BOLLATICA, SCRIPTURE. - Also called littera s. Petri, it is the script of conventional and characteristic forms with which papal bulls were written from the end of the 15th century to the 19th century, until its abolition ordered by Leo XIII with the motu proprio of 29 Dec. 1878 (Acta Leonis XIII, I, Rome 1881, p. 184: see an example under the entry BOLLA).
It represents a derivation from the Gothic minuscule, carried out in the papal chancery and brought to an extreme exaggeration of chancery stylization, so that only a few initiates were able to write it, and its reading was so difficult that a copy in ordinary characters was added to the document for the understanding of the recipient. As a graphic phenomenon, its formation and persistence are explained by the tendency common to all sovereign chanceries to adopt their own particular type of script, one that is decorative in effect and at the same time offers a certain guarantee against easy imitation.
It is heavily drawn, upright or slightly inclined to the left, with letters in detached strokes, the thick strokes exaggeratedly heavy, the abbreviative signs sometimes long and conspicuous, sometimes thin and barely visible. Punctuation marks are lacking. In the heading of bulls the name of the Pope and other initials are in large capital letters of ornamental character, accompanied by special floral decorations.
Bibliography
Giulio Battelli