval Iberia Tom Nickson; 9. Displaying the word: words as visual signs in the Armenian architectural decoration of the monastery of Noravank (fourteenth century) Ioanna Rapti; 10. Written in stone: civic memory and monumental writing in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa Stefania Gerevini; 11. Place, space, and style: craftsmen's signatures in medieval Islamic art Sheila S. Blair; Afterword: re-viewing inscriptions Antony Eastmond.