Spazi privi di testo, ma non privi di senso: qualche esempio nell'epigrafia latina di Roma

This paper explores the different goals of empty spaces in Latin epigraphic texts from Rome: to underline the importance of words and concepts that were intentionally isolated or separated in the layout; to host, in a possible future, information (measures, age, names…) that were not at disposal when the inscription was originally carved; to express doubts and difficulties of the stonecutter in understanding the draft version of the text. Of course we cannot be sure that these empty spaces were actually left blank, and not filled, for example, with painted letters that have left no traces. But they always have a meaning, both for the ancient reader and for the modern scholar.