Between Written and Spoken Words: The Use and Function of Inscriptions on Medieval Baptismal Fonts

Abstract

The sacrament of baptism initiates Christians by cleansing them of sin and representing the reception of the spirit. Baptism is therefore contact with the sacred. While the sacred elements of the sacrament remained intangible and hardly understandable, the authoritative Church’s tradition still required an understanding of the sacramental act. In this respect, the artificial and productive efforts made in features like figurative baptismal fonts were not only thought to serve a didactic function in instructing the people, but were also conceptualised as a way to facilitate – and hence realise – the connection with the sacred itself. Artefacts equipped with prayers, liturgical settings, or theological references were produced in a blending of material object and ritual or sacramental concepts, even if, at their location, most people did not understand the contents inscribed. The baptismal font has agency as it mediates, visualises, and realises specific ideas, concepts, and hopes in its material appearance and existence. It is reasonable to assume that baptismal fonts without inscriptions and pictures were also used as media in enacted form. However, the only way that we are able today to reconstruct medieval modes of use and perceptions of the object is in the form and presence of figurative artefacts, which have literally preserved the thoughts, ideas, and concepts inscribed into them until the present day. These artefacts show the role of the material objects for the ontological experience of the sacred in the act of baptism.