Opschriften op de katafalk en op de gevel van de Sint Gudula (plaat II), 1622 1623

This print by Cornelis Galle I, created in 1622, captures inscriptions on the catafalque and facade of the Sint Gudula. The arrangement of the text, broken into blocks, echoes the structure of memorial tablets. Each inscription commemorates an individual, and this act of memorialization through the written word connects to ancient traditions. We can see echoes of Roman epitaphs and funerary inscriptions. The desire to preserve the memory of the dead is a primal urge, crossing cultures and centuries. Just as the ancient Egyptians inscribed hieroglyphs on tombs, or the Romans carved epitaphs on sarcophagi, here we have rows and rows of carefully inscribed text. This act of inscription speaks to a deep-seated psychological need to transcend mortality. It represents a communal effort to keep the deceased alive in the collective memory. The very act of committing words to stone—or in this case, to paper through the medium of print—becomes a ritual. This is not a linear progression, but a cyclical return. The impulse to memorialize, to inscribe, to remember—it resurfaces, evolves, and takes on new meanings in each age.