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.