Graff-IT ERC Project
Graff-IT ERC Project

The ERC AdvGrant Graff-IT Project aims to develop a new interdisciplinary approach to the study of medieval and Renaissance Italian graffiti (7th – 16th century) as a historical source. Graffiti are meant here as a form of writing, sometimes mixed with figurative patterns, made on a surface not primarily designed for this purpose by means of an occasional tool, regardless of the technique used and beyond the writer’s dependency on an authority. In Italy, there are hundreds of monumental and natural sites preserving graffiti, most of which are still undeciphered or have been studied only marginally.

The Project, therefore, represents the first attempt to survey and investigate this immensely rich body of sources through the lens of Palaeography, with the overall goal to assert the full dignity of graffiti as written sources and integrate them into the realm of historiographical thought and practice. New in this Project is the idea of considering graffiti as but one part of their cultural context, and consequently as an essential component of the communication system of their time. Graffiti allow us to get access to the worldview of individuals in the past. This explains why the Graff-IT Project wants to examine graffiti in their multifaceted complexity (writing, image, language, and material aspects) and in relation to all kinds of written media within specific space-time and social-production frames. By doing so, it will be possible to shed more light on the nature and role of graffiti in medieval and early modern culture, thereby bringing into the focus of scholarly research a history of signs that claims its due place in the yet far too strict classification of historical sources.

This Project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 101020613).

News & Events

News

A NEW FIELD MISSION IN BASILICATA AND PUGLIA

A NEW FIELD MISSION IN BASILICATA AND PUGLIA The team of the Graff-IT Project has just carried out a new field mission, organised by Dr Sabrina Centonze, in several urban and extra-urban sites of Matera (Basilicata) and the Gargano area (Puglia). Hundreds of...

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Lectures & Conferences

Guest Lecture on Byzantine Graffiti

On Tuesday 24 October 2023, Dr Rachael Helen Banes (Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) will give a guest lecture on Byzantine graffiti on invitation of Gaetano Curzi and Carlo Tedeschi. The lecture will take place at the...

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Related events

La Notte dei Ricercatori 2023

The Graff-IT ERC-Project will participate in the 2023 edition of the European Researchers’ Night, a Europe-wide public event which will take place in 26 countries on Friday 29 September. From 4 p.m. until late in the night, the Campus of the University “G. D’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara will host the longest Academic day of the year, with stands, concerts, guided tours, seminars, and many other initiatives.

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Lectures & Conferences

International Conference “Limiti: muri e confini nella storia”

The Graff-IT ERC-Project and the FARE SCRENIM Project of the University “G. D’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara participate in the organization of the International Conference “Limiti: muri e confini nella storia”, which will take place on 23-24 September 2023 at Procida. The conference is organized by the ‘Centro Studi Santa Rosa da Viterbo ETS’, in cooperation with several cultural institutes and universities from Italy and abroad

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