E
pigraphy is the study of building inscriptions as a source
of information about past civilizations. What do our
buildings' inscriptions tell us about ourselves? Judging
by the almost total dearth of inscriptions on contemporary
buildings, we have become a civilization no longer committed
to language as a conduit of values, spiritual or otherwise.
It used to be, until a few generations ago, that the donor of a
building would decorate—and dedicate—a building with an
inscription "through which the building pointed beyond itself
to a value of religious or spiritual significance that he wanted the
world to be reminded of," says Princeton Professor of Classics
Christian Wildberg.
HYLAND
