Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
The epitaph is frequently written on the tombstone without borders. When it is framed, this is done through a slight edge, seldom double-profiled. The shape of the frame is irregular but symmetric and very varied: oval with four circles, leaves, flowers or other ornamental motifs at the corners (Pic. 84), rectangle with four corner pieces or only two on the upper part, rectangles with mitered corners, flat arch, multiple accolades or concave-convex profiles, etc. These forms are operated by incision and flat relief. Although the ornaments of the tombstone in the area of study are discreet, there are examples which have in the epitaph area a box of small dimensions, of irregular form, containing the name of the deceased or the year of death. The frames of these forms are done with combinations of ellipses, ovals, circles, concave and convex shapes. Similar to the ornament, the writing of the epitaph is done through two techniques: either incision or flat relief, the latter being used only at monuments of great dimensions of the personalities of the community, technique which implied a greater workload and higher costs. There are also tombstones which combine the two writing techniques, the incision/relief alternation as well as letter size variation, enhancing their aesthetics. Regardless of the used method, the execution is precise, organised, but less legible if in flat relief (Pic. 85). The higher the relief the better the epitaph’s writing was preserved. If the incision was shallow and the stone of little resistance, the writing was deteriorated until erasement. For a better legibility, the carving of the letters has been painted, usually in black, in order to highlight their shape. The specific elements of epigraphy are very simple in the Hebrew writing. This doesn’t know upper-case or lowercase letters and it uses the Hebrew square writing, which has been constantly used since the 6th century (it seems that some recent archaeological discoveries add four more centuries to the age of the Hebrew language). In Hebrew the writing is done from the right side to the left and from up to down. The writing can only be with consonants or consonants accompanied by serifs, namely a system of points and lines (Pic. 86). The numbers have an equivalent value in letters. The number representing thousands (5) is not written on the tombstone. The contents of the epitaph are formed of essential elements which are considered compulsory and secondary elements which are seldom seen. The epitaphs usually contain short, brief texts containing the established formulas of the essential elements:- „here lies” in Hebrew is the formula present on every tombstone. Sometimes these letters laid in the ornamental area, separated by the rest of the epitaph have also a decorative role.- name of the deceased- name of his/her father- date of death- a formula for blessing rrnuri sau .n.n.x.in Tehiel nafsho zrurah bezor hachaim (Sanie)l6s or (Floersheim)164 168 169 168 S. Sanie. Şiret...,p. 61 178 169 Heidi M. Sypek, Esther from Bialystok, Stories from the Past, Pictures from grave stones, http://www.jewishmag.com/143mag/bialystok_poland_bagnowkajewish_cemetery/bialystok_poland_bag nowkaJewish_cemetery.htm 143
