Medieval letter tile
Encyclopedia
Medieval letter tiles are one-letter
ceramic
tile
s that were employed in monasteries and churches of the late Middle Ages
for the creation of Christian
inscriptions on floors and walls. They were created by pressing stamps bearing a reverse image into soft clay
, which was then baked hard, and they were used to form words by assembling single letter tiles in the desired order.
The decoration technique is notable for being an early form of movable type
printing
which essentially is nothing but the stringing together of identically created individual letters for the purpose of producing an image. Compared to the conventional printing technique later established by Johannes Gutenberg, though, medieval tile alphabets were created in an inverse order: In a first step, the (im)printing was done, and only then the process of typesetting
occurred, by spreading out the individual letter tiles onto the floor and composing them into words and lines of text.
The use of such movable letter tiles is documented for the English Chertsey Abbey
, from whose ruins specimen dating to the second half of the 13th century were recovered, as well as for the early 14th century flooring of the Dutch Aduard Abbey. In Zinna Abbey
south of Berlin
, there is an extant Ave Maria
embedded in the floor before the altar. Each letter appears as a relief print
on an unglazed, red-brown terracotta tile measuring 14 x 14 cm. The Latin
inscription dates to the 13th or 14th century and was composed in Gothic majuscule.
The Prüfening dedicatory inscription
is a Latin
church inscription on a single clay tablet using a different principle, apparently made by stamping out the words with individual letter stamps or types.
Letter (alphabet)
A letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
tile
Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...
s that were employed in monasteries and churches of the late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
for the creation of Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
inscriptions on floors and walls. They were created by pressing stamps bearing a reverse image into soft clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
, which was then baked hard, and they were used to form words by assembling single letter tiles in the desired order.
The decoration technique is notable for being an early form of movable type
Movable type
Movable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document ....
printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
which essentially is nothing but the stringing together of identically created individual letters for the purpose of producing an image. Compared to the conventional printing technique later established by Johannes Gutenberg, though, medieval tile alphabets were created in an inverse order: In a first step, the (im)printing was done, and only then the process of typesetting
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
occurred, by spreading out the individual letter tiles onto the floor and composing them into words and lines of text.
The use of such movable letter tiles is documented for the English Chertsey Abbey
Chertsey Abbey
Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey.It was founded by Saint Erkenwald, later Bishop of London, in 666 AD and he became the first abbot. In the 9th century it was sacked by the Danes and refounded from Abingdon Abbey...
, from whose ruins specimen dating to the second half of the 13th century were recovered, as well as for the early 14th century flooring of the Dutch Aduard Abbey. In Zinna Abbey
Zinna Abbey
Zinna Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery, the site of which is now occupied by a village also called Kloster Zinna, today part of Jüterbog in Brandenburg, Germany, about south of Berlin.- Cistercians :...
south of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, there is an extant Ave Maria
Ave Maria
Ave Maria may refer to:*Ave Maria , the "Hail Mary", a traditional Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox prayer calling for the intercession of Mary, the mother of Jesus-Music:...
embedded in the floor before the altar. Each letter appears as a relief print
Relief print
A relief print is an image created by a printmaking process where protruding surface faces of the matrix are inked; recessed areas are ink free. Printing the image is therefore a relatively simple matter of inking the face of the matrix and bringing it in firm contact with the paper...
on an unglazed, red-brown terracotta tile measuring 14 x 14 cm. The Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
inscription dates to the 13th or 14th century and was composed in Gothic majuscule.
The Prüfening dedicatory inscription
Prüfening dedicatory inscription
The Prüfening dedicatory inscription is a high medieval inscription which was created in 1119, over three hundred years before Johannes Gutenberg, by the typographic principle...
is a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
church inscription on a single clay tablet using a different principle, apparently made by stamping out the words with individual letter stamps or types.
Further reading
- Haberley, Loyd (1937): "Medieval English Paving Tiles", Blackwell