added to the upper stroke of the t (v. table III). The most important centers were Cologne, Mainz, Regensburg, Reichenau, and Fulda.
4. In Swiss pre-Caroline script, A. Bruckner distinguished three types: the “Raetian,” used in northeastern Switzerland between 753 and 820 and derived from a local cursive script; the “Alemannic”; and, the most important of all, that of “St. Gall,” which displays notable Irish influences but has very rounded and regular, though rigid, pen-strokes: the most characteristic letters, apart from certain ligatures of e and r, are the a, in Merovingian form, and the t with its horizontal stroke closed into a loop on the left (v. IV).
The Visigothic (v.) and Beneventan (v.) scripts, two scripts of national type, also trace their origins to pre-Caroline forms that were canonized in their particular appearance and therefore did not naturally develop into the c.
II. THE C. MINUSCULE — The various types of pre-Caroline script, tending increasingly towards greater precision of execution and roundness of form, gave rise, towards the end of the eighth century, to a script that takes its name from Charlemagne and spread rapidly throughout the regions of the Holy Roman Empire: first in France (Tours, where the imitation of classical forms also flourished anew and a special type of half-uncial developed; Reims, Amiens, Metz, Lyon, Corbie, St-Denis, Cluny), Germany (Aachen, Trier, Cologne, Mainz, Regensburg, Reichenau, Fulda, Lorsch), Switzerland (Constance, St Gall), northern Italy (Vercelli, Nomanola, Verona, Bobbio) and central Italy (where a particular type, the « Roman minuscule » or « romanesque », later developed, with its centres in Rome, Farfa, Subiaco and Tivoli); then in Catalonia (ninth century), England (eleventh century), and the rest of Spain (twelfth century).
Such a rapid and extensive diffusion gave rise to one of the most passionately debated problems in Latin palaeography: the origin of c., whose solution, moreover, has not yet been reached. Various contributions have been made to it, not always free from nationalistic interests, but they generally have the fault of examining the question within the sphere of a single writing centre. For some time the calligraphic « reform » was linked to the revival of culture under the reign and empire of Charlemagne, and particularly to the Palatine School at Aachen and the abbey of St Martin of Tours under the governance (796–804) Alcuin (v.): but several voices were raised against this theory, which gives the emergence of c. an overly pronounced artificial character, and the very tendency observed in pre-Caroline minuscules, which, despite their different forms and influences, is essentially unified, does not permit complete adherence to II. Without being able to establish the place of origin of the new script, one may say that it was the result of a spontaneous process which, appearing shortly after the stabilization of cursive minuscule, led, through different phases in time and space, to the emergence of a settled minuscule of rounded form, at once graceful and precise, fully answering the requirements of a book hand that combines the virtues of calligraphic ductus with the practical advantages of rapid execution. That the Carolingian revival was an effective instrument in its stabilization and rapid diffusion is undeniable; and it is in this sense that the influence exerted by Alcuin on the fortunes of this script should be understood.
C., whose first example is considered to be the celebrated Godescalc Evangelistary (781), has, in comparison with the pre-Caroline scripts, the following general characteristics: a more pronounced roundness of the letters, a more accurate proportion between the body and the ascenders and descenders, both upwards and downwards, and a more precise separation between words. In its evolution, four periods are usually distinguished: 1) from the end of the eighth century through the entire ninth century, also called c. in the strict sense: it still presents certain ligatures of cursive character (ct, et, rt, st), tall strokes thickened at the end in the form of a club, a in two forms (open, as in cursive script, or of uncial type, with the right-hand stroke very oblique), g with the bowl open, and i, m, n, u with simple strokes, without reinforcing strokes and sometimes with the final stroke (in m and n) curving back towards the left; n is at times still in majuscule form; 2) the tenth century, also called the neo-Caroline period: this coincides with a certain decline in culture and consequently usually displays less precision in execution; nevertheless, the cursive-derived ligatures (ct, rt, st) diminish, a is almost always closed, as is the bowl of g; 3) the eleventh century, or the period of perfected c.: 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, and s at the end of a word not infrequently has a rounded (majuscule) form; i, n, m, p, u display a short initial stroke, made by the pen as it begins the stem; 4) the twelfth century, in which the evolutionary process of c. reaches its conclusion: the strokes become less rounded and more angular, the ascenders and descenders acquire a finishing stroke both at the top and at the bottom, the diacritical mark is introduced over the double ii (though not yet over the single i, where it will appear two centuries later), and differences between one country and another become apparent. In Italy, therefore, rounded forms are preserved more tenaciously, owing to the classical tradition, which was more vigorous there than elsewhere; in Germany, the script becomes heavy, with thickened strokes, already displaying many elements of the Gothic (v.); in England, it has fine pen-work and develops vertically; in France, it acquires similar characteristics while remaining more rounded; in Spain, it has rounded forms as in France, but its manuscripts are normally distinguished by the use of a blacker ink.
Although essentially a book hand, c. also entered documentary use, albeit with some delay and by adapting itself to curial traditions (v. SCRITTURA).
III. CAROLINGIAN MINIATURES - Whereas during the period corresponding to the development of the pre-Carolingian scripts, and through the whole of the eighth century, the ornamentation of codices was very poor and dispensed with illustrations, limiting itself to the decoration of the initials alone (Italy), or also of the titles and entire pages (France), though always with crude execution and uniformity of themes, even if with great liveliness of colour, in the subsequent period it attained considerable development. The history of Carolingian miniature may be divided into two periods: a Carolingian one, in which the schools of Trier, Aachen, Reims, Metz, Tours, Corbie, and the Franco-Saxon school flourished; and an Ottonian one, in which the schools of Fulda, S. Gallo, Reichenau, Regensburg, Salzburg, and the schools of Italy and Catalonia were particularly celebrated.
It should be noted that the products of these schools relate almost exclusively to sacred texts: classical works, even when illuminated, for the most part repeat the ancient illustrations found in their model. Without examining the characteristics of each centre individually, it will suffice to note here that Carolingian miniature, while not abandoning the decoration of titles and initials, restored illustration to prominence (the representation of the four Evangelists, each with his own symbol, is especially frequent in Gospel books), displaying in the first period the influence of Merovingian and, still more, Insular ornamentation, and in the second imitations of Romano-Byzantine models; the variety of motifs is extremely rich, while that of the colours is more limited; the human figure is generally treated with great care and lightness of line; the abundant drapery is rendered with softness of design and colour; the scenes are often enclosed within large frames of classical inspiration. With Carolingian miniature, large compositions, architectural backgrounds, and animated scenes—which had characterized the ornamentation of codices in the classical age—again came into prominence; but the artists of the Carolingian age reached antiquity through Byzantine influence and elaboration: hence the distinctive quality of this miniature, which, in its 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
(photo Enc. Catt.)
CAROLINA, SCRITTURA - Incipit del lib. XV delle Rerum gestarum di Ammiono Marcellino, Cod. in scrittura c. della fine del sec. IX. Biblioteca Vaticana, Vat. lat. 1873, f. 15°.
orientaleggiante unisce nobiltà e compostezza di stile. L'Evangeliario di Godescalco e quello cosiddetto di Ada, provenienti dalla scuola di Treviri, ne offrono un esempio cospicuo. Ma gioverà anche citare il Salterio di Dagulfo, l'Evangeliario di Aquisgrana, il Salterio di Utrecht, il Sacramentario di Drogone, le due Bibbie di Carlo il Calvo della Nazionale di Parigi, l'Evangeliario cosiddetto di Francesco II, la Bibbia di S. Paolo di Roma, il Sacramentario di Gottinga, il Salterio aureo di S. Gallo, l'Evangeliario di Egberto, quello di Enrico II, quello di Polirone, ecc. - Vedi Tav. LI.
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, GIACOMO, Firenze 1945, pp. 21-46. Per le precaroline francesi: E. A. Loew, Studia palaeographica, Monaco 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. Sul tipo cosiddetto di « Luxeuil » si veda ora F. Masai, Pour quelle église fut exécuté le lectionnaire de Luxeuil?, in Scriptorium, 5 (1948), pp. 37-46, e C. Charlier, Note sur les origines de l'écriture dite de Luxeuil, in Revue bénédictine, 58 (1948), pp. 149-57. Sulla precarolina svizzera: 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, Ginevra 1925 agg. (in continuazione: finora 5 voll.); id., Paläographische Studien zu den älteren Sanct-Galler Urkunden, Torino 1937, estr. da Studi medioevali, 4 (1937, 1 e II). Sulla scrittura c.: 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. da S. Brandt, Monaco 1920, p. 243 agg.; Ph. Lauer, La réforme carolingienne de l'écriture latine et l'école calligraphique de Corbie, Parigi 1924,
ripubblicato 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, 8ª serie, 5 (1926), pp. 16-20; E. K. Rand, A survey of the manuscripts of Tours, 2 voll., 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. Sulla miniatura, oltre i molti studi su
scuole particolari e le riproduzioni parziali o totali di codici minazi, cf. W. Köhler, Die vorherallogischen Miniaturen, Berlino 1911; P. Toesca, La pittura e la miniatura nella Lombardia, Milano 1912, p. 33 agg.; A. Boinet, La miniature carolingienne, Parigi 1913; H. Zimmermann, Vorbarolinische Miniaturen, 5 voll., Berlino 1916; A. Goldschmidt, Die deutsche Buchmalerei, 2 voll., Monaco 1928; W. Köhler, Die harolingischen Miniaturen, I: Die Schule von Tours, parte 1ª: Die Ornamentik, Berlino 1930; parte 2ª: Die Bilder, ivi 1933.