Medieval and Early Modern graffiti: multicultural and multimodal communication in Cyprus

Historic Graffiti as a Visual Medium for the Sustainable Development of the Underground Built Heritage

“…to reinforce the content. In our case, the writer recorded his name, his provenience, and his profession (Bασίλυoσ µoωαχóσ Moσχoβóρρ ώσσoσ 1735-Basil, the Russian-Muscovite monk 1735) [41] (pp. 284-285).…”

“…This choice was made to reduce the variables and make more explicit how minor variations within the three constitutive elements (form, content, and space) define a different function; therefore, they record a different kind of interaction within the same context. Identity (content) can be expressed in graffiti in both textual and pictorial forms [41] (pp. 293-295).…”

“…The practice of inscribing coats of arms on religious landmarks was widespread among medieval nobility during their pilgrimages to European and Eastern Mediterranean shrines [29]. This practice was accepted and very rarely recorded in medieval accounts, such as the one of Jacques Le Saige (1518), a silk merchant traveling from Douai to the Holy Land in the first decades of the 16th century, who tells us about the coat of arms and inscriptions visible on the portal of Saint Sophia in Nicosia [41] (pp. 277-278).…”

“…The second graffito, the coat of arms, is located on the marble revetment of the central door of the Selimyie mosque-the former Saint Sophia Cathedral-in Nicosia. The third graffito, the portrait, is traced on the south wall of a small rural chapel, known as the Royal Chapel in Pyrga, nearby the south door [41,42] (pp. 286, 294) (Figure A3).…”