BENEVENTAN, SCRIPT AND MINIATURE. - I. SCRIPT. - The script is called "B." which, characterized by particular calligraphic forms, was used in the Latin manuscripts of southern Italy and Dalmatia from the end of the 8th century to the 13th.
The name, already attested in ancient examples and now commonly accepted in paleographic terminology, is meant to indicate that the script arose and developed in the ancient Lombard duchy of Benevento; it was, however, also called Lombard, Langobardic and even Neapolitan, to distinguish its local character as opposed to the Carolingian minuscule, spread by the Normans and therefore called Francisca. Mabillon called it Langobardic, confusing it with other Frankish scripts, and on his authority many ancient authors have repeated this name; it was also called Lombard-Cassinese or even Cassinese, from the scriptorium in which it attained forms of greater perfection. Other names (Gothic cordellato and minuscule of southern Italy) have not caught on.
The region in which it developed can be more precisely determined as south of a line which, starting from Gaeta and passing through Fondi, Veroli, Sora and Sulmona, reaches the Adriatic near Chieti and Penne; including the Tremiti islands near the Gargano and, on the Dalmatian shores, Ossero, Zara, Traù, Spalato and Ragusa. Calabria and Lucania remain excluded, being of predominantly Greek culture, and Sicily, of Greek and Arab culture until the Norman conquest. The most important writing centres, from which the greater part of the surviving manuscripts comes, were Montecassino, Naples, Capua, Salerno, Benevento and Bari, where a particular type existed.
From the last decades of the 8th century, to which the first examples already displaying characteristic elements go back, the script gradually acquired ever more regular forms until it reached the height of calligraphic perfection in the 11th century; at the end of the 13th century its normal use ceased. In its evolution four periods are distinguished: the beginnings (from the end of the 8th century to the end of the 9th), the formation (from the end of the 9th century through the whole of the 10th), the maturity (from the 11th century to the end of the 12th) and the decline (from the end of the 12th century through the whole of the 13th).
Relating these periods to the history of Montecassino, the major cultural and book centre of southern Italy, the first corresponds to a time of notable literary activity of the monastery, which, however, had to manifest itself predominantly in the forms of script received from the preceding centuries (especially uncial) and in any case was cut short in 883 by the Saracen destruction; the second period corresponds to the time when the monks resided temporarily at Capua and, having returned to Montecassino in 949, still had a difficult and troubled life; the third is the golden century that begins with the abbots Adenolf (1011-22) and Theobald (1022-35) and closes with Desiderius (1058-87) and Oderisius (1087-1105); the fourth is a time of decline also for the monastery, after the preceding splendour.
On the other hand the vicissitudes of the monastery reflect fairly faithfully the cultural conditions of the entire region, so much so that, considering the genre and number of texts handed down in manuscripts in b., distinguished according to time, one may obtain a very interesting view of the cultural conditions of southern Italy. And significant in this regard is the importance that the southern codices have for the preservation of the Latin classics, some of which (Varro, Tacitus, Hist., II, 1-4 and Ann., II, 11-16; Apuleius, etc.) are known only through the copies made at Montecassino, while others have in them their most authoritative text (Ovid, Cicero).
General characteristics. From the earliest examples the b. script presents certain distinctive characteristics which, however, are best observed in their full development in the manuscripts of the 11th century.
Derived from the minuscule cursive, which was the script of common use for letters and documents, already in the 9th century it clearly shows its essential bookish character with the tendency towards regular and constant forms, which it preserves even when used in the text and in the signatures of documents.
Typical is the general appearance, owing to the careful tracing of the individual letters, in which thick strokes and thin strokes follow one another regularly with constant uniformity. The vertical stems of the small letters (i, u, m, n) are broken in the middle, recalling forms and appearance that occurred later in Gothic script.
Particularly characteristic are (v. table, no. 1) certain letters: a (at first open, similar to two c's placed side by side, then closed and similar to an o placed next to a c; e (with a broad head that rises above the line); r (with a tall head bent at an angle).
The i has two forms: tall when it is a semivowel and at the beginning of a word, small in the other cases.
The ligatures are numerous, some of them in constant use (ei, fi, gi, li, ri, ti: v. table, no. 2), others optional (v. table, no. 3).
In the ligature ti the first form expresses the hard sound, the second the sibilant sound of the consonant (v. table, no. 4).
The abbreviations are likewise numerous: besides the forms common to all medieval scripts and others derived from the Irish system, some are distinguished by the very form of the abbreviative sign or by the letters that make up the compendium (especially characteristic of these are the apostrophe and a similar sign and a 3 placed at the upper right, and a sign similar to a 2 placed above a letter, which indicate respectively = -s [us], -m, -r [er, ur]; oma, gloa, ama = omnia, gloria, anima).
Altogether characteristic is the system of punctuation marks. The suspensive pause of the period is indicated as a rule by a thin oblique stroke (virgula), sometimes accompanied by a dot; the medial pause by a simple dot; the final pause by a triple sign, two dots and a comma placed in a triangle or in a line. In direct or indirect interrogative sentences there is a special sign (a small acute angle open to the right) over the word on which the question rests; another special sign (a vertical stroke with a small arm to the right) indicates the words on which the voice rests in a tone of assertion. Acute accents (sometimes also circumflexes in proparoxytone words) mark the tonic accent and the distinct pronunciation of two vowels that do not form a diphthong.
The different degree of stroke (which determines the general appearance of the script), the form of the letters, the form and frequency of the ligatures and abbreviations, as well as the use of punctuation marks and accents, are elements that make it possible to assess the dating of a manuscript.
In the region of Bari and in Dalmatia the Beneventan script presents a variety called the Bari type, which is distinguished especially by its more rounded stroke, without the strong breaks of the vertical stems and without the excessive contrast between thick and thin strokes.
II. THE MINIATURE
The manuscripts of southern Italy present magnificent examples of decorative art, such as few other regions achieved in the early Middle Ages.
In the 9th century the book ornamentation is still quite simple and crude, limited to titles in large letters monochrome and polychrome. A notable step forward came already in the following century with letters of more complex design, with floral elements and interlace, in which often a bird's or dog's head takes shape; human figures are rare and reproduce Byzantine models.
The glorious era that began for Montecassino with Abbot Theobald (1022-35) also marks a decisive time for the development of manuscript decoration at Montecassino itself and in the other places of the region, because the renewed relations with the cultural centers of Germany (Ottonian art) and of England (Irish and Anglo-Saxon art), and together of the East, introduced new elements which, through the work of skilled artists, led to the formation of an original and characteristic style.
Especially notable for the splendor of the large full-page initials is the monk Grimoald (ms. 109 of Montecassino). The human representations are, however, still crude, as in ms. 132 of Montecassi-
BENEVENTAN, SCRIPT - B. of the 1st period (9th century). Cassinese miscellany of the year 811-12 - Rome, Casanatense, cod. 641, fol. 23.
no, which contains the illustrated encyclopedia of Rabanus Maurus.
The magnificence of the colors and of the gold used profusely with fine taste finds its most vivid expression in the decoration of the time of Desiderius and in particular in the works of the monk Leo. The three sumptuous manuscripts that bear his name (Montecassino 98 and 99, Vat. lat. 1202) are the best that the Cassinese school produced. The designs are always different, yet the decorative motifs follow a fixed model, with interlacements of ribbons and tendrils from which emerge pink dogs with claws like little rings. Even the figures drawn by the monk Leo show a notable evolution that reveals his personal gifts as an artist.
After the Desiderian age, nothing was done but to repeat the earlier models with monotony, almost with the uniformity of stamps, with heaviness of color and design.
A particular group of illuminated manuscripts consists of the Exultet rolls which, according to the custom of southern Italy, contained large figures illustrating the liturgical text. They were painted in the opposite direction to the writing because they were intended for the contemplation of the people while the deacon unrolled the roll from the top of the ambo. - See Pl. LXXX.
Bibliography4 works
For the miniature, treatments in E. Bertaux, L'art dau l'Italie méridionale, I, Parigi 1904, pp. 155-67 and 193-212; P. Toussa, Storia dell'arte italiana, I: Il medioevo, Torino 1927, pp. 1047-1052. - Reproductions in O. Piscicelli-Taeggi, Le miniature nei Cassinese codices, Montecassino (1893); A. M. Amelli, Miniature sacre e profane dell'anno 1923 illustranti l'enciclopedia medievale di Rabano Mauro, ibid. 1896; M. Inguanez, Miniature e altre riproduzioni del Regesto di S. Angelo in Formis, ibid. 1925; M. Inguanez and M. Avery, Miniature cassinesi del sec. XI illustranti la vita di s. Benedetto (cod. Vat. lat. 1202), ibid. 1934.
On the Easter rolls: A. M. Latil, Le Miniature nei rotoli dell'Exultet, Montecassino 1899; E. Bertaux, op. cit., pp. 213-240; M. Avery, The Exultet Rolls of South Italy, in Illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages, A series issued by the Department of Art and Archeology of Princeton University, part 2, Princeton 1936; cf. E. Moneti, Considerazioni e ricerche sui rotoli liturgici miniati dell'Italia meridionale, in Scritti di Paleografia e Diplomatica in onore di V. Federici, Florence 1945, pp. 241-54.
Giulio Battelli