Paleography,

The Study of Writing

Gerry Benot
Paleography is the science of old writing. It maybe studied
in itself and so constitute a part of the history of civilization or as
part of special fields, like literature, to determine the age, provenance, accuracy of textual, legal, and personal documents. It is a
fairly new discipline, having originally been part of diplomatics,
or the study of official documents. The founder of this field was
Jean Mabillon, a French Benedictine monk (1632-1707) whose
work, De re diplomatica, appeared in 1681. Universities began
courses in paleography in 1759 at the University of Gttingen; in
1821 the cole de chartes was established in Paris. The study of
paleography is usually done by type of writing, type of intellectual
content of the document, or by political regions and individual
scribes. The most important general works are listed here:
General Histories
Reusens, Ed. lements de palographie. Louvain: 1899, rep.
1963.
Prou, M. Manuel de palographie latine et franaise. Paris:
1924.
Stiennon, J. Palographie du moyen-ge. Paris: Colin, 1973.
Thompson, E. M. An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography. Oxford: 1912 and later.
Millares Carlo, A. Tratado de paleografa espaola. 2d ed. 1932.
Battelli, G. Lezioni di paleografia. 2nd ed. Citt del Vaticano:
1939.
Technique of writing
Wattenbach, W. Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter. 3rd ed.
Leipzig: Hirzel, 1896.
Hajnl. Enseignment universitaire au moyen age.
Musical Paleography
Mocquereau, A. Palographie musicale. 14 vol., 1889-1936.
Suol, G. Introduction la palographie musicale grgorienne.
1935.
Specialized collections
Arndt, W. Schrifttafeln zur Erlerung des lateinischen
Palographie, fac. I. and II. 3rd ed. 1929.
Brouwer, A. Atlas voor nederlandsche palaeographie. 1945.
Chroust, A. Monumenta Palaeographica.
Ehrle, R. & Liebaert, P. Specimina codicum latinorum Vaticanorum. 2d ed. 1932.
Recueil des fac-simils lusage de lcole des chartes, 1880-87.

von Sybel, H. and von Sickel, Th. Kaiserukunden in Abbildungen, 1880-91.

Periodicals.
Bibliothque de lcole des chartes.
Deutsches Archiv.
Le Moyen Age.
Manuscriti.
Rvue dhistoire ecclsiastique.
Scriptorium.
Signature.
Definitions
Writing is distinguished according to its dimensions: Majuscule
is writing between two imaginary horizontal lines, called the head
and base lines. Minuscules are those written between 4 lines,
ascender, head, base, descender.
Rapidity of writing is another determinant: the most important
styles are Set (or formata) where letters are not connected, are
of a regular feeling and technique and usually somewhat large,
Cursive letters are much more connected, sometimes inclined
and maybe deformed; Current are invariably inclined, greatly
connected and usually deformed; Bastard is a stylized combination of types.
There are many subclasses and variant names.
Five main periods
In Europe, we can establish five main periods:
1) 1-st to 8th century
2) 11-12th (Reign of Caroline Minuscule)
3) 12-15th (Reformations in writing that mark the Middle Ages)
4) 16-19th (Modern hands which derive from gothic,
humanistic styles, or both)
5) 20th (Rebirth of calligraphy)
R

ABCDEFGHIJKL
MNOPQRSTUVW
XYZ
a modern font similar to
Capitalis Quadratus

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ
RSTUVWXYZ

A modern font suggestive of

capialis rustica

First Period
We divide this first period into two sub periods: from the origins
to 300 AD, and from 300-800 AD.
A) Origins to 300 AD:
Writing in this period is done primarily by scribes (librarii) or
slaves on wax tablets or papyrus. Parchment was not used yet for
writing but following the conquest of Egypt papyrus became more
difficult to obtain and so parchment, the skin of sheep, cows,
calves (vellum), rabbits, etc., was turned to. Depending on the
surface, a pointed tool (stylus or graphium) was used; for papyrus
and parchment, the calamus was used. The preferred ink was
black, made of carbon soot and linseed oil and in some places of
iron-gall or gallo-tannic material was used.
Letter forms:
The most formal level of letter was the (1) Square Capital. It is
the handwritten version of the monumental letters of inscriptions.
A less carefully formed version, with a high bias was the (2)
Rustic Capitals. This style was used most often in legal works.
There were naturally various cursives: one used in imperial government (Imperial Rescript) is very difficult to read. We see
trends of deformation (elongation, enlarging or simplification)
which encourages the minuscule form that later developed.
B) From 300 to 800 AD
Writing is increasingly performed by scribes in monastery scriptoria. Wax tablets are still found but papyrus found favor. Reused parchments (palimsests), by the way, were common. In this
period the book or codex form was established: the leaves were
folded in half and grouped in quires. The number of pages varied

and their layout favored having the darker sides of the parchment
face each others. Scribes would trace horizontal lines on the
parchment (the papyrus not needing extra help). With the shift
to a supple writing surface likewise the pen needed to be changed.
The bird feather (penna in Latin) was employed.
With the greater freedom of pen and surface, as well as changing
roles of production, purpose and letter styles, manuscripts become
more highly decorated. Note that mss. that are colored are called
decorated or illustrated, only mss. that are decorated with metals (silver or gold) are illuminated (from illuminare, to shine).

Letter forms:
Set writing moved wards the Uncial and ultimately the halfuncial. In the British Isles, two distinct versions evolved, the
round and pointed insular hands. On the Continent, political
upheavals lead to the creation of proto-modern states (e.g.,
Merovingian kings in France). These states arose from the ashes
of Roman government in the provinces. As such set writing
which requires certain levels of sophistication and patronage, was
not encouraged. Instead writing which was useful in state instruments was. In Italy: Lombardic, Curial, Benevantan
(Monte-Cassino); In Spain: Visigothic; in France: Merovingian.
The Uncials most distinctive features was the rounding of the
backbones of A, D, E, H, and M.

The Half-Uncial is actually a mixed style, which for the most

part replaced the Uncial by the 6th century. Also known as the
Semi-Uncial, this hand contains both majuscule and minuscule
forms. Its formation period was the 1-5th cent., perfection (5-6),
decline (7), and decadence (8th). It was written with a straight
cut quill akin to how one writes uncials, but it used the minuscule
forms of letters b, d, m, and r. The a, d, e, and m were more like
the forms of modern type letters. The s is sometimes a long s.
Intended for speed and some beauty, we see an increase in ligatures.
The Insular hands, especially as practiced in Ireland, were quite
beautiful. By the 7th century there were several styles: the most
important are the Round (used in liturgical works until the 13th
cent.) and the Pointed which survives today as the national hand
of rie.
Despite the low level of ability in England, there was a trend towards increasing beauty and legibility which English cleric, Al-

cuin, codified under state sanction in the reign of Charlemagne.

For paleographers, there are dozens of styles and sub-styles during
this period distinguished primarily by house styles reflected in
how a small number of letters were formed, e.g., Corbie ab, Corbie ae.
It was in this period, also, that English enjoyed more alphabet
letters. The yogh (the guttural sound in the early pronunciation
of knight, now spelled with a gh); the thorn (from the 8-16th
cent), the Eth (uncial d with crossbar, still used in Icelandic) and
ash, or . The double-u imported from Germany replaced the
eth in certain linguistic environments.

to become more broken and from this arises the textura

(gothic) minuscules.
Great scriptorii are founded to provide books for clerical schools
and to save parts of ancient culture (e.g., Boethius). The most
important sites are Aachen, Tours, Fulda, Luxueil, Corbie,
Kln. Alcuin of York, the English cleric, was sent to the monastery of St. Martin at Tours where he encouraged improvements
in writing already underway. Tours lead the return to ancient
formata-level (set) hands. The reuse of ancient hands was not
exactly the same as originally done; some variations exist, such as
the dierently shaped letter g in the half-uncial.
The Caroline minuscule at the beginning of its use was a mixture
between the half-uncial and the cursives. Ligatures are few, e.g.,
st, and some Merovingian and uncial letters coexisted.
Punctuation now employed with more regularity.
During this time the Caroline minuscule established itself as a
beauty bookhand and as a legal hand. As one of the few hands
which was diffused widely among scribes and able to be employed
in different fields (legal, personal, books), the Caroline minuscule
influenced all subsequent developments in writing. The most
important of these changes is the breaking of letter forms late in
this period. In Northern France and in Flanders, the trend
started in the 11th century, perhaps by changes in the writing
instrument or from other trends in Italy (Monte Cassinos unique
broken script). Whatever the cause the result was the gothic.

R
Second Period: 9th - 12th cent.
The 8th century was the clericalization of writing. In this second
period the book trade ceases. Monastic production of writing is
the sole locus: clerics for example under Pepin the Short drew up
acts for the kings administration. Parchment is virtually supreme, save a few rare examples. Paper was used in Spain and in
Sicily from the 11th century. It was not until later that its use
spread throughout Europe.
The cursive and shorthand forms were destined to fall from use
since the production of manuscripts was supported by the Church
and time was no longer a great factor to consider when completing
a work. Majuscule letters enjoyed a brief renaissance: the Square
Capitals, the Rustic, Uncial and Half-Uncials are used for titles,
incipits, chapter headings, &c., while the Caroline minuscule
served for the text. This became known as the Hierarchy of
Scripts. In the course of the 12th century, the Caroline hand tends

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Third Period: 12th - 15th cent.
The late medieval period is characterized by (a) the appearance of
universities, (b) development of government administration, (c)
written acts retook a legal value at the beginning of the 13th century, (d) economic transformations, including use of writing
among merchants. The independent scribe-for-hire appears
(and continues today).
Set writing is reserved for titles, missals and livres de luxe. Cursives reappear. The book form changes: Pecia, before the 13th
century, was a sheet of parchment that was made from sheep skin.

It was folded into quarters and from it one obtained a notebook

(quire) of 4 leaves or 8 pages. The codex is composed of a certain
number of peciae. In order to produce works quickly, one
confined the copying of each pecis to a different scribe. To copy
books in the monasteries, in urgent cases, one unbound the work
and read them aloud to the scribe. This became a veritable institution in the university. The university would procure a mss. that
it wanted to use in courses (exemplar). The work was verified by
Univ. authorities. It was after this verification that it was deposited in a stationnaire. The student who desired to copy the book
went there but could only have one paciae at a time.
The consequences of this was that all those at a university center
adopted the same hand. At this time there would be local types of
writing in university centers (e.g., Univ. of Paris, of Bologna,
etc.).
The book trade reappears. This trade was exercised on the side of
stationaries, scribes, parchment manufacturers, miniaturists,
bookbinders. The profession of scribe grew among the laity:
monks worked for their monastery. Some monasteries died out,
lay scribal groups formed (Brothers of the Communal Life,
Congregation of the Canons of St. Augustine of Windesheim).
Of course printings arrival in the 15th century affected the development of writing.
Letter forms
(a) Textura: in the 15th century this was used for texts as opposed
to those of glosses or marginal notes (notula). By the 16th century, textus meant the older hands as opposed to the emerging
humanistic hands.
(b) Fractura in the 15th century was the broken writing of acts or
of books; from the middle of the 16th century in German there
arose more artistic styles which developed from legal hands.
(c) Lettera Formata (lettre de forme, lettre form): used from the
13th centuries for both legal and books. In France in the 14th cent.
the lettre de form is the book hand. In the 16th, it was used in
contrast to the humanistic hands.
In Italy, it meant all forms of calligraphy. The Italians referred
to this writing style as lettera francescha.
(d) Lettera Moderna: in the 15th cent, it meant the gothic versus the humanists lettera antica.
(e) Rotunda: In France from the 14th cent., it meant the gothic
with simple breaks; that style with 2 breaks was Fraktur. In Italy
it meant the letter form used in the legal center of Bologna, which
is sometimes called gotico-antiqua
Fraktur: eine Deutsche Scrift
(f) Bastard: In France in the 15th century, it was the gothic, an
aesthetic hand emerging from legal styles (lettre de court). It is a
link between the lettre de forme and the cursives (lettere courante). This sense lasted in France until the mid-16th cent. In

Italy, it meant a fere-humanistica, which came from the gothic

Italian cursive and would be the basis for italic print.
Paper: made either of linen or fibrous vegetable material. The
first European mill was that of Jatira Inear in Valenzia, Spain;
the first Italian and still viable mill at Fabriano. Watermarks
appear. The Plume or quill replaces the reed. Duck, swan feathers were used.
General characteristics: the transformation to black letter forms is
complete. E.g., m = m . New ligatures appear, especially the
sharing of minims.
(a) Formata level: round strokes made straight (broken),
writing is large and spacious.
(b) Cursive: less broken, the l and h tend to be rounded.
(c) Bastard styles: encompasses all hands which derive from the
cursive. The Court of Bourgogne (Burgundy) raised this style to
great elegance.
(d) England saw two main styles: 1) Anglicana, a court hand
and (b) Secretary, From this point many varieties appear, such
as the hybrid secretary (aka Brevitura) was Shakespeares writing style. For examples, see (a) A Booke Containing Divers
sortes of hands, (b) A Newe Booke of Copies, (c) Theatrum
Artis Scribendi.
(e) Humanistic Styles: a round hand that imitates that of the 11th
century in the belief that this style was from Antiquity. Note that
ascenders had slight club to the left and now more exaggerated
and so required more strokes. Note the beginning of finer quills to
produce letters with less pronounced thick-and-thin effect.
Around 1520 there tends in the more cursive styles to make letters
rigid and compressed = Chancery Cursive (the style used in this
handout).
Writing Manuals appear in great numbers after Ludovico Arrighis 1528 work (La Operina). The adoption of this writing
style (from Italy) in England gave us italic.
In Spain, the leaders of scribes were Juan de Yciar, Francisco
Lucas and later Andres Brun. In the Netherlands, Gerard
Mercator was the first to use italic on maps.
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Fourth Period: 16th - 19th cent.
The age of the writing master.
The manuscript books long reign was rapidly assumed by the
printed one. Governments, naturally conservative, did not move
to print until later. The increase in the amount of writing, rise in
education and changes in social patterns encouraged first the development of writing manuals. Later writing masters taught both
calligraphy and business skills, leading ultimately to the writing
master. This phenomenon was popular in Europe, particularly
under Englands financial leadership. In America, the itinerate

writing master thrived but is little studied. By the 18th century,

writing was considered primarily as an adjunct of business.
George Bickhams 1758 Universal Penman proclaimed that penmanship in business was the art of writing made useful. Scribes
were popular enough to be ridiculed by Isaac DIsraeli in his
Curiosities of Literature, 1835. Printed books become more
popular, of course, but hand written books remain, particularly as
gifts or in admiration of their quality (or when economic necessity
continued). Legal writing remained a twisted gothic hand, intended to be difficult for the non-trained to read. By this period
paper become almost universal, save for legal acts. The quill was
the supreme writing instrument and much was written about the
proper size and cutting of quills, the flexibility, length and cut.
Carbon-based inks yielded to iron-gall inks or combination inks.
The increased ability to practice, purposes of writing, the sense of
personal art form, lead to striking the designing of zomorphs
or other designs from the flourishes of the pen. John Sedden of
London was particularly noted. We see this trend almost until
World War II.
The forms of writing vary by region. Teutonic countries encouraged the cursives derived from medieval hands; the rest of Europe
developed national cursive styles, all of which derive from humanistic cursives, modified by the writing materials, inks and
pens.
Letter forms
We no longer speak of formata or set forms.
(a) For gothic cursives: varieties by region.
(b) Humanistic writing: comes to replace others. first in Latin
texts, later in French and Flemish works before the mid-18th
cent.
To increase legibility in government work, the criture financire
becomes the standard administrative style in 17th cent. France.
For correspondence, business or other requirements, different
levels of styles emerge: the criture btarde (aka italienne), coule
and ronde were employed, differentiated only be degree of inclination and size.
Italy first used native models, later using French and ultimately
English styles. Spain however developed her own hands based on
gothic styles: from the round gothic (rotunda) form came the
Letra Rotonda or Letera Espaola.
Germanic countries maintained and developed the gothic cursives.
Affected by the Renaissance and Baroque, the more gothic Fraktur yielded to the softer lines of Schwabacher and the Deutsche
Currentschrift. This last item remained in use until Hitlers
decree in 1943.
England: what is often called Roundhand or Copperplate
reigned.

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By the 19th century, writing has developed types of cursives, based
on the purpose of writing: Correspondence (or Ladies) Hand,
Gentlemans (less ornate, used in business correspondence), and
Full-Arm Capitals (for opening correspondence, entering titles,
etc.) and Ledger Hand, a large, legible style.
The Age of the Writing Master is really the age of the Triumph
of Cursive Writing. The most important development in this age
was that of the writing masters copy books. The difficulty of
maintaining quality, hand position, quill, etc., in an age of decreasing time available for the study of penmanship fostered the
sale of writing in 5-easy lessons types of works. As a marketing
ploy, writers, particularly American ones, would announce the
discovery of a new style of penmanship or of teaching the students
how to hold the quill. Among the most noteworthy are: Joseph
Carstairs, George Gaskell, Spencer, Ayres and Payson, Dunton
and Scribner.
The revival in Calligraphy, at least in the US, stems from John
Howard Bensons translation & reissue of La Operina.