Bayeux Tapestry tituli

The Bayeux Tapestry, a 70-metre (77 yd) long embroidered-linen cloth which narrates the story of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 has been said to be "one of the most powerful pieces of visual propaganda ever produced, as well as one of the few medieval works of art familiar to almost everyone in the Western world.

A dark blue wool, almost black, is used for most of the tapestry's lettering but towards the end other colors are used, sometimes for each word and other times for each letter.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.

[5] The text is in Latin (which for the most part is grammatically correct), and is extremely direct, with each statement being closely tied to the scenes depicted in a given section.

In places the spelling shows an English influence, such as the phrase "at Hestenga ceastra", which in proper Latin would be "ad Hastingae castra".

[3] "The tituli is accordingly forced into smaller letters and is very intermittent, being fitted in round a tree, a sword, hands, spears, and birds’ heads.

[13] This scene also includes a fleet of ships in the lower border, which foreshadows the Norman invasion and the English defeat at the hands of William the Conqueror.

Harold's death marks the end of the Anglo-Saxon era in England and births the beginning of the French Norman rule.

At this point green is introduced to the inscription and there are some words in black, some in the lighter greenish shade, to the present limit of the Tapestry.

[4] "The change of color at Scene 57 may, again, relate to a different production team: The episode of Harold’s death also contains a seam, the eighth, although it is invisible from the front of the Tapestry.