CURSIVE MINUSCULE, SCRIPT. - Today this expression generally denotes the Latin script, predominantly documentary in nature, that developed between the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th, characterized by lowercase forms and a cursive ductus. Although such characteristics are not exclusive to this script, the present designation has prevailed over those of "new Roman cursive" (as opposed to the majuscule or capital cursive) followed by F. Steffens, of "old Roman cursive" (as opposed to later cursives) introduced by W. Wattenbach, and of "cursive uncial" (entirely imprecise) adopted by H. B. Van Hoesen and M. Tangl. The terminus ad quem varies for codices according to the paleographers' point of view, in relation to how the pre-Caroline scripts are understood (v. CAROLINA, SCRITTURA and MINIATURA), and for documents it is extended as far as the 10th century by those who also include curial and notarial scripts, in which Moreover, it seems better to recognize various scripts derived from the m. c. under the influence of different causes (school traditions, local tendencies, etc.).
The origin of the m. c. is one of the still unsolved problems of Latin paleography and is grafted onto the fundamental one of the transition from the majuscule to the minuscule form (v. PALEOGRAPHY): despite the material offered by recent papyrus discoveries and by an ever-growing number of epigraphs and graffiti (especially Christian ones), the documentation is still not sufficient to follow such a development step by step and to determine with certainty the causes that brought about the evolution.
In the earliest documents in which the m. c. already appears fully formed (typical is the fourth-century Papyrus Argentinensis), it is possible to grasp the general characteristics of the new script: abundance of ligatures, favored by a highly pronounced cursive ductus, and unequal height of the letters, some of which, though shrinking, preserve the reciprocal proportions they had in the ancient cursive (a, m, n, t, x), others rise above the line (b, d, h, l), others again descend below it (f, g, p, q), and others finally vary in size in relation to the letters to which they are joined from time to time (c, e, i, o, r, s). The particular characteristics, on the other hand, are difficult to define, because the form, and often also the stroke, of the letters varies enormously depending on the ligatures, so that the original appearance of the isolated letter is more or less radically deformed.
The richest documentation for the m. c., whose importance lies in the fact that it is at the basis of the entire subsequent development of Latin script, is offered by the papyri of Ravenna. From a chancery transformation of the alphabet of the m. c. originates the "imperial chancery" script (v. CHANCERY, SCRIPT).