Two epigraphs painted in the church of Santo Adriano de Tuñón (Asturias)

Abstract

The church of Santo Adriano de Tuñón, in the municipality of Santo Adriano (Asturias, Spain), was founded and endowed in 891 by the monarchs Alfonso III and Jimena, and was renovated around 1108, during the pontificate of bishop Pelayo of Oviedo. Two texts commemorating the dedi-cation of the church in that year and listing the relics deposited in the main altar have been preser-ved. One is engraved on stone, and the other, badly deteriorated, was painted on the intrados of an arch and has been considered a 17th- or 19th-century summary of the engraved, although it was transcribed by a 16th-century scholar. Furthermore, some fragments of words, punctuation and abbreviation marks suggest that its content coincided with that of the stone inscription, and paleo-graphic and linguistic analysis concludes that it must be dated to the time of the church's renovation: it includes spelling characteristic of early medieval Latin and was painted in a mixed script of Visigo-thic and Carolingian.