MAJUSCULE, SCRIPT. - The term m., in its proper sense, does not indicate a particular script, but must be referred, as an adjective, to all those scripts whose alphabet, as a whole, can be delimited by a bilinear system, whose first line touches the upper extreme points of each letter and whose second line, parallel to the preceding one, touches instead the lower extreme points of the same letters.
The word was nevertheless adopted by Schiaparelli with the value also of a noun, to indicate a Latin writing, predominantly documentary, of a mixed character, which he classifies as "m. cursive" and distinguishes from the capital by the tendency that the letters have in it to abandon the original capital forms for forms derived from them as a result of natural development, determined predominantly by the cursive ductus. Schiaparelli distinguishes, indeed, according to the degree of cursiveness, a "m. cursive" and an "m. semicursive".
MAJUSCULE, SCRIPT - Alphabet of m. writing.(propr. Enc. Catt.)MAIUSCOLA, SCRITTURA - Letter to "Macedo". Papyrus fragment from the collection of Archduke Ranieri (17-4 B.C.) in m. writing. - Vienna, Rainer Pap. lat. Ib.(from J. Maiton-Ch. Perrot-R. Marichal, L'écriture latine de la capitale romaine à la minuscule, Paris 1939, vol. VIII, fasc. II)BibliographyL. Schiaparelli, La scrittura latina nell'età romana (Auxilia ad res Italicas medii aevi exquirendas in usum scholar. instructa et collecta,
BIBL.: L. Schiaparelli, La scrittura latina nell'età romana (Auxilia ad res Italicas medii aevi exquirendas in usum scholar. instructa et collecta, 1), Como 1921, pp. 114-17 and passim.
Alessandro Pratesi
Pratesi, Alessandro. “Maiuscola, scrittura.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, coll. 1874–1875. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/maiuscola-scrittura.
MLA
Pratesi, Alessandro. “Maiuscola, scrittura.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, coll. 1874–1875. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/maiuscola-scrittura.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec7_maiuscola_scrittura,
author = {Pratesi, Alessandro},
title = {Maiuscola, scrittura},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VII},
pages = {1874--1875},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/maiuscola-scrittura}
}
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