MEROVINGIAN SCRIPT AND ILLUMINATION. - With the name M. Mabillon designated the writing that developed in the Frankish Kingdom up to the age of Charlemagne, and was used both for documentary and for book writing. Today the term is given a narrower meaning, understanding by it the writing derived in Frankish territory over the course of the 6th century from the minuscule cursive, used particularly in the Chancery of the Merovingians and of the early Carolingians, rarely adapted to book forms (semicursive M.); in the writing of codices, on the other hand, various types of pre-Caroline are recognized (v. CAROLINA SCRITTURA), with influences now more now less pronounced of M. Among the national writings it is the one of shortest duration: in the 9th century it survives, alongside the Caroline, in some royal and imperial diplomas of particularly artificial execution; in the 10th century only sporadic traces of it are found.
In the formation of M. the chancery element has a preponderant part: the papyrus fragment of the Homilies of St. Avitus (Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, ms. lat. 8913, f. 15; first half of the 6th century), in which paleographers recognize the oldest example of such writing, reveals a type of minuscule cursive in evolution, where the Merovingian elements are hinted at as a tendency rather than fixed in their characteristic. This canonization of the Merovingian elements is instead brought about within the ambit of the royal Chancery, with a marked tendency toward artificial forms, with strong development of the long strokes, especially the upper ones, an abundance of ligatures sometimes very complex, an inclination of the shafts to the left, an undulating or even broken stroke. The letters turn out very narrow, very close to one another and of unequal size. Particularly characteristic (v. table) are: the open a, with the two rigid strokes at the top: in ligature it is often traced above the line and of smaller dimensions; the b, which often presents above its belly a horizontal stroke, with which it links to the following letter; the c, which alongside the common minuscule form has a particular form like two superimposed semicircles; the d, almost always of minuscule form, with the shaft descending below the line: the belly remains open at the top when the letter links with the preceding one; the e, similar to a Greek e, which rises above the other short letters and links to the right with a small tongue; the g, of semioncial type, with the tail open and the head now undulating, now bent into a loop toward the left; the h, with the shaft strongly inclined to the left; the i, often of elongated form, upward at the beginning of a word, downward in ligature; the m and the n with the legs very close together and the last often folded back: the u nevertheless frequently preserves the capital form; the o, which presents two spurs, in continuation of the curved line that describes the loop, from left to right, derived from the minuscule cursive form in ligature both with the preceding and with the following letter: with the 8th century the prolongation of the right curve tends to rise above the other, so that the o assumes the form of a δ or of an uncial d; the r with the upper element curved if isolated, rigid if in ligature; the t with the
(from Mallon-Perrat-Marleha), L'écriture latine de la capitale romaine à la minuscule, Paris 1939, (savo. fr. 3)
MEROVINGIAN WRITING AND MINIATURE - Diploma of Childebert III, dated from Compiègne, 23 Dec. 695 - Paris, Archives nationales, K. 3, no. 9.
horizontal stroke that folds back to the left toward the interior, sometimes tracing a veritable loop: in ligature the vertical stroke bends describing an ellipse from top to bottom and from left to right, while the upper stroke curves in the same direction but from bottom to top: the result is a kind of e whose curves are closed by the vertical shaft of the letter with which the t comes to be linked; the u, at times in the position of a suprascript letter.
In the diplomas of the Carolingians, under the influence of the Caroline minuscule, the Merovingian elements are gradually attenuated. In private acts M. generally presents freer forms; toward the end of the 8th century, however, a more careful execution is reached, which becomes more pronounced at the beginning of the 9th century, until even here M. yields the field completely to the Caroline.
THE MINIATURE
Given the chancery character of this writing, one cannot strictly speaking talk of M. miniature. Nevertheless one is accustomed to designate by this term the ornamentation of the Frankish codices of the 7th and 8th centuries, that is, the pre-Caroline miniature of France. It is moreover limited to decorative designs around the initials, obtained now with simple friezes, now with fantastic elements (especially birds and fish), in which the insular influence is evident, especially for certain centers. In general the ornamentation stands out for liveliness of colors and for whimsicality of architectures, but it always insists on the same motifs, treated moreover with a rather crude technique. Figurative tables do not appear in Frankish codices before the Carolingian age.
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Alessandro Pratesi