IN HOC ALTARE RECONDITE SUNT RELIQUIE: ALCUNE ISCRIZIONI SU LAMINE PLUMBEE NELLA ROMA DI XII SECOLO

Abstract

The contribution focuses on 12th-century inscriptions found in the altars of some Roman churches (6 from
S. Lorenzo in Lucina): these epigraphic texts, 8 engraved on leaden laminates and 6 on marble slabs, came
from indirect tradition (handwritten or findings reports from the late 19th-mid-20th century or from other
inscriptions) with the exception of an artifact inscribed inside a leaden lid that covered a glass cup found
in 1928 by G. Marchetti Longhi in the 12th century altar’s sealing block which still stands today in the
presbytery of S. Nicola de’ Calcarario, built on temple A in Largo Argentina. The analysis of the intrinsic
characters of this small epigraphic corpus has opened further fronts of investigation that focus in particular
on the function of these ‘autentiche’ hidden from the eye like the relics they accompany, and whose texts in
9 cases have also been copied on marble and collected in larger inscriptions of dedicatio ecclesiae or altaris,
real ‘scriptures exhibited’ in the relevant churches.