Revisiting the Genoese Lapidary Inventory in Istanbul
Résumé
The Republic of Genoa established Pera opposite the Golden Horn in Constantinople in the mid-13th century. This renowned Genoese colony thrived until the Ottoman conquest and is the Galata district of modern Istanbul today. Its Genoese period left abundant lapidary artifacts that only two studies were able to access, though partially and long ago. As a part of the ERC GRAPH-EAST, nearly 160 slabs of Pera’s lapidary inventory that the Istanbul Archaeological Museums keeps most of them, are revisited through documenting and examining the epigraphy and heraldry. The research suggests new readings with reinterpretations about their multilayered damnatio memoriae and spolia phenomena.