Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/625

NATIONAL HANDS] grew the Lombardic hand of Italy, the Visigothic hand of Spain, and the Merovingian and, later, the Carolingian hand of the Frankish Empire. The earliest charters of the three national divisions, written in cursive hands directly descending from the Roman cursive, and dating generally from the 7th century, still remained related in their general style. It was in the book-hands, elaborated from the cursive character, that the lines of national demarcation became more clearly defined, although naturally there occur also many examples in mixed styles which it is difficult to assign to one or another country.

Lombardic Writing.—The national handwriting of Italy did not follow one and the same lines of development throughout the peninsula. In ordinary documents the cursive hand which is seen in the Ravenna deeds, the direct descendant of the Roman cursive, continued in use, growing, in course of time, more and more intricate and difficult to read, the earliest examples, down to the middle of the 9th century, being in the large straggling character of their prototype. The illegible scrawl into which the hand finally degenerated in notarial instruments of southern Italy was at length suppressed by order of Frederick II. ( 1210-1250). But at an early date the Lombardic book-hand was being formed out of this material. In northern Italy new influences were brought into action by Charlemagne's conquest, the independent growth of the native hand was checked, and a mixed style in which the Merovingian type was interwoven with the Italian was produced, to which the name of Franco-Lombardic has been given (see below, fig. 39). But in the Lombardic duchies of the south the native Lombardic book-hand had an unimpeded growth. In such centres as the monasteries of Monte Cassino near Naples and La Cava near Salerno, it took in the 9th century a very exact and uniform shape. From this date the attention which it received as a calligraphic form of writing, accompanied with accessory ornamentation of initial letters, brought it to a high state of perfection in the 11th century, when by the peculiar treatment of the letters, they assume that strong contrast of light and heavy strokes which when exaggerated, as it finally became, received the name of broken Lombardic. This style of hand lasted to the 13th century.

Papal Documents.—A word must be said in this place regarding the independent development of the hands used in the papal chancery, that great centre which had so wide an influence by setting the pattern for the handsome round-hand writing which became so characteristic of the Italian script. Specimens of a special style of writing, founded on the Lombardic and called littera romana (fig. 34) are to be seen in the early papal documents on papyrus dating from the latter part of the 8th century. In the earliest examples it appears on a large scale, and has rounded forms and sweeping strokes of a very bold character. Derived from the official Roman hand, it has certain letters

peculiar to itself, such as the letter a made almost like a Greek , t in the form of a loop, and e as a circle with a knot at the top.

This hand may be followed in examples from 788 through the 9th century (Facs. de chartes et diplomes, 1866; Ch. Figeac, Chartes et doc. sur papyrus, i-xii.; Letronne, Diplom. merov. ætat., pl. 48. In a bull of Silvester II., dated in 999 (''Bibl. l'Ec.'' des chartes, vol. xxxvii.), we find the hand becoming less round; and at the end of the next century, under Urban II., in 1097 (Mabillon, De re dipl. suppl. p. 115) and 1098 (Sickel, Mon. graph. v. 4), it is in a curious angular style, which, however, then disappears. During the 11th and 12th centuries the imperial chancery hand was also used for papal documents, and was in turn displaced by the exact and calligraphic papal Italian hand of the later middle ages.

Visigothic Writing.—The Visigothic writing of Spain ran a course of development not unlike that of the Lombardic. In the cursive hand attributed to the 7th century the Roman cursive has undergone little change in form; but another century developed a most distinctive character. In the 8th century appears the set book-hand in an even and not difficult character, marked by breadth of style and a good firm stroke. This style is maintained through the 9th century with little change, except that there is a growing tendency to calligraphy. In the 10th century the writing deteriorates; the letters are not so uniform, and, when calligraphically written, are generally thinner in stroke. The same changes which are discernible in all the hand writings of western Europe in the 11th century are also to be traced in the Visigothic hand—particularly as regards the rather rigid character which it assumes. It continued in use down to the beginning of the 12th century. Perhaps the most characteristic letter of the book-hand is the q-shaped g. The following specimens (figs. 35, 36) illustrate the Visigothic as written in a large heavy hand of the 9th century (Cat. Anc. MSS.' ii. Plate 37), and in a calligraphic example of 1109 (Pal. Soc. Plate 48).

Merovingian.—The early writing of the Frankish Empire, to which the title of Merovingian has been applied, had a wider range than the other two national hands already described. It had a long career both for diplomatic and literary purposes. In this writing, as it appears in documents, we see that the Roman cursive is subjected to a lateral pressure, so that the letters received a curiously cramped appearance, while the heads and tails are exaggerated to inordinate length.

Facsimiles of this hand, as used in the royal and imperial chanceries, are to be found scattered in various works; but a complete course of Merovingian diplomatic writing may be best studied in Letronne's Diplomata, and in the Kaiserurkunden of Professors Sybel and Sickel. In the earliest documents, commencing in the 7th century and continuing to the middle of the 8th