Graphic Symbols in Late Antique and Early Medieval Documentation: the NOTAE Project and the Creation of an Open-Access Database

Abstract

Late antique and early medieval documents often feature graphic symbols – graphic entities that may be composed of alphabetic or non-alphabetic signs – that communicate something different or something more than the written text. The NOTAE research project is concerned with the identification and classification of such graphic symbols, while also attempting to investigate the meaning they convey or take on in a definite context. This report illustrates the structure and operational functions of the open-access database, the main product of the project, in which graphic symbols, at the present more than six thousand, result catalogued, described and classified by type.