Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/451

 PALEOGRAPHY

407

PALEOGRAPHY

(apud); the c is sur- mounted t) by an appendix in the form of a crosier v; the e is ^7 of '■^n looped and resembles ^ anS: ■», true, also,

of the o: "TT Otyh ICCCm (loronicam), the 1 affects cursive forms, I T,^> the r and s are distinguished with difficulty; ' » "''^ and t is included in a great many ligatures which change its form; the i, without a dot, often goes above the line. The writings of royal dip- lomas, thirty-seven of which are preserved in the Bib. Nat., Paris, differs only from the minuscule of MSS. in that the higher and more slender characters are con- nected by tradition with the cursive of the imperial acts of the fifth century. The first line and the royal signa- ture are in more elongated characters; at the beginning of the document is the chrismon, or monogram of Christ , formed of the Cireek letters X and P interlaced, which replaces the invocation in use in the imperial diplomas. Tironian notes also accompany the signatures on twenty-seven diplomas; they represent the names of persons — referendaries or notaries — who assisted in the preparation and expediting of the document. The reading of these, undertaken by Jules Havet (d. 1893) and completed by Jusselin (Biblioth. Ecole des Chartcs, i907, 4S2), has furnished valuable informa- tion on the organization of the royal chancery. Tiro- nian notes are also employed for the correction of MSS. and for marginal notes.

Lombardic writing, which developed in Italy dur- ing this period, until the ninth century, bore a great resemblance to the Merovingian minuscule; it was also introduced into some Prankish monasteries in the eighth century. From the ninth century it assumed, in Southern Italy, a more original character and long survived the Carlovingian reform. In the twelfth cen- tury it reached its apogee in the scriptorium of IMonte Cassino; it became regular, and was characterized by the thickness of the strokes which contrasted with the slender portions of the letters. In the twelfth century this writing acquired more and more angular shapes. It persisted in Southern Italy until the end of the thir- teenth century. Its use in diplomas was aboUshed by Frederick II as early as 1231. Until the beginning of the twelfth century the pontifical chancery made use o(a,simi\ar handwriting ca\ledlitterabeneve?itana, char- acterized by letters with long ascenders and by excep- tional shapes — e. g., the a in the form of the Greek u, the E and J with a loop Uke that of the O. The Visi- gothic handwriting (littera toletana, niozarabica) was employed in Spain from the eighth to the twelfth cen- tury. It combined with the Roman cursive some ele- ments of the uncial and is generally illegible. Accord- ing to Rodrigo of Toledo (De rebus Hispanic, VI, 29) a Council of Toledo in lOSO decreed — doubtless under the influence of the Cluniac monks — that it should be replaced by the French minuscule.

Irish writing {scriptura scoUica), unlike the others, did not proceed from the Roman cursive. It is found under two forms: (1) A half-uncial, somewhat large and regular, with rounded outlines (seventh-century Evangeliarium of Trinity College, Dublin, called the "Book of Kells"; Maesyck Evangeliarium, Belgium, eighth century) . The words are separated, t he ligatures numerous, the initials often encircled with red dots, and the abbreviations rather fre- ^ quent. it. Some conventional signs also occur: ^ (ejus), l* (enim), ' (est), sr (atilem). This writing was chiefly used • f o r n the transcription of liturgical books. C2) A pointed minuscule, bearing no relation to the Roman cursive, and also derived from thf half-uncial. This writing acquired still more angular forms in the eleventh century, and throughout the Mifldle Ages remained the national writing of Ireland. The Irish MSS. are remarkable for the fantastic and rich deco- ration of their initials (see Manuscript.s, Illumi- nated).

The Anglo-Saxon writing is derived from both the Irish writing and the Roman script of the MSS. which

the missionaries brought to the island. As in Ireland, it is sometimes round, broad, and squat (especially in the seventh and eighth centuries), sometimes angular, with long and pointed ascenders. The liturgical MSS. differ from those of Ireland in the frequent use of gold in the initials. The Evangeliary of Lindisfarne (Book of Durham), transcribed about 700 (London, Brit. Museum), is one of the most beautiful examples of round writing. Anglo-Saxon writing disappeared after the Norman Conquest, but the Carlovingian minuscule which succeeded it was formed partly under the influence of the Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks who had been brought to the Continent.

C. Carlovingian Reform. — The reform of writing undertaken in the monasteries on Charlemagne's initia- tive was inspired by the desire for correct and easily legible texts of the Sacred Books. Models were sought in the ancient MSS., and Servatus Lupus, Abbot of Ferrieres, persuaded Eginhard that the royal scribe Bertcaudus should take as a model the ancient capital (" Lettres", ed. Desdevises du Dezert, Paris, ISSS, pp. 60, 61). The monastery of St. Martin of Tours, of which .\lcuin was abbot (796-804), may be considered the chief centre of this reform and produced the most beautiful manuscripts of this period — e. g., the Evan- geliary of Lothair, the Bible of Charles the Bald, the Sacramentary of Autun, the book of St. Martin of QuedlinOurg. These MSS. served as models for the monastic scriptoria throughout the empire, and by de- grees the Carlovingian writing conquered all the West. In these MSS. are found the various kinds of ancient writing: the epigraphic capital, the rustic cap- ital, the uncial, the half-uncial, and the minuscule. With few exceptions, the capital was little used except for titles, initials, and copies of inscriptions. The MSS. of St. Martin of Tours show a partiality for a beautiful half-uncial, but the most important reform was the creation of the minuscule, which became, ex- cept for titles, initials, and the first lines of chapters, the writing used in the greater number of MSS. This minuscule prevailed throughout Europe in the twelfth century, and in the sixteenth century, when another reform of writing was inaugurated, the Italian copy- ists and typographers again used it as a model. M. L. Delisle (Mem. Acad, des Inscript., XXXII) has shown that the half-uncial and the cursive uncial, employed in the sixth and seventh centuries for the annotation of MSS., may be traced as elements in the Carlovin- gian minuscule. Among its chief characteristics are: A sometimes open CC, sometimes closed, and derived from the uncial ^; the ascenders L J | I of the b, d, 1, and h broadened at the top ►^^Q'jV ^T^; the g re- tains its semi-uncial form (j; the i no longer goes above theline. The MSS. hence aforth well ordered present a clear and pleasing appearance. The words are nearly always well separated from one another; ligatures are rare, but that of the & (for and) has been retained. Sentences begin with majuscules and are separated by points (weak punctuation) or semi-colons (strong punctuation). At first, abbreviations were few, but they increased in the tenth century. One of the most beautiful specimens of this minuscule is furnished by the MS. Lat. 14.51, in Bib. Nat., Paris, transcribed in 796, and containing a collection of conciliar canons and a catalogue of the popes.

In documents of the imperial chancery the reform of writing was at first less pronounced, and the scribes retained the elongated writing of the Merovingian period; it became, however, clearer, more regular, and less encumbered with ligatures, while care was taken in the separation of the words. In the time of Louis the Pious, on the other hand, the minuscule of MSS. began to be seen in ofllcial documents, and soon it supjilanted writing. At the same time it followed some ancient traditions: it is generally more ornamented than the writing of MSS., the space between the lines is greater, the ascenders of the d, i, and 1 are usually lengthened,