Bayeux Tapestry tituli

The Bayeux Tapestry, a 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." The tapestry has compelled many people to study and question who commissioned it and for what purpose. The tapestry is currently located in Bayeux, Normandy and is protected by a glass case. 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. 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. == Description ==

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. 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. 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". Sometimes "Franci" is used to describe the Normans and the rest of the host. 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. == Notable scenes ==

Scene 12 Scene 12 is a notable scene 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 coronation of King Harold is important because as the masses are cheering for Harold, Halley's Comet appears in the sky. 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 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 was 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." == Latin text with English translation ==

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. == Notes ==