Pseudoscripts in Italian Art - Nagel

Ornament drawn from objects and textiles from the eastern Mediterranean and from the Muslim-dominated Iberian peninsula pervades the early history of Italian art, from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries. Some of this ornamentation consists of script, usually eastern in flavor, sometimes close to Greek or Hebrew, often close to Arabic, but in fact in no known language: for the sake of convenience I call them “pseudoscripts” or, collectively, “pseudoscript.”