BRICK STAMP. — An imprint that the Romans stamped on ceramic products, especially plates, vessels, tiles, and bricks. It is very useful for determining the age of objects and, in particular, of buildings, by means of the bricks used in them. These imprints also provide much interesting information about the organization of the workshops, especially in Rome.
Brick stamps are known from as early as the end of the Republic, when short, fire-baked tiles began to be used. With the advent of the Church’s peace, Christian elements were subsequently introduced into them as well, generally crosses or monograms. The most common and characteristic examples in Rome are those from the Claudiana workshop, with a fine Christological monogram at the center; those manufactured by a certain Cassius, with a Greek b. followed by the celebrated Christian cryptogram XMI; and the tiles of the Gothic kings Theoderic and Athalaric. Outside Rome, the Spanish examples from the Visigothic period are particularly interesting. In Andalusia, the b. Bracari vivori cum iuis around A_{X}S_{X}S_{X} is very frequent; on one there occurs the beautiful invocation spes in deo, and on another the motto aedificat X(ristus). In Africa (Cilium) there is the invocation †s(an)cta Maria a(di)uba nos †. Christian b. are much less frequent on objects other than bricks. A shadow in the Lateran Museum, found in the cemetery of Cyriaca, bears the inscription spes in deo, which seems to be the name of the manufacturer; on another from Modena, Cavedoni saw two fish depicted facing the Christological monogram.