From Bologna to the Blogosphere.
A History of Written Correspondence’ Summer School
June 23rd - July 4th 2014
The graphical panorama from the 9th and 12th centuries to
the University writing systems. The most important
writing systems from the 9th century to the University Era
Annafelicia Zuffrano
Wednesday, July 2th, h. 9-13
Giorgio Cencetti
(1908-1970)
Bernhard Bischoff
(1906-1991)
G. CENCETTI,
Lineamenti di Storia
della scrittura latina,
rist. a cura di G.
GUERRINI, Bologna 1997
B. B. BISCHOFF, Latin
palaeography:
antiquity and middle
age, translated by D. Ó
CRÓINÍN AND D.
GANZ, Cambridge
1990
Armando Petrucci
(1932- )
A. PETRUCCI, Breve
storia della
paleografia latina,
Roma 1992
«Paleography is the critical study of the ancient
scriptures and its purpose is not only to exactly
interpret the manuscripts, but also to date
them, to locate them and, in general, to trace,
from their physical appearance, all the
elements useful for the study of their content
and in general, of the cultural history».
Giorgio Cencetti
1. What is written in the source
we are studying?
2. When was it written?
3. Where was it written?
4. How was it written?
5. Who wrote the source we are
analyzing?
6. Why was writing our sources?
The paleographical lexicon
Writing materials
Paper
Marble
Bronze
Wax tablet
Parchment
Papyrus
Writing materials and instruments
Hammer and
chisel
Rome - Votive
inscription on marble
A.D. IIth cent.,
Epigraphic Capital
Writing materials and instruments
Pointed instrument
Rome, Foro Romano - Pillar under
Lapis Niger
Ancient Script - b.C. VIth-Vth cent.
Ante A.D. 79 - PompeiGraffiti
Writing materials and instruments
Wax tablet
57 A.D.- Wax tablets of Pompei
Writing materials and instruments
Brush
Pompei – Electioneering on wall
Writing materials and instruments
Papyrus
Parchment
Papyrus
Quill and reed pen
Various type of ink
Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, ms.
123, Gradual, Troper, Sequence,
11th century
Bub, ms. 2461, 14th century
Various type of ink
Codex Purpureus Rossanensis,
Rossano, 6th century
Codex Argenteus, Uppsala,
UB, D.G. 1 + Speyer,
Historische Museum der
Pfalz, 6th century
Majuscule: all the characters have the same size
and where the letters can be inscribed in a
bilinear system
Minuscule: all the characters have different sizes
and where the letters can be inscribed in a fourlinear system
Size: refers to the letter dimensions
Shape: refers to the look of every single letter
Ductus: refers to the way in which the script is traced
and it can be:
Cursive
Composed
Half-cursive
chiaroscuro (light and shade): refers to the
thickness of letter’s strokes
heavy
lacking
light
hatching (tratteggio): refers to the number, the
sequence and the direction of the letter strokes
Samples of hatching
Rustic capital
Samples of hatching
Caroline minuscule
Samples of hatching
French gothic
Ligature: it is a union between two or more
characters
Largitio
Fusion: two consecutive letters share one shape
Book writing
Padova, Antoniana Library, ms. I 27, 9th-10th century
Documentary writing
Bologna, State Archive, Uff. dei Rif. degli estimi, s. II b. 25 n. 14,
1296-97, cedola of estimo in vernacular
Chancellery’s writing
St. Gallen, Stifftsarchiv, Abteilung
Pfaerfers, A. D. 1139, imperial diploma of
Conrad III
Cencetti’s writings categorization
1. graphical roman unit
2. graphical particularism
3. caroline-gothic
4. modern-humanistic
Roman Era
Early Middle
Ages
8th -13th century
14th- 15th century
Caroline minuscule
(8th-12th century)
A. Hessel
L. Delisle
V. Federici
L. Schiaparelli
Caroline minuscule
(8th-12th century)
Transition minuscule
Angelo, State Archive, S. Giovanni in Monte 3/1343 n. 45, April 1144
Guido III, State Archive. S. Giovanni in Monte 6/1346.1, January, 12th, 1158
Gothic
AD 1339, Trier
AD 1353, Rome
Mayer’s rules
1)
If two adjacent letters have bows facing one another (for example be, oc, po)
then they are set so close that the bows partially overlap
2)
After the letters with a bow the r assumes the 2-shape
3)
There are two shapes of d, the first one with the
ascender sloping to the left before a round letters, the
second one with straight ascender before a straight
letters
The Italian shape of gothic: rotunda
script
Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana,
Petrarch’s Virgile, 14th sec.
The “Scholastic scripts” : the littera
bononiensis script
14th sec, BUB, Ms. 1178, Rolandinus
de Passeggeri, Summa artis notarie
Italian chancellery’s minuscule
AD 1337, Milan, Biblioteca
Trivulziana
AD 1346, Treves,
Stadtbibliothek
Humanistic script
AD 1457, Berna, Stadtbibliothek,
Valerius Probus, De notis antiquis
The Italica script
AD 1562, Milan, Biblioteca
Ambrosiana, Letter of Carlo Borromeo
Thanks for your
attention!