CAROCCI, ORAZIO. - Missionary and linguist, b. in Florence in 1579, d. at Tepozotlán on 14 July 1662. Having entered the Society of Jesus in Rome in 1601, he passed in 1605 to the province of Mexico. He was occupied for thirty years in the Indian missions, making himself distinguished in the knowledge of the native languages, Mexican (Nahuatl), Mazahua and Otomi. He was also rector of the college of Tepozotlán, superior of the professed house of Mexico and socius of the provincial.
He left manuscripts, various linguistic works, grammars and vocabularies, catechisms and sermons. He published an Arte de la lengua mexicana con la declaración de los adverbios della (Mexico 1645; reprinted in the Collección de gramáticas de la lengua mexicana for the National Museum of Mexico, I [1892], pp. 395-536). Fr. Ignacio de Paredes later prepared an abridged edition of it: Compendio del arte de la lengua mexicana del p. Horacio Carochi (ibid. 1754).
Bibliography4 works
Edmondo Lamalle
CAROLINA, SCRIPT AND MINIATURE.
- By the name Carolina script is meant in Latin paleography the round minuscule used from the end of the 8th century through the whole of the 12th century in France, Germany, Switzerland and northern and central Italy, and also spread to England and Spain. It offers the first example of a script of universal character in the territories of the empire after the decline of the classical age, and its process of formation must be studied through the evolution of particular types which are generally given the name of "pre-Caroline".
I. THE PRE-CAROLINE SCRIPTS
The period preceding the formation of the c. is characterized by the presence of intermediate forms whose elements are difficult to define and vary not only in relation to the era and the writing center, but sometimes also from individual to individual. In fact, it is not a question of a particular script with fixed constitutive elements, apart from the common character of semi-cursive minuscule, but of the result, varying from time to time, of a twofold spontaneous tendency: that of saving time by tracing the calligraphic forms of book scripts with a freer ductus, and that of making the cursive forms of documentary script clearer by executing them with greater care. Given this peculiarity, the pre-Caroline scripts, while they have an end point marked precisely by the rise of the Caroline minuscule, lack a starting point, since the tendency toward a more deliberate ductus manifests itself naturally and immediately as soon as the cursive minuscule has reached its complete formation. Strictly speaking, one could therefore recognize the characteristics of the pre-Caroline scripts already in some scripts of the 4th century, but treatise writers generally do not attribute this name to examples earlier than the 7th century, classifying the earlier ones variously as "semi-cursive minuscule," "round minuscule," or according to the various types of curialis. At times there is even hesitation over attributing the same example to the pre-Caroline or to the semi-uncial, and this confusion is contributed to by the fact that the judgment on the greater or lesser cursiveness of a script obeys criteria that are in a certain sense subjective. The great variety of types that springs from the very nature of the pre-Caroline scripts induced Schiaparelli to make a threefold classification of them, following the many examples offered by Cod. 490 of the Capitular Library of Lucca: 1) type derived from the uncial, characterized by round and regular forms; 2) type derived from the semi-uncial, whose characteristic forms of a, g, r it preserves, but from which it departs through the introduction of various cursive elements; 3) type derived from the cursive minuscule, with a particularly rapid and free ductus. It should be noted, however, that the cursive element is present, more or less, in all the types.
With the 7th century the forms tend to stabilize, at least within certain limits, so that it is possible to distinguish them according to the various countries in which they took hold (those countries, that is, in which a book minuscule was lacking) and often also according to the individual writing centers.
1. The Italian pre-Caroline script, which developed essentially in the northern regions (hence the name "minuscule of upper Italy" or also "Lombard minuscule") and, in particular, in the monastic centers of Novalesa, Nonantola and Bobbio and in the cathedral schools of Ivrea, Novara, Vercelli, Verona and Lucca, it presents no common characteristics beyond those of the script from which it originates: the pre-Caroline script of Novalesa recalls in many respects the Merovingian semi-cursive, that of Nonantola presents forms strangely similar to the Beneventan, that of Bobbio preserves insular elements especially in the use of abbreviations; the Veronese school offers notable examples of the type that Schiaparelli classifies as derived from the semi-uncial, particularly of the so-called "semi-uncial of Ursicinus"; Lucca is the center that displays the greatest variety of influences, etc. In general one notes everywhere an abundance of ligatures and a stroke that tends toward round forms; typical are the ligatures of the e, which in this case rises above the line, and of the t, which in such a position preserves the cursive nexus; among the isolated letters (v. table I) the a (uncial, or open as in the cursive minuscule) and the t (with the horizontal stroke rigid, or bending to the left forming a loop) present a twofold form, at times even in the same text.
2. The French pre-Caroline scripts almost all show in their formation the influence of the Merovingian, widely used as a documentary script, but only exceptionally passed into codices. The most important centers are Laon and Corbie: of another type, attributed for a long time to Luxeuil but in reality not localized, several codices of the 7th-8th centuries are known in which the script, though close to the Merovingian, reveals insular influences, with an alternation of broken strokes and round forms, an inclination of the long ascenders to the left, very marked lines: the characteristic appearance of the a, open and with both strokes broken, causes it to be designated also as "type a" (v. table II, no. 1). The script of Laon depends closely on the one just described, but is less developed in height, and has as its characteristic letters the a and the z, which give their name to this type (v. table II, no. 2). In the script of Corbie four types are distinguished in succession (v. table II, no. 3): the first called "e - n", characterized by the typical form that the e assumes in ligature, rising above the line, and by the capital n that derives from the uncial; the second called "of Leutcarius" from the name of the abbot under whose governance (mid-8th century) this type developed; it derives from the semi-uncial but shows in its ligatures the influence of the cursive minuscule and in the stroke of certain letters that of the insular: typical in this regard is the n, of capital form, but with the middle stroke almost parallel to the line; the third called "of Mordramnus", another abbot of Corbie (772-80), where the influence of the cursive is not felt at all, so much so that by some this script is considered as already formed Caroline: typical are the f and the s, with a thickening of the vertical ascender at the top, at the beginning of the volute; the fourth, the most characteristic, is called "type a - b", from the peculiar form of these two letters, the first similar to i + c, the second with a small horizontal stroke that, starting from the ascender above the eye, extends toward the right. Called by Mabillon by the name "Lombard", and by Traube "ancient script of Corbie", it represents in reality a later type, with a return to Merovingian forms and echoes of the insular stroke. Two other types are also assigned to the French pre-Caroline scripts, which however could not be precisely localized: that
TAB. I
a cc = a ; τ σ = t
TAB. II
1. u = a 2. α = a ; u = z
3. a) e = e ; H = n b) H = n c) f = f ; r = s d) uc = a ; b = b
4. l = l 5. h = h
TAB. III
cc a = a ; τ = t
TAB. IV
cc = a ; τ = t
(drawn by Exc. Catt.)