CAROLINA, SCRIPT — Characteristic letters in the various types of pre-Caroline script.
added in the upper crossbar of the t (v. table III). The most important centers were Cologne, Mainz, Regensburg, Reichenau and Fulda.
4. Of the Swiss pre-Caroline script A. Bruckner distinguished three types: the "Rhaetian," used in northeastern Switzerland between 753 and 820, and derived from a local cursive; the "Alemannic"; and, most important of all, that of "St. Gall," which shows notable Irish influences but has a very round and regular ductus, albeit stiff: the most characteristic letters, apart from certain ligatures of e and of r, are the a, of Merovingian form, and the t with its horizontal stroke closed into a loop on the left (v. table IV).
Two scripts of national type also trace their origin back to pre-Caroline forms, canonized in their particular appearance and therefore not naturally developing into the C.: the Visigothic (v.) and the Beneventan (v.).
II. THE CAROLINE MINUSCULE
The various types of pre-Caroline script, tending ever more toward greater accuracy of execution and roundness of forms, give rise, toward the end of the 8th century, to a script that takes its name from Charlemagne and spreads rapidly through the regions of the Holy Roman Empire: first in France (Tours, where the imitation of classical forms also flourishes anew and a special type of half-uncial develops; Reims,
Amicus, Metz, Lyon, Corbie, St-Denis, Cluny), in Germany (Aachen, Trier, Cologne, Mainz, Regensburg, Reichenau, Fulda, Lorsch), in Switzerland (Constance, St. Gall), in northern Italy (Vercelli, Novara, Verona, Bobbio) and central Italy (where a particular type later develops, the "Roman" or "Romanesque" minuscule, which has its centers in Rome, Farfa, Subiaco and Tivoli); then in Catalonia (9th century), in England (11th century), in the rest of Spain (12th century).
Such a rapid and extensive diffusion has given rise to one of the most keenly debated problems of Latin palaeography: the origin of the Caroline script, to whose solution — not yet reached, moreover — various contributions have been made, sometimes not free from nationalistic interests, which, however, generally have the fault of examining the question within the ambit of a single writing center. For a long time the calligraphic "reform" was linked to the rebirth of culture under the reign and empire of Charlemagne, and particularly to the Palatine school of Aachen and the abbey of St. Martin of Tours under the governance (796-804) of Alcuin (v.): but against this theory, which gives the rise of the Caroline script a too markedly artificial character, several voices have been raised, and the very tendency noted in the pre-Caroline minuscules, which, albeit under different forms and influences, is substantially unitary, does not permit full adherence to it. Without being able to establish the homeland of origin of the new script, one can say that it is the result of a spontaneous process which, having manifested itself shortly after the stabilization of the cursive minuscule, led, through phases differing in time and space, to the affirmation of a set minuscule of round form, agile and accurate at the same time, fully responding to the need for a book script that unites the merits of a calligraphic ductus with the practical advantages of rapid execution. That the Carolingian rebirth was, moreover, an effective instrument of its stabilization and its rapid diffusion is undeniable: and it is in this sense that the influence exercised by Alcuin on the fortunes of this script is to be understood.
The Caroline script, of which the famous Godescalc Evangelistary (781) is considered the first example, has as its general characteristics, in comparison with the pre-Caroline scripts, a more pronounced roundness of the letters, a more careful proportion between the body and the long strokes, both upward and downward, and a more precise separation between word and word. In its evolution four periods are customarily distinguished: 1) from the end of the 8th century through the whole of the 9th, also called that of the Caroline script in the strict sense: it still presents some ligatures of a cursive character (ct, et, rt, st), tall ascenders thickened at the extremity in the form of a club, a of double form (open, as in the cursive, or of the uncial type, with the right stroke very oblique), g with the bowl open, i, m, n, u with simple ascenders, without the reinforcing strokes and sometimes with the last ascender (for m and n) bending back toward the left, n sometimes still of majuscule form; 2) the 10th century, also called that of the neo-Caroline script: it coincides with a certain decline of culture and therefore usually displays less accuracy in execution; nevertheless the ligatures of cursive derivation (ct, rt, st) diminish, the a is almost always closed, and so too is the bowl of the g; 3) the 11th century, or that of the perfected Caroline script: it presents a notable improvement in the forms, which become more upright but also less spontaneous; ligatures are rare, abbreviations more frequent; a is always closed, s at the end of a word not infrequently has a round (majuscule) form; i, n, m, p, u present a short initial stroke, which the pen traces in attacking the ascender; 4) the 12th century, in which the evolutionary process of the Caroline script concludes: the strokes become less round, more angular, the ascenders acquire a crowning stroke both at the top and at the bottom, the diacritic mark on the double ii is introduced (not yet on the simple i, where it will appear two centuries later), and characteristics of differentiation between country and country manifest themselves, whereby in Italy it more tenaciously preserves round forms, by virtue of the classical tradition, more alive there than elsewhere, in Germany it becomes heavy, with thickened strokes, already displaying many elements of the Gothic script (v.), in England it has a thin stroke and develops in the direction of height, in France it acquires similar characteristics, while remaining more round, in Spain it has round forms as in France, but its manuscripts are normally distinguished by the use of a blacker ink.
Although being an essentially book script, the Caroline script also entered documentary use, albeit with a certain delay and adapting itself to curial traditions (v. CHANCERY, SCRIPT).
III. THE CAROLINE MINIATURE
While in the period corresponding to the development of the pre-Caroline scripts, and down to the whole of the 8th century, the ornamentation of codices is very poor and dispenses with illustrations, limiting itself to the decoration of the initials alone (Italy) or also of the titles and of entire pages (France), but always with coarseness of execution and uniformity of themes, albeit with great liveliness of colors, in the following period it attains a great development. The history of Carolingian miniature painting can be divided into two periods, one Carolingian, in which the schools of Trier, Aachen, Reims, Metz, Tours, Corbie and the Franco-Saxon school flourish, and one Ottonian, in which the schools of Fulda, St. Gall, Reichenau, Regensburg, Salzburg and the schools of Italy and Catalonia are particularly celebrated.
It should be noted that the products of these schools refer almost exclusively to sacred texts: those of the classics, even when they are illuminated, for the most part repeat the ancient illustrations that they find in the model. Without examining in detail the characteristics of each center, it will suffice to note here that Carolingian miniature painting, while not abandoning the decoration of titles and initials, brings illustration back into honor (very frequent in Evangeliaries is the depiction of the four evangelists, each with his own symbol), manifesting in the first period the influence of Merovingian and even more of insular ornamentation, in the second imitations of Roman-Byzantine models; very rich is the variety of motifs, lesser that of colors; the human person is treated in general with great care and lightness of line; the drapery is abundant, rendered with softness of drawing and of colors; the scenes are often framed in large borders of classical inspiration. With Carolingian miniature painting, the great compositions, the architectural backgrounds, the animated scenes that had characterized the ornamentation of codices in the classical age return to honor; but the artists of the Carolingian age ascend to the antique through Byzantine influence and elaboration: hence the peculiar endowment of this miniature painting, which to the profusion
AMMIONO MARCELLINI RERUM GESTARUM IMPLICIT LIBIS, XVIII. INCIPIT LIBIS XV. FLAICITTA
Le compiee tanna rata: forniati da questudare luire pacare nel perplexe
lina rigida: un tata: limoio fore: narsumur ordine: calium epermodium
forum: radiaque fucurur apata: torur purum capulimatur abolumur.
subi: obaracum: na: longu: upacare operi: formidare: tuna: annu: lauda: q:
bruttar: cummon: rumpor: litempetu: nuli: lora: alir: cagomn: latur.
non: apidurum: pica: pacare: gallo: apidurum: quadurare: ugner
tua: barum: mccor: rayer: tuc: calum: ucher: acporum: pincare: ucher:
remonare: cagodi: quailum: quacare: precur: torur: nola: nola: lianum
adutire: ingra: quag: regam: ame: pola: pice: confusare: uchi: spela: regar
acri: parchorum: spla: nurra: repurina: daoma: omn: sputum: carduum
ad: forniam: tata: facetare: complati: liqui: lianum: sulam: tenelare
complati: fudi: nola: lianum: panore: conlata: un: arcon: felierare: que
luprator: gcellare: licalum: cuus: iut: lianum: regarorum: milium
(phot. Enc. Catt.)
CAROLINA SCRIPT - Incipit of book XV of the Rerum gestarum of Ammianus Marcellinus, Codex in c. script from the end of the 9th century. Vatican Library, Vat. lat. 1873, f. 15r.
with an orientalizing flavor it unites nobility and composure of style. The Evangeliary of Godescalc and the so-called Evangeliary of Ada, coming from the school of Trier, offer a conspicuous example of it. But it will also be useful to cite the Psalter of Dagulf, the Evangeliary of Aachen, the Utrecht Psalter, the Sacramentary of Drogo, the two Bibles of Charles the Bald in the National Library of Paris, the so-called Evangeliary of Francis II, the Bible of St. Paul's in Rome, the Sacramentary of Göttingen, the Golden Psalter of St. Gall, the Evangeliary of Egbert, that of Henry II, that of Polirone, etc. - See Pl. LI.
Bibliography5 works
VI-VIII, in Atti del R. Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere e arti, 17 (1935-36, II), pp. 421-34; id., Studio sulla formazione della precarolina italiana, in Scritti di paleografia e diplomatica in onore di V. Federici, Florence 1945, pp. 21-46. For the French pre-Caroline scripts: E. A. Loew, Studia palaeographica, Munich 1910, pp. 36-45; W. M. Lindsay, The old script of Corbie, in Revue des bibliothèques, 22 (1912), pp. 405-29; id., The Laon a-z type, ibid., 29 (1914), pp. 5-27; P. Liebaert, Some early script of the Corbie scriptorium, in Palaeographia latina, 1 (1922), pp. 62-66. On the so-called "Luxeuil" type see now F. Masai, Pour quelle église fut exécuté le lectionnaire de Luxeuil?, in Scriptorium, 5 (1948), pp. 37-46, and C. Charlier, Note sur les origines de l'écriture dite de Luxeuil, in Revue bénédictine, 58 (1948), pp. 149-57. On the Swiss pre-Caroline script: K. Löffler, Die Sanct-Galler Schreibschule in der 2. Hälfte des 8. Jahrhunderts, in Palaeographia latina, 6 (1929), pp. 5-66; A. Bruckner, Scriptoria medii aevi Helvetica, Geneva 1925 ff. (in continuation: so far 5 vols.); id., Paläographische Studien zu den älteren Sanct-Galler Urkunden, Turin 1937, offprint from Studi medioevali, 4 (1937, 1 and II). On the c. script: T. Sickel, Prolegomena zum Liber Diurnus, in Sitzungsberichte d. Akademie d. Wissenschaften in Wien, 117 (1888), 7 Abhandl., pp. 12-17; L. Delisle, Mémoire sur l'école calligraphique de Tours au IXe siècle, in Mémoires de l'Institut, 32 (1895); L. Traube, Vorlesungen und Abhandlungen, III, ed. by S. Brandt, Munich 1920, p. 243 ff.; Ph. Lauer, La réforme carolingienne de l'écriture latine et l'école calligraphique de Corbie, Paris 1924, republished in Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, 13 (1933), pp. 417-40; A. De Boüard, La question des origines de la minuscule caroline, in Palaeographia latina, 4 (1925), pp. 71-82; L. Schiaparelli, Note paleografiche, in Archivio storico italiano, 8th series, 5 (1926), pp. 16-20; E. K. Rand, A survey of the manuscripts of Tours, 2 vols., Cambridge, Mass. 1920; F. Peeters, La question des origines de la minuscule caroline, in Rev. belge de philol. et d'hist., 10 (1931), pp. 1289-1305; E. K. Rand-W. L. Jones, The earliest book of Tours, Cambridge, Mass. 1934; B. Pagnin, Cultura e scuola calligrafica veronese nel secc. IX-XII, in Archivio veneto, 16 (1934), pp. 219-95. On illumination, besides the many studies on particular schools and the partial or total reproductions of illuminated codices, cf. W. Köhler, Die vorherallogischen Miniaturen, Berlin 1911; P. Toesca, La pittura e la miniatura nella Lombardia, Milan 1912, p. 33 ff.; A. Boinet, La miniature carolingienne, Paris 1913; H. Zimmermann, Vorbarolinische Miniaturen, 5 vols., Berlin 1916; A. Goldschmidt, Die deutsche Buchmalerei, 2 vols., Munich 1928; W. Köhler, Die harolingischen Miniaturen, I: Die Schule von Tours, part 1: Die Ornamentik, Berlin 1930; part 2: Die Bilder, ibid. 1933.