Cancellaresca, Script

CANCELLARESCA, SCRIPT. - In paleography the name chancery script (c.) designates the script proper to chanceries, and in particular that of imperial and pontifical diplomas. It does not properly constitute a script in its own right, but is rather a modification, pushed beyond the limits of spontaneous evolution, of particular cursive and semi-cursive scripts that succeeded one another over the course of the centuries. Nevertheless certain specific characteristics, which may be summed up in a solemn and studied stroke, with an excessive development of the ascenders below and still more above the line, with artificial ligatures, allow it to be distinguished as a particular type of script.

The oldest example is offered us by two imperial rescripts of the 5th century, coming from Egypt, both fragmentary, one preserved in the Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, the other in Paris, partly in the Louvre and partly in the National Library. The script is nothing other than a deformation of the minuscule cursive of the Roman age, with evident influences of the Greek chancery script; the letters present a characteristic inclination to the right.

The script of the imperial chancery, beginning with the Carolingians, reflects the current documentary scripts, always accentuating their artificial appearance and showing the tendency to preserve their characteristics even after the decline of the scripts from which it originates. Thus the diplomas of Charlemagne are still in Merovingian script (v.), that is, a script born from the development of purely chancery elements that are preserved unchanged for a long time, even if the number of ligatures gradually diminishes and the words now appear separated from one another on the other. The letters b, d, h, l have a very elongated stem, slightly curved to the right, while p and q descend far below the line. The influence of the Carolingian minuscule, however, becomes ever more evident, and already under Louis the Pious (814-40) one encounters forms that closely recall this script: the letters, moreover, are narrower and taller there, the a is still open, the stems are very pronounced. From the 10th century the c. of imperial diplomas is substantially identical to the Carolingian minuscule, but the tendencies proper to the chancery make it distinguishable from the script of codices in the development of the long strokes, in the preciosity of the upper curves, especially of f and s, and in certain characteristic ligatures, principally the group st, in which the letters, excessively spaced from one another, are joined by an arch connecting the volute of the s to the vertical stem of the t. This type of script persists until the 12th century, which may be considered the age of the greatest perfection of the c. In the following century it draws ever closer to the script of codices, in which the Gothic script now predominates. A particular type of c., the so-called "Italian c.", is a derivation of the humanistic cursive: very widespread in the Italian chanceries, it nevertheless finds no examples in the imperial one.

Different is the history of the pontifical c., which originates from the Roman curialis, itself derived from the minuscule cursive of the Roman age. It already appears fully formed in the oldest documents that have come down to us (8th-9th century): the development of the long strokes, both above and below the line, is very pronounced; the a is open, and presents a form that recalls the omega of the Greek minuscule; the e is circular in shape, starting from the upper right and closing a little below the starting point, crossing the two strokes: often the circle is surmounted by a small eye; the q has a characteristic appearance that links back to the majuscule; the t likewise has the form of a circle, surmounted by a wavy horizontal stroke. With the 11th century the influence of the Carolingian minuscule, which is also exerted in the pontifical chancery, though by a slower process than in the imperial one, brings about evident modifications in the c. of the papal curia, to which the use of parchment, having replaced that of papyrus from the pontificate of Benedict VIII (1012-14), is not extraneous. In this second phase one notices a diminution in size of the c., which in the preceding age towered above the other letters (excluding, of course, those with a stem projecting above the line); the g assumes the form with the rounded head; the final stems of m and n mostly present a curve downward to the right. This script survives until Paschal II (1099-1118), but the Carolingian minuscule had already been introduced into the pontifical chancery under Clement II (1046-1047): one may indeed note the different use of the two scripts according to whether the act is drawn up by a Roman or a foreign scribe. In the 12th century, under Callistus II (1119-24) pontifical documents present a script which, alongside the forms of the Carolingian, preserves certain characteristic elements (open a, ligatures si and ti) of the ancient curialis: but already under his successor, Honorius II (1124-30), even these survivals disappear entirely. The c. then assimilates to the Carolingian minuscule, while still presenting characteristic deformations, similar to those found in imperial diplomas (to which one may add the typical ligature ct). With the 13th century the strokes begin to appear thicker and less rounded, until from the Gothic cursive there develops the bollatica script (v.).

Alessandro Pratesi