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Carmen figuratum
(960 words)

The carmen figuratum “is a multimedia composition of text and image in which a block of text, generally versified and poetic in the widest sense, is constrained to a particular graphic shape that is mimetic in character and fulfills a pictographic function coordinated with the content of the verbal utterance” [8. 7]. The illustration formed by the text can either be the silhouette of an object (figurative poetry) or integrate the image into a text (e.g. carmen cancellatum, literally ‘lattice poetry’).

Not all the possible forms of the carmen figuratum that developed in Antiq…

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Rohmer, Ernst, “Carmen figuratum”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_019265>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160907



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