titulum

Titulum is a Latin noun whose standard form is titulus (plural tituli). In Latin, titulus carries meanings such as title, label, or inscription, and the accusative titulum appears when the thing is the object of an action. In scholarly English, titulus and tituli occur mainly in Latin contexts and are usually rendered as “title” or “inscription.”

Historically, titulus was used on public monuments, inscriptions on altars and statues, and on official documents to indicate authorship, ownership, or purpose. On manuscripts and early printed books, the term could designate a heading or caption identifying the work or a section.

Ecclesiastical usage: In the Roman Catholic Church, titulus denotes a titular church—an actual church in Rome assigned to a cardinal as his ceremonial seat. Cardinals are described as priests or deacons of a titulus; lists of cardinals often name these churches, such as those designated for cardinals in the College of Cardinals.

Modern usage: In archaeology, epigraphy, and philology, titulus remains a technical term for the inscription or heading on an object, monument, or text. In library science and metadata, the contemporary equivalent is the “title” of a work, used to identify and catalog items. Titulus thus persists as a bridge between ancient labeling practices and modern concepts of titles and inscriptions.