GOTHIC, SCRIPT AND MINIATURE. – Toward the end of the 12th century, in the field of Latin scripts, a new writing style replaced Carolingian minuscule. Opposing the rounded forms and classical elegance of the *littera antiqua* (Carolingian), this script featured a harsh, angular stroke. Recognized by humanists as “barbarous,” it was thus named Gothic (*g.*), with the same pejorative connotation given to the architectural style that flourished in the same period. The new script soon fragmented into a variety of types, differing not only by geographical region but also, to some extent, by the nature of the text: Gothic used in liturgical books, for example, bore little resemblance to that found in merchant registers. Yet a common characteristic remained discernible in both book and cursive forms: a rigid, broken stroke that replaced the curves of Carolingian minuscule with straight stems and bars, transforming upper and lower arches into sharply angled forms and emphasizing the contrast between thick and thin strokes.
I. ORIGIN
The origin of Gothic script has not yet been fully clarified. It can be said, however, that it resulted from a process of stylization that fixed, in forms particularly suited to the tastes of the era (consider, for instance, architecture), a ductus born of calligraphic effort—that is, the artificial preservation of a script whose rounded, flowing strokes tended inevitably toward cursive forms. Indeed, the first signs of this transformation can already be seen in some manuscripts of the 11th century. To what extent the Beneventan script (v.) may have influenced the formation of Gothic—as argued by the Russian scholar O. Dobiache-Rojdestvensky—remains uncertain. What is certain is that the exclusive use of the pen as a writing tool (particularly regarding the alternation of thick and thin strokes) and the expansion of learning beyond monastic centers contributed to its development. In universities, responding to the need to reproduce study texts in large numbers, scriptoria emerged whose scribes worked with purely commercial aims (v. PECIA) and initially lacked a school tradition. Since calligraphic writing was unfamiliar to them, their script became rigid and artificial. It is likely, though not yet proven, that Gothic originated in northern France, but it spread rapidly throughout Western Europe and remained in use until the 15th century. In Germanic countries, it persisted into modern times.
II. BOOK GOTHIC
A systematic classification of the various types of Gothic minuscule has yet to be undertaken. The following list therefore includes only those types most clearly defined and commonly recognized.The most pronounced Gothic features appear in missals and liturgical texts intended for choir recitation, where the need for legibility from a distance led to the use of large, entirely artificial characters: the so-called choral Gothic, known in German as *Fraktur* and in French as *lettre de forme*. This style also appears in literary texts, especially in Germanic lands, though usually in reduced proportions; it is then referred to as *textura* (Text). In Italy, the angularity and hardness of the stroke were moderated, and the script retained a certain roundness, leading to its being called *rotunda*. Its most characteristic expression is found in Bolognese university manuscripts (*littera Bononiensis*). French Gothic artificially elongates its letters, producing a highly refined script with tall, narrow characters rich in sharp angles; in university texts (*littera Parisiensis*), however, the ductus is freer, the letters less elongated, and the script more irregular. English Gothic, similarly refined, appears in university manuscripts (*littera Oxoniensis*) with particular care. A distinctive Gothic type developed in Italy during the 14th century: already exhibiting elements that foreshadowed the humanistic script (v.), it is known as Gothic-Antiqua.
All these types share the angular, broken appearance, which sometimes affects only the separation of connecting strokes and at other times (especially in *m, n, t*) extends to the stems themselves, executed in two strokes. The letter *a* (cf. table, no. 1) initially resembles the uncial form, with a rigid right stroke; in the 13th century, it begins to show a top flourish that closes into a ring in the following century, so that the letter consists of two arches resting on the right of the main stem. In ligature, *a* often retains the traditional minuscule form, but with straight side strokes and pronounced arches. The letter *c* resembles *e* and *t*, except that it closes its flourish with a slight oblique stroke joining the stem, while *t* has its main stroke projecting slightly above the crossbar; in the 14th century, *c* is sometimes drawn without the lower curve that closes the vertical stroke. By the 14th century, the minuscule *d* gives way to the uncial *d*, which is preferred before rounded letters (*a, e, o*, and even *r* = rounded). The letter *h* has a rigid right stroke up to the line height, then curves inward, descending below the main stem. From the 14th century, *i* acquires a diacritical mark even when isolated; by the same period, the dot begins to appear. The letter *r* has both a straight (minuscule) and a rounded form (improperly called “Gothic”): the latter derives from a majuscule *r* joined in ligature to letters that close on the right with the same curve as *o* (*b, d* rounded, *g, p*); later, as the origin of this form was forgotten, it persisted as a second form of *r*, though it continued to be used primarily in conjunction with rounded letters. The letter *s* also has both straight and rounded forms, the latter occurring frequently at the ends of words. The letter *u* may take an acute form (*v*), but the difference in shape does not correspond to a difference in sound. The letter *z* is sometimes replaced in Italian manuscripts by the *c caudata* (ꝯ), which appears to derive from a particular stroke of *z*, with two opposing arches linked by a thin oblique line. Gothic script also had its own majuscule alphabet (cf. table, no. 3), used especially for initial letters in books and chapters. Abbreviations, particularly from the 14th century onward, became extremely numerous. Studies of ligatures in various manuscripts
Gothic script is a very elegant rounded script in which the connecting strokes are embellished in the curial manner; it originated in Italy and was also used for codices, especially in the vernacular, but it is particularly characteristic of the papal chancery from the end of the 13th century to the whole of the 14th. From this, through a more rapid and less formal execution, derives the mercantile minuscule, typical of private deeds and account registers.
As for the individual letters (cf. table, no. 2), it will suffice to note that the g is never found in its uncial form; the d is rarely upright, more often rounded, in two forms: either the stroke from its extreme point bends back to the right and closes on the loop with a thin oblique stroke (as in the Gothic minuscule chancery script), or it closes directly on the loop with a single elliptical stroke; the e often has a single open form instead of the eye; the f descends—like the s, when it is not rounded, at the end of a word—below the line; the lower stroke of the g, instead of closing to form a belly, often ends with a long horizontal flourish from right to left; m and n often have their final leg descending below the line; the acute n (at the beginning of a word) has the left stroke much higher and crowned by a flourish from left to right, while the right stroke often closes inward.
IV. GOTHIC MINIATURE
When speaking of Gothic miniature, one must naturally disregard the illustration of 15th-century texts, which, although often in Gothic script, reflect Renaissance artistic decoration in their ornamentation. More properly, it should refer to the miniature of the 12th–14th centuries, excluding, however, the Beneventan type (v.), which had a different origin and distinct characteristics. In the critical examination of the decorative elements of manuscripts from this period, even more than in the Carolingian and Ottonian eras, one must distinguish between purely ornamental motifs and true illustrations.The former, especially in the 12th century, develop traditional ornamental tendencies, enriching the foliage ornamentation and fantastic figures around the initials; in the 13th century, the tendency to embellish pages with marginal decorations (strips and geometric compositions in strong colors, or floral interlacings) becomes increasingly pronounced, finding their finest expression, though in a different character, in Bolognese legal texts and French books of hours. The illustration, which often invades even the central part of large initial letters, gradually frees itself from Byzantine influence and draws ever closer to the pictorial composition of panels and frescoes, especially in the 14th century, when the background definitively abandons conventional schemes and is enlivened by the reconstruction of realistic landscapes and interiors. At times, the figures, animated by vividly human expressions even when allegorical, crowd together, completely submerging the background: the page then blazes with the contrast of reds, blues, and greens in the palette, in warmer tones, and only a faint architectural frieze or alternating colonnettes form the schematic framing of the scene. This is the period of the greatest splendor of miniature painting, which, even when still directed primarily toward sacred texts, completely abandons the hieratic character of figures and illuminates the scene with all the lights, more or less strong but always vivid, without opaque tones, whether inspired by the compositions of Sienese and Florentine painters or echoing the motifs of Gothic cathedral stained glass. Contributing to this trend is the fact that, like the script, ornamentation is no longer the exclusive product of monastic centers but becomes primarily an expression of lay schools, of artisans working under the direction of a master who imposes a personal style: Oderisi da Gubbio, celebrated by Dante; Niccolò di Giacomo of the Bolognese school; Lorenzo Monaco, a Florentine master; Giovannino de’ Grassi and Bellodi of Pavia, of the Lombard school; the French Honoré, Jean Pucelle, and the anonymous “Master of the Bois Protat”; the decorators of the Anglo-Saxon school of Norwich—no longer regard miniature as mere embellishment or a minor art but realize in it a mode of expression of great pictorial art, and the pages produced in their workshops have nothing to envy the most celebrated works of the 15th and 16th centuries. — See pl. LXXII.