Medieval Calligraphy

Medieval calligraphy

                This book is useful for two reasons; 1) it provides the historical background for many medieval scripts, and 2) explains and shows how those scripts would be formed. Before jumping straight to the section on Gothic Textualis Quadrata, it is worth mentioning a few of the previous developments that are still prevalent in Gothic scripts, the first being the Hierarchy of scripts. During the Carolingian period, both Charlemagne and Alcuin of York wanted to retain the best of the written past, and so had both fine examples of older scripts and the new miniscule script often recorded together capturing the original work in both old and new hands, apparently copying the Luxeuil style of a “hierarchically displayed headlining”. This hierarchy began with title and explicits in Roman Square Capitals; chapter heads, first lines, subtitles, the beginnings of paragraphs and sentences using Rustics; prefaces and second lines using Half Uncial; and finally the remainder of the text to be written in Caroline miniscule. It was the older scripts that retained the most prestigious places of a text, and this trend continued into the Gothic era.

                Several centuries after Caroline miniscule was developed, it underwent a fundamental change in the way it was penned that led to the development of a proto-gothic form which saw the beginnings of angularizing and compacting of letter forms. Other names for this stage in development are “early gothiques Primitives”, “Cistercian script”, and “Late Carolingian Miniscule”, and, interestingly enough, there is no general consensus as to whether or not proto-gothic actually deserves to be named its own distinct script. Scholars don’t even agree as to when it is first recognizable. Was it the tenth century? The eleventh? Perhaps the twelfth? While they do not agree as to when it started, there is consensus that it reached its peak during the twelfth century and was clearly recognizable as full-grown gothic by the thirteenth century. The term “gothic” for this generation of scripts between the twelfth through fifteenth centuries comes from the renaissance scholars who so disliked the scripts that they gave them the most contemptuous and derogatory name they could think of.

                One of the fundamental changes Caroline miniscule underwent was from the focus on individual letter forms to a focus on the overall form and uniformity of the word. This had the effect of shortened spaces between letters, faster writing, and more words per line. There were two ways they could have achieved these effects; 1) by shortening the height of the letters and writing with a narrower pen, or 2) have the letters maintain their present height, but narrow the width of the letters. The author states that we have no concrete reason as to why they chose the latter, but that it was most likely out of economy, the second option only requiring one change as opposed to two. At any rate, with the second option in use, it resulted in the recognizable angular forms of gothic, first out of necessity (the pen was pulled sharply to narrow letters on the curved sections), and then out of aesthetics (it came to be seen as artistic and beautiful).

                By the time we move firmly into the gothic era of writing, several distinct characteristics are notable. The “or” ligature as we have mentioned and demonstrated before; the 8 shaped s used only at the end of a word; the “st” ligature remained with the exclusion of “ct” and “et” ligatures; ii was written as ij to reduce confusion. Later, certain aesthetic features were added as it became more of a calligraphic script, notably the split ascenders. By far the most interesting feature of gothic to me is that the identifying feature of letters forms is mainly in the top half of a letter form, while the bottom half looks almost completely uniform, demonstrating the principles of word form over letter, creating a woven effect in word form (hence textualis, from textile). Other indicators of gothic quadrata are the inclusion of w, y, and z. Perfect Gothic Quadrata was considered to have been achieved when the space between the vertical strokes was exactly the same width as the vertical stroke itself, and the space between words was twice that.  By the thirteenth century, gothic became the most ornate, artifice-bedecked calligraphy ever known, but was by no means uniform throughout continental Europe.

                Spain and Italy are the most notable examples of unique regional hands, developing their characteristic rotunda forms of gothic. One particular reason for their unique development was that Spain and a majority of Italy never came under Carolingian rule, and thus developed their own hands aside from Caroline miniscule, and were only half-influenced by the development of gothic out of that Miniscule. Some of the more interesting rotunda forms include “half-gothic”, “Spanish Round-hand”, “southern Gothic”, and “semi-Quadratus”.

Paleography exercise

So, as the manuscript page I examined is copyrighted, I will not post the picture here, but will have it for viewing in class. Following is a brief discussion of the text, as well as my attempted transcription and interesting features of the script.

fol. 15r
Historia Tobiae.
Whole page with initial 'P': Tobias and the Angel.

Attempted transcription

                Salmanlar regis assy uorum in captuiitate samen positus uiamue ntatis non aesacutsita ut Omnia que hatere poterat cotidie concaptiuls fub[us] quierantereius genere impartuer. Exsor(?) eto tomine ut leiunsu lo unproperu huiusab saluas me aut certe ce supterram eripias me. Peterniniscarus telicta mea ud parentum me orumsne uindictam sumas te preis mas ormus sutinentes teon[on?]e. [ ] Omnia iudioatua iu sta sunt [?] omnes we tue mia et ueritas. Et nune teminome[nun]to mei[us?] hece. Cum esset tobias iunior omnibus in tubu neptalims nichil tn[on?] pue cule gessit in opera. Deniq[ue] cum nent omnes ad uitulas aureos[us?] quos iero luam fererat rerir[?]hic solus fugietat consora a omnium [_·t] pgetat ad iertin ad templumorus tibi atorabat onim teuisrl: ex omniiii tempore benedic teuin [_·t] pete ab eo oi tem[x?]re Consilia tua in [yo?] pmaneanit. [?] axemor esto fili qm[um?] paiqein uitam gerimus halrbis mul to bonsai timueriis teuan.

                This document is a Breviary of Chertsy Abby, in Latin (fragments) from 14^th century England, possibly around 1307 or later written in mostly gothic textura quadrata. It is an apocryphal book in the Old Testament

Some of the distinguishing features of the script are:

 split ascenders on letters (usually b, h, k, l and q)

a tailing flick at the end of words

conjoined letter forms, especially as in bo, tr, oe, st, pa, pr, and tu. These are again areas where two adjacent letters that have bows facing one another (be, oc, po) are set close together so as to have bows partially overlap one another, and 2), in order to avoid as far as possible the meeting of bow and straight stroke, the ‘round’ r from the old ligature (or) is also attached to the letters with bows (d,h,p,v,y) creating a half r.

each vertical stroke contains 3 separate strokes resulting in the diamond like features at the top and bottom of the ascenders/descenders.

One peculiarity in this text is the old form of t used in conjunction with the gothic style. Often, especially at the beginning of words, this document favors a more Caroline t with a rounded form.

Typical of the era, ruling marks were clearly visible. This particular folio was separated into four columns (two on the left and two on the right), with additional ruling in each column.

The illumination is also unique, as it employs actual gold leaf. This feature, along with the formal and clear bookhand written in textualis indicates the importance of the work. This text is rather clear, probably due to the fact that it was an English hand writing, but is certainly not entirely uniform. Indicative of the textualis is that nearly every letter rests on and between the ruling lines, and very rarely leaving them (even the descenders are substantially shortened so as to fit within the lines). The shape of the word was more important than the creation of individual letters, resulting in several allographs or conjoined letters.

While I am not familiar with every abbreviation, or could not find a reference to the abbreviations I noticed, the author's use of abbreviations seems to be inconsistent and mostly to make sure he can fit the required words into the provided space, especially where there are illuminated features.

References

Adrianno cappelli, The elements of abbreviation in Medieval Latin Paleography, tr. David Heinnan and Richard Kay (Kansas: University of Kansas Publications, 1982).

Marc Drogin, Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique (New Jersey: Allanheld, Osmun & Co., and Abner Schram Ltd., 1980)

Manuscript borrowed from the  Bodleian university digital collection. (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/lat/liturg/d/042/1500/04200762.jpg)

Scribes and illuminators

Scribes and Illuminators

                This book is all about codicology, following book-making from the animals, rags from which the parchment or paper would be made all the way through the planning, penning, illuminating, and binding the Books would go through before being completed, and is rich with illustrations of processes, detailed explanations, and vibrant images of medieval manuscripts, missels, and miniatures. It is divided into three main sections: Paper and parchment-makers; Ink-makers and Scribes; and Illuminators, Binders, and Booksellers.

                The book starts off with a detailed explanation and survey of parchment making, which we already covered earlier. There are, however, a few pieces of information worth noting that we have not before mentioned. The task of creating the parchment from the skins was the domain of the Percamenarius, and was a profession common to the gothic period, but probably dates to the earlier Romanesque and Carolingian periods. This would seem to be the case particularly for the Carolingian as Abbot Adelard in 822 at Corbie instituted a parchment-maker there. By the twelfth century there were lay parchment-makers at places such as Regensburg. Parchment making was considered an artisan and tradesman craft in every town. The invention of Parchment, according to Pliny, is associated with King Eumenes II in Pergamum in the second century BC during a papyrus blockade. The parchment-maker selected his skins from the abbotoir. An interesting note with parchment is that since it is made from oblong or non-uniform skins, on some manuscripts you can tell which part of the hide was used for a page, such as that covering the spine, because of certain bumps or lines that would occur on the finished thick parchment (would not be so distinct with thin parchment that had been pared down significantly). Also, if a hunted animal rather than a butchered livestock animal was used, you could sometimes notice bloodstains or vein-marks on the parchment (you would probably not see this in very important manuscripts). One aspect this book particularly emphasizes with parchment production is the time intensity of the work and the price. Soaking a hide in lie could take anywhere from three to ten days to cure it, and even longer if left in the sun to dry. Once dry, it would be scraped clean, rewashed, then scraped again till smooth, allowed to dry, and subsequently scraped a third time. The scrapings were often used to make glue (its use will be elaborated on later). Manuscripts tended to be thicker in the monastic period, and thinner following the thirteenth century.

                Sheets were rarely sold individually, usually by the dozen, and came at a significant cost. A 1298 account from the Sainte-Chappelle in Paris records a purchase of 972 dozen skins at 194 livres and 18 sous, coming out to 3 sous a skin. Also paid was the sun of 24 livres and 6 sous for scraping, 60 sous to the man selecting the skins and 10 sous to the valuer. The high cost can be somewhat offset, however, by the durability of the material. Parchemtn can last for over one thousand years in perfect condition. This is partly due to the fact that parchment, like leather, lasts longer from mild handling so as to retain its suppleness. Cheap parchment, however, does tend to curl up on the reader and demonstrate the more concave or convex features of the skin. Parchment was also ideal for book-making. Parchment could be sewn together easily, whereas papyrus would snap when folded, and crack when sewn together. Paper, then, was able to combine the utility and ease of papyrus, with the supple, flexible features of parchment.

                It is only in the thirteenth century that we find paper mills well-established in continental Europe. By the turn of the century mills were establish in Spain and Italy, France by 1340, and Germany by 1390. It would take England till the late fifteenth century to gain a solid base in paper production. Paper was also slow to gain acceptance as can be seen especially in England, wherein as late as 1480 only parchment was accepted as security for loans. That said, however, printing in the 1450s transformed the need for paper as it made literature exceedingly more available to a wider array of people. As the demand for books rose, paper became the perfect medium as it was infinitely cheaper to produce than parchment.

                Medieval paper was made from white linen-rags, and was more durable than our wood-pulp based paper. The rags were soaked, washed, and allowed to ferment four or five days, causing the rags to disintegrate in to pieces that were then cut and beaten for hours in clean running water. The resulting mush was then allowed to fester for a week, and was then beaten again until it was a waterlogged pulp. After the pulp was poured in a vat, the paper-makers would then dip a wire frame in the mix and pull it out, a film of fibers clinging to the frame. This is where watermarks would be put on the paper. The frames would often have some of the wires twisted into a design that would leave an imprint visible when the finished paper was held up to light. After the film is on the frame, the film would be emptied onto a sheet of felt, covered with another sheet, and then stacked with other such sheets to be pressed and squeezed till dry. The dried sheet was then dipped into an animal glue (from the shavings we mentioned earlier) to finish the bonding process.

                Next described is the process of preparing a manuscript for writing, also covered earlier, such as page layout, ruling, and formatting, and the writing process itself. Inks came in two primary types. 1) Carbon or charcoal ink, or lamp-black mixed with gum (the gum helped the ink adhere to the page), and 2) metal-gall ink with gum (in this case the gum thickened the ink rather than helped it adhere). As mentioned before, scribes would work from exemplars, the pecia, for writing. Exemplars were often borrowed between monasteries (why would we need to copy something already extant in our library?), and universities, specifically Paris and Bologna, had an exemplar loan service. Writing the medieval manuscript required the use of both hands; the pen in the write hand, and a knife in the left to quickly erase mistakes and hold down the springy parchment. Particularly in the gothic period scribes would also know multiple scripts.

                The last section of the book covers illumination, binding, and bookselling. Illumination particularly reveals the great planning that went into book production. As mentioned a few weeks ago, when parchment was purchased, it was done with the exact intent of its use already planned. When the scribe wrote, he would also leave specific areas blank in preparation for future decoration to be added (the job of the illuminator). In some cases, after the initial illustrations have been sketched in, there will be tiny letters in the miniatures to indicate exactly which color was to be used in that area. There were even whole books dedicated to the proper forms to be used in illuminating and painting in texts that describe and depict explicit forms allowable for use. Clearly, illumination would only be necessary for the most important books and works, most books being strictly the script.

                I am constantly amazed with how much work is dedicated to book-making in the Middle Ages, and how important or valuable books were. I take for granted how easy it is to come by books today, and greatly appreciate the intense devotion to literature demonstrated in early book-making. It is also striking to me to see such hierarchy even in book-making, and how much planning would go into the work. From start to finish, every aspect of the book was thought through, developed, and laid out before any writing ever took place. (I will be posting some pictures over the weekend that relate to this post)

               

Latin Paleography, parts 2 and 3

Parts 2 and 3

                After the initial discussion on codicology, Bischoff finally moves to the discussion of the historical progression of scripts from antiquity through the late middles ages, beginning with the Romans in antiquity, and culminating with the humanist scripts developed during and after the Italian renaissance in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. During the Middle Ages three primary developments in script occurred. First, during the Carolingian era, was the development of the Carolingian Miniscule, with Alcuin of York one of its prominent figureheads at the scriptorium at Corby. Carolingian miniscule was largely used continentally from the ninth through twelfth centuries A.D. Sometime during the twelfth and up through the fifteenth centuries, script forms generally transitioned to gothic scripts, particularly with the rise of universities, specifically the university of Paris in France, where the primary gothic hand was regionally developed and subsequently borrowed by most of the neighboring countries. The final development in script hand before the modern era culminated with the humanist scripts which replaced the gothic of the preceding centuries. While many very important and interesting features, figures, and forms developed throughout the Middle Ages, a full and thorough examination is not here possible. We shall, however, discuss the particulars of the gothic script of the twelfth through fifteenth centuries as those are most applicable to our subject matter.

                Gothic script is divided into three specific forms: Gothic textura, cursive, and bastarda. Previous to the actual development of gothic, it is important to note that during the ninth century in Germany, a tendency to create more ridged letter forms was already developing, disintegrating the more harmonious flows of the more round script forms of the Carolingian miniscule—it was not recognized as a gothic script, but would allow for the easy adoption of gothic forms in German speaking areas in later centuries. This development was due to the abandonment of cursive from the royal chancery. St. Gall in southern Germany was a leading figure of this change during the time of reconstruction after 955 A.D. This is not to say all German regions became ridged, as also in the south existed a peculiar slanting oval type of Carolingian miniscule displaying a clear Insular influence during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

                Gothic textura, the first official and developed gothic hand, developed in northern France and Belgium during the eleventh century where scripts began to be angular, elongated and compressed (the dominant features of any gothic script). Some of the more notable features of the textura were the addition of strokes at an angle to the top and bottom of letters; particular emphasis on ascenders; shafts are very upright; and the breaking of the shaft, an Insualar influence, leading to a common term also applicable to gothic scripts as sometimes being Fraktur—especially prominent in German regions. Of this latter feature, a particular script type, called Ghent type, was a fractured script with short shafts, square proportions, but was relatively short lived. Fractura was also influenced by Norman scripts from the eleventh century, helping give it its compact, full, and supple appearance. The most striking feature of gothic, however, is the extension and vertical alignment of all shafts, and that all letters, with the exception of g,q,p,y,and h, stood on the line and never dipped below. Also, the i,v,r,p,m, and n are all constructed with pronounced ascenders. The m, and n, would join the arcades with a hair stroke creating pointed arcades comparable to the pointed arches developed in gothic architecture. By the fourteenth century the hair strokes would become much less distinguished. In later forms of the texture, the “praecisus” form would cut off the i m,n, and r flat on the line (this depended on where the shaft was fractured on the line—just above, below, or in-between). The Italian route to gothic does have some differing features from the Norman form worth mentioning. Their letter forms are more rounded, and f and s had a tendency to dip below the line. Also, their ascenders were more broad and, generally, their letter forms are written with broader angles.

                “Perfected textura” was the final result of textura development, complete with a formal set of rules created by Wilhelm Mayer. His rules stated that 1) two adjacent letters that have bows facing one another (be, oc, po) are set close toether so as to have bows partially overlap one another. Where bows are in straight strokes, the letters share the vertical parts of the transformed bows. And 2) In order to avoid as far as possible the meeting of bow and straight stroke, the ‘round’ r from the old ligature (or) is also attached to the letters with bows (d,h,p,v,y). These rules became the standard for all gothic at the start of the thirteenth century and remained in force till the days of early printing. The rules’ primary purpose were for aesthetics and to achieve as uniform an image as possible for the script. In its most extreme form, textura allowed for no rounded forms whatsoever, only allowing angular compounded letters. Italian, by contrast, would always maintain a rounded feature.

                The Germans adopted gothic textura as their bookhand primarily because they looked to France as the source for all higher learning, often sending students to the University of Paris. The expansion of the Cistercian order into Germany also facilitated this transition as the Cistercians had a characteristic book production practice and a uniform script and décor. Southern German scripts would still continue to be influenced by the Italian “rotunda” form, while the north would be particularly dense and blocky, with heavier shapes. One striking difference that we see with the German hands is the lack of consideration for compactness. The Germans have a loose distribution of letters and don’t care for closedness as much as the rest. German gothic textura reached its peak during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, often taking very regional distinctions. Flame-like ascenders were a hallmark of a southern style.

                Textura also came in large and normal size variations, each having a particular use. Large textura was mainly restricted to liturgical manuscripts of large formats and to elementary schoolbooks, indicating the relative importance of the work. Textura’s decline was largely due to the appearance of bastarda and the increasing use of paper over parchment.

                Textura certainly had its origins in important writing, whereas the cursive development was largely the result of a chancery or lesser bookhand writing less important, or secular works, and owes much to the charter hand of curial script from the Papal States. The cursive follows a much more secular diffusion, and was adopted in Germany as it was the script the chancery wrote in, which set the tone for the region. One unique feature of the cursive script is that it did not always flow, but did have breaks in word formation. During the fifteenth century gothic cursive enjoyed a position as a special charter script.   

                It is during this last portion of the fifteenth century that bastarda makes its appearance. As the name implies, it is the union of two types of scripts, in this case, the gothic textura and cursive, taking on peculiarities of both. It serves as a means of bridging the gap between the two to maintain ease of writing, and avoid the confusion between b, v, lb, and w, that existed in the cursive.  Bastarda became rapidly popular in Germany and even the chosen script for early printing. One of the primary reasons it was so successful was the mass transition to paper for writing, instruction in universities, and the increase in more secular and vernacular literature. Paper could be easily torn with the gothic textura’s angular forms, but had an aesthetic appeal that bastarda tries to maintain while also adopting the more round forms of the gothic cursive, while still wanting a clear contrast from it. Most bastardas maintained an “elegent prickly” character (Bougouignonne) with pointed descenders, but still allowing for loops and hair strokes. Bastarda became the court hand under Philip the Good and Charles the Bold in France, and remained so till the sixteenth century. Bastarda’s influence was so pronounced in Germany, as we have seen with it being adopted in print, that it continues to be used in Germany, in the form of Blackletter and Fraktur all the way through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, well into the modern era.