LAPIS - Latin Inscriptions in Istria

LAPIS is a database of Latin inscriptions created within the project "Early modern Latin lapidary inscriptions in the churches of southern Istria: documentation, analysis, contextualisation" conducted at the University of Zagreb - Faculty of Croatian Studies.

The project

Since early modern epigraphic production is much less researched than the ancient and medieval ones, this reaearch is designed as a project of comprehensive documentation and analysis, as well as initial contextualisation of early modern Latin lapidary inscriptions found in the churches of southern Istria. We estimate that in 183 sacred buildings in the area between 300 and 400 inscriptions made between 1420 and 1797 are found, having a significant historical, cultural, literary and artistic value. This has been estimated as an optimal quantity for a four-year project. Documentation of the inscriptions was performed on the basis of a field research, while the transcriptions, photographs, translations, basic descriptions and literature were recorded in an open and searchable database established at the start of the project. This presents the foundation of the inscripiton catalogue published in the form of a monograph. Analytical stage of the project was organised through a series of dissemination studies on material, epigraphic-palaeographic, philologic-linguistic, literary-stylistic and art-historical aspects of the inscriptions.

Project team

Šime Demo (PI), Josip Banić, Tomislav Galović, Darko Komšo, Milena Joksimović, Aleksandra Mahić Sinovčić, Mirjana Matijević Sokol, Sunčica Mustač.

See info (in Croatian) here.

Citing

Demo, Šime et al. (2025-), LAPIS - Latin Inscriptions in Istria. URL: https://lapis.fhs.unizg.hr:4433/wiki/index.php/ (accessed January 23, 2026).

Funding

The research within which the database has been built is funded by the HRZZ (Croatian Science Foundation) grant IP-2022-10-5068 (2024–2027). The database is hosted by the University of Zagreb - Faculty of Croatian Studies.

Copyright

Content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Some photos found in the database are subject to copyrights held by other organizations. In such cases, some restrictions on the reproduction may apply and it may be necessary to seek permission from the rights holder prior to reproducing the material.