Bayeux Tapestry tituli#40

The Bayeux Tapestry, a {{convert|70|m|yd|adj=on}} long embroidered-linen cloth which narrates the story of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 has been said to be "one of the most powerful pieces of visual propaganda ever produced, as well as one of the few medieval works of art familiar to almost everyone in the Western world."{{Cite journal |last=Mani Shekhar Singh |date=June 2000 |title=Book Reviews: Suzanne Lewis, The Rhetoric of Power in the Bayeux Tapestry, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 169 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001946460003700207 |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |language=en |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=244–245 |doi=10.1177/001946460003700207 |issn=0019-4646|url-access=subscription }} The tapestry has compelled many people to study and question who commissioned it and for what purpose.{{Cite journal |last=Goodier |first=John |date=2016-06-20 |title=The Bayeux Tapestry: A Critically Annotated Bibliography |url=https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/RR-02-2016-0045/full/html |journal=Reference Reviews |language=en |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=39–40 |doi=10.1108/RR-02-2016-0045 |issn=0950-4125|url-access=subscription }} The tapestry is currently located in Bayeux, Normandy and is protected by a glass case.{{Citation |last=Wilson |first=David M. |title=Bayeux Tapestry |date=2003 |work=Oxford Art Online |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t007042 |access-date=2024-12-06 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t007042 |url-access=subscription }} The Bayeux Tapestry tituli are Medieval Latin captions that are embroidered along the Bayeux Tapestry scenes and describe the portrayed re-enactments on the tapestry. The tituli, comprising 2,226 characters and symbols, is the longest known text of its kind.{{Citation |last=Owen-Crocker |first=Gale R. |title=The Embroidered Word: Text in the Bayeux Tapestry |date=2006 |work=Medieval Clothing and Textiles 2 |pages=35–60 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781846154911.003 |access-date=2024-12-06 |location=Woodbridge |publisher=Boydell and Brewer |doi=10.1017/9781846154911.003 |isbn=978-1-84615-491-1 |url-access=subscription }} These depicted events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, culminating in the Battle of Hastings.

Many palaeographers who study manuscripts can distinguish different hands within the writings on manuscripts. In the same way, Bayeux Tapestry scholars have argued that there were different "scribes" at work, as there are subtle differences between similar letters along the entire tapestry. For example, at Scene 17 the 'e' letters, both Roman and uncial, in the top line of the tituli have elegant serifs with tiny points; while those in the lower two lines have straight bars. In scenes 52 to 57, different techniques and colourings similarly suggest different writers.

The Bayeux Tapestry was most likely commissioned by William the Conqueror's half-brother, Bishop Odo, possibly at the same time as Bayeux Cathedral's construction in the 1070s, and completed by 1077 in time for display on the cathedral's dedication. It is embroidered in wool yarn on a tabby-woven linen ground using outline or stem stitch for detailing and lettering. A dark blue wool, almost black, is used for most of the tapestry's lettering but towards the end other colours are used, sometimes for each word and other times for each letter.File:Bayeux tapestry stitches detail..jpgThe content of the hanging is primarily pictorial but tituli are included on many scenes of the action to point out names of people and places or to explain briefly the event being depicted.Musset (2011). The text is in Latin (which for the most part is grammatically correct), and is extremely direct, with each statement being closely tied to the scenes depicted in a given section.Musset (2011), p. 35.Musset (2011), p. 36. The text is frequently abbreviated as indicated by tildes placed over words at the place of omission of a letter. The words themselves are often demarcated by two points (which Lucien Musset likens to colons); sometimes, more important section breaks are demarcated by three points. Many personal names, mostly in English, are not Latinised and the same applies for names of places in England and for Beaurain "Belrem" in France. In places the spelling shows an English influence, such as the phrase "at Hestenga ceastra", which in proper Latin would be "ad Hastingae castra". Some French names are either archaic ("Rednes") or anglicised ("Bagias").Musset (2011), pp. 35{{en dash}}6. Sometimes "Franci" is used to describe the Normans and the rest of the host.Musset (2011), p. 37.

The end of the tapestry has been missing from time immemorial and the final titulus "Et fuga verterunt Angli" is said by Lucien Musset to be "entirely spurious", added shortly before 1814 at a time of anti-English sentiment. The first word on the tapestry "Edward" is also a restoration.

Scene 12 is another notable scene, however it is studied because of its tituli. It appears as though "a different writer took over the inscription at this point and saw himself as beginning here; or that the same scribe began a new stint of work here." The upper border has dipped at this point and the birds and beasts depicted in it are large. "The tituli is accordingly forced into smaller letters and is very intermittent, being fitted in round a tree, a sword, hands, spears, and birds’ heads. It seems likely that the first workshop completed the main register and the upper border, leaving the inscription (and possibly the lower border) incomplete."

Another notable event occurs in scenes 29 and 30, the coronation of Harold as king. In this scene, Harold is seated on the throne, with nobles to his left and Archbishop Stigand to his right. The tituli states, "Here they gave the king's crown to Harold" in scene 29, and "Here sits Harold King of the English" in scene 30.{{Cite book |last1=Pastan |first1=Elizabeth Carson |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781782043898 |title=The Bayeux Tapestry and Its Contexts |last2=White |first2=Stephen D. |last3=Gilbert |first3=Kate |date=2014-11-18 |publisher=Boydell and Brewer Limited |doi=10.1017/9781782043898 |isbn=978-1-78204-389-8}} The coronation of King Harold is important because as the masses are cheering for Harold, Halley's Comet appears in the sky. This scene also includes a fleet of ships in the lower border, which foreshadows the Norman invasion and the English defeat at the hands of William the Conqueror.

The most famous scene within the Bayeux Tapestry is scene 57, depicting Harold's death. In this scene, the tituli states, "HIC HAROLD REX INTERFECTUS EST"{{Cite web |title=In Normandy, discover the Bayeux Tapestry scene by scene |url=https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeux-tapestry/discover-the-bayeux-tapestry/ |access-date=2024-12-06 |website=Bayeux Museum |language=en-US}} which can be translated to "Here King Harold was slain." Harold's death marks the end of the Anglo-Saxon era in England and births the beginning of the French Norman rule. Harold appears to be plucking an arrow from his eye in the scene. According to many historians, The Bayeux Tapestry is considered one of the earliest and most convincing pieces of evidence that Harold was killed by an arrow. Scene 57 also holds evidence that there were more than one "writer". Scene 52, within the first new titulus after the sixth seam, the colours change to black and yellow with intermittent red letters. They continue, mostly in letters of alternating colour, until Scene 57, Harold's death. At this point green is introduced to the inscription and there are some words in black, some in the lighter greenish shade, to the present limit of the Tapestry. "The change of colour at Scene 57 may, again, relate to a different production team: The episode of Harold's death also contains a seam, the eighth, although it is invisible from the front of the Tapestry."

The English translation provided here is of a literal nature, to reflect the simplicity of the captions themselves. The numbering scheme uses the scene numbers on the tapestry's backing cloth, which were added sometime around 1800.

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• {{cite book|editor=Douglas, D.C.|title=English Historical Documents 1042{{en dash}}1189|location=London|year=1961|publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode|chapter=Bayeux Tapestry|pages=232{{en dash}}78|ref=Douglas}}
• {{cite book|last=Hicks|first=Carola|author-link=Carola Hicks|title=The Bayeux Tapestry: The Life Story of a Masterpiece|year=2006|publisher=Vintage Books|location=London, UK|isbn=9781407065885|ref=Hicks}}
• {{cite book|last1=Jenkyns|first1=Richard|title=Westminster Abbey: A Thousand Years of National Pageantry|date=2011|publisher=Profile Books|location=London, UK|isbn=9781847650825|ref=Jenkyns}}
• {{cite book|last=Musset|first=Lucien|title=La Tapisserie de Bayeux|year=2002|publisher=Éditions Zodiaque|place=Paris, France|language=French|isbn=9782736902810|ref=Musseta}}
• {{cite book|last=Musset|first=Lucien|title=The Bayeux Tapestry|year=2011|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|location=Suffolk, UK|isbn=9781843831631|ref=Mussetb|translator-last=Rex|translator-first=Richard}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Norton |first1=Christopher |title=Viewing the Bayeux Tapestry, Now and Then |journal=Journal of the British Archaeological Association |date=23 October 2019 |volume=172 |issue=1 |pages=52–89 |doi=10.1080/00681288.2019.1642012|doi-access=|ref=Norton}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Olson|first1=J. M.|last2=Pasachoff|first2=M.|date=1987|title=New Information on Comet P/Halley as Depicted by Giotto di Bondone and Other Western Artists|pages=1{{en dash}}11|journal=Astronomy and Astrophysics|volume=187|issue=187|bibcode=1987A&A...187....1O|isbn=9783642829710|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PK_oCAAAQBAJ&dq=halley%27s+comet+bayeux+tapestry&pg=PA2|ref=Olson}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Plaché|first1=J. R.|date=1867|pages=134{{en dash}}56|title=On the Bayeux Tapestry|volume=23|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-E4AQAAMAAJ&dq=harangues+his+men+bayeux+tapestry&pg=PA151|ref=Plaché|journal=Journal of the British Archaeological Association|issue=2|doi=10.1080/00681288.1867.11887342|url-access=subscription}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Stenton |editor-first=Frank |editor-link=Frank Stenton |title=The Bayeux Tapestry: a comprehensive survey |edition=2nd |year=1965 |location=London |publisher=Phaidon Press|ref=Stenton}}
• {{cite journal|author=Walls, Sidney|title=The Bayeux Tapestry: Its Sources and Influence|date=1962|journal=Scripta Humanistica Kentuckiensia|volume=6|via=the University of Florida Libraries|url=https://archive.org/details/bayeuxtapestryit00wall|access-date=20 October 2017|ref=Walls}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130520103634/http://www.tapestry-bayeux.com/ Bayeux Tapestry Museum]
• [http://www.aemma.org/onlineResources/bayeux/bayeuxIndex1.html Latin-English translation]

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Category:Anglo-Saxon art

Category:Embroidery

Category:Memory of the World Register

Category:Norman conquest of England

Category:Romanesque art

Category:Tapestries

Category:Military art

Category:Texts of Anglo-Saxon England in Latin

Category:Cultural depictions of Edward the Confessor

Category:Cultural depictions of Harold Godwinson

Category:Cultural depictions of William the Conqueror