Curial Script

CURIAL SCRIPT. - This name designates, because they were used by the scribes of certain curias between the 5th century and the 13th, a group of Latin scripts derived from Roman cursive. The general characteristics of these scripts are: rapidity of strokes, abundant letter ligatures and nexus, length of the ascenders: and furthermore the form of the a similar to ω (v. CANCELLERESCA, SCRITTURA).

In the pontifical curia this script had two periods: from the 8th century to the 11th and from the 11th to the 12th: in the first it appeared broad, round, majestic, as the still frequent use of papyrus moreover required; in the second, on the other hand, minute, graceful, as parchment now permitted. Alongside the script of the curia there formed, closely resembling it, the c. of the Roman notaries, less elegant and equally difficult to read.

Also c., but better curialesche, are the scripts of the scribes of Naples and Amalfi called, which spread or made their influence felt in Sorrento, Gaeta, Salerno, Capua. These too, derived from Roman cursive, were definitively abolished by Frederick II because of the enormous difficulties of reading. Nexus, ligatures, even fusions of letters are their characteristics. For the Amalfitan script, the following characters are listed: a in the form of α; e in the form of a small δ; g in the form of 3 or of 1 or of ξ; i small if isolated, large and similar to an l at the beginning of a word, long and comma-shaped if preceded by f, g, l, r, s; t, generally with a loop, followed by a vowel takes the form of o or of δ, preceded by s takes the form of a straight and lying δ, followed by i takes the same form as e.

Carmelo Trasselli