Greek ligatures in icons

From the blog Icons and their Interpretation, a post on the often hard to read iconographic "ligatures."

---

Today’s post is going to be very boring for all except those few who want to learn more about reading icon inscriptions. Though it may seem a dull topic to many, it is essential to the real student of icons. Inscriptions commonly tell us who a saint in an icon is, which is a great and important aid, given that so many saints are very generic in appearance.

Let’s take another little step in the reading of Greek inscriptions by looking at a short and rather messily-written example that nonetheless has something to teach us. It does not have all the accent marks, but for our purposes at the moment it will do...

Complete article here.