Bayeux Tapestry tituli

The Bayeux Tapestry tituli are captions embroidered on the Bayeux Tapestry describing events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. The tituli are in Medieval Latin.

The Bayeux Tapestry was probably commissioned by William the Conqueror's half-brother, Bishop Odo, possibly at the same time as Bayeux Cathedral's construction in the 1070s, and completed by 1077 in time for display on the cathedral's dedication.

It is embroidered in wool yarn on a tabby-woven linen ground using outline or stem stitch for its lettering.

The content of the hanging is primarily pictorial but tituli are included on many scenes of the action to point out names of people and places or to explain briefly the event being depicted. A dark blue wool, almost black, is used for most of the tapestry's lettering but towards the end other colours are used, sometimes for each word and other times for each letter. The end of the tapestry has been missing from time immemorial and the final titulus "Et fuga verterunt Angli" is said to be "entirely spurious", added shortly before 1814 at a time of anti-English sentiment. The first word on the tapestry "Edward" is also a restoration.

The text is in Latin, and as in the nearly contemporary Domesday Book (1086) is frequently abbreviated as indicated by tildes placed over words at the place of omission of a letter. In places the spelling shows an English influence. Musset puts forward the following analysis. Personal names, mostly in English, are not Latinised and the same applies for names of places in England and for Beaurain "Belrem" in France. The phrase "at Hestenga ceasrta" shows clear signs of Old English: in Latin it would be "ad Hastingae castra". Some French names are either archaic ("Rednes") or anglicised ("Bagias"). Sometimes "Franci" is used to describe the Normans who at that time certainly did not regard themselves as French. although they spoke the French language. However, royal circles in England did use "Franci" to describe their conquerors and the king's subjects were termed "Franci and Angli".

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