HUMANISM, SCRIPT AND MINIATURE. – The humanist movement, so rich in consequences for every expression of civilization, could not fail to leave its mark also in the field of writing; but the study of the new forms to which it gave life, although it may appear simple in its essential outlines, proves in reality exceedingly arduous for a palaeographical investigation seeking to establish precisely the distinctive elements and dating criteria of humanistic script.
With the fifteenth century, in fact, the medieval concept of the writing centre (v. SCRIPTORIUM) declines, and school characteristics either become levelled into a uniform aspect, which writing derives from a common source of imitation (although writing schools with defined peculiarities form around certain learned men), or remain effaced by the force with which personal elements assert themselves—elements varying from individual to individual and no longer reducible to a common factor in geographical or chronological terms. Thus the recent attempt to extend to the written manifestations of the modern age the method of investigation proper to medieval palaeography does not seem acceptable (K. Pivec, Paläographie des Mittelalters - Handschriftenkunde der Neuzeit?, in Festschrift zur Feier des zweihundertjährigen Bestandes des Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchivs, edited by L. Santifaller, I [*Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs. Ergänzungsband II], Vienna 1949, pp. 225–36), whereas for this period the study devoted to the writing of individual figures proves fruitful (cf. A. Campana, Scritture di umanisti, in Rinascimento*, December 1950, pp. 227–56); from this, perhaps, the methodological framework to be applied to the problem of humanistic script as a whole may eventually emerge. A general overview is therefore necessarily incomplete; an attempt will nevertheless be made to establish certain fundamental points, noting first of all the inappropriateness of the expression “humanistic script,” since at least two scripts must be distinguished, for which it will be advisable here to retain the traditional, though likewise inappropriate, names of “humanistic minuscule” (or humanistic book minuscule, or round minuscule) and “humanistic cursive” (or humanistic cursive minuscule).
THE HUMANIST MINUSCULE. — The general appearance of this script is very similar to that of the perfected Carolingian (v.), and it is often confused with II. The phenomenon is explained by the very origin of the humanist minuscule, which is not the result of an evolution from the forms of the Gothic (although the name “fere-humanistic” was given to certain examples of Gothic minuscule with less rigid strokes and already foreshadowing a new style), but the product of a conscious and deliberate imitation of the Carolingian script, which Renaissance man mistook for “classical” script and accordingly called littera antiqua. The manuscripts of the Carolingian and Ottonian periods, which the enthusiasm of the humanists unearthed in monastic libraries, directed the taste of copyists toward a return to the simple elegance of the Carolingian’s rounded forms, in opposition to the barbaric harshness of the Gothic, which Petrarch had already not spared his condemnation (Ep. famili., XIII, 4; XXIII, 19); the imitation “ad unguem” of the codices antiqua became the aesthetic canon of the new script (cf. Ambrosii Traversari epistolae et orationes, ed. L. Mehus, Firenze 1759, col. 501). Nevertheless, experience of the Gothic meant that the humanist minuscule displayed, in comparison with the Carolingian, certain unconscious differences, ranging from the constant presence of the diacritical mark over the i to the more correct use of the diphthong (frequently written as a ligature), from the reduced use of abbreviations to the pronounced use of finishing strokes at the upper and lower ends of the ascenders and descenders. As regards particular letters, it should be noted that the a is of uncial type, whereas the d is of minuscule type (that is, with a straight ascender); the r appears now in its straight form, now in its rounded form; the round t (of majuscule type) is also often found within the body of a word; the crossbar of the t remains below the upper end of the vertical stroke. The humanist minuscule spread from Florence throughout Italy, at least in centers of learning, but its brief existence did not allow it to establish itself outside the Peninsula; its chronological limits may be placed between the beginning of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth: with the spread of printing it lost its function, but left a lasting trace of itself in the roman typeface.
HUMANISTIC CURSIVE. — Although it reflects the influence of the minuscule, humanistic cursive must be considered separately, since it does not always represent the same script traced with a cursive ductus; in many examples it is merely the result of an evolution of Gothic cursive, particularly of the Italian variety. Since it is not possible, moreover, to extend the name of humanistic cursive to all the numerous types of cursive script that developed in various countries through the fragmentation of Gothic, in increasingly distinctly individual forms and by then detached from any school characteristic, humanistic cursive generally means a particular script which, although more fluid and rapid than the minuscule, is related to it and preserves, with its reflected character, its calligraphic composure, serving not only documentary purposes but also those of book production. Like the minuscule, humanistic cursive too left its mark on printing, giving rise to the cursive (slanted) typeface, also called “italic,” consecrated by the editions of Aldo Manuzio; but unlike the minuscule, humanistic cursive spread (perhaps precisely through printing) throughout Europe (except in the German countries), and all modern scripts subsequently emerged from II. Its general appearance is determined sometimes by a rightward inclination of the strokes, caused by oblique hatching;
more often by the joining of each letter to the preceding and following one within individual words. Its characteristic elements may be considered to be: the closed a, of cursive type, which in the tracing of the lower part narrows the curve into a very pronounced sharp angle; the f, which, by extending the initial and terminal strokes of the stem, gradually assumes the characteristic modern form with its two whip-like loops; the r, which passes from the straight form (minuscule), predominant in the earliest phase and preserved in printing, to the rounded form, which acquires a distinctive appearance from which the minuscule r of present-day writing derives; the s, which, by adding to the rounded form (of majuscule type) a linking stroke with the preceding letter, gives rise to the modern minuscule s; and the t, which tends to extend the vertical stem upward. It is interesting to note how humanistic cursive was adopted by the Papal Chancery from the middle of the 15th century onward for briefs, while in privileges and bulls generally, chancery Gothic was developing in increasingly elaborate BOLLA (v.).
LA MINIATURA. - Come la scrittura u., anche la miniatura di questo periodo fu soprattutto gloria italiana, in quanto negli altri paesi d'Europa essa si sviluppò essenzialmente nel senso già indicato dal periodo precedente, soprattutto in Francia dove la miniatura gotica aveva raggiunto nelle preziosità dei Libri d'ore e negli elementi compositivi dei Breviari e delle Bibbie una perfezione decorativa difficilmente superabile. Sviluppando questo indirizzo la scuola francese e, sotto l'influsso di questa, la scuola inglese, perdono man mano di vista il compito proprio della miniatura, per tendere in maniera sempre più accentuata ad effetti propriamente pittorici, in quadri compositivi a piena pagina: indirizzo che viene portato poi alle sue ultime conseguenze dalla scuola fiamminga. In Italia invece, nonostante gli influssi d'oltralpe, soprattutto nella figurazione a pagina intera, il motivo ornamentale conserva la sua funzione e raviva gli elementi decorativi, dai colori vivaci, animandoli con piccole ma perfette scene di genere le quali interrompono, in riquadri o tondi geometrici, il fregio che racchiude la pagina in cui si intrecciano putti, fasoni, animali, nastri fino a raggiungere la preziosità di un marletto. Al centro del margine inferiore figura spesso lo stemma del committente. Sono infatti soprattutto le corti principesche a tener viva quest'arte con le commissioni di codici riccamente ornati: i Medici di Firenze, gli Estensi di Ferrara, i Montefetro d'Urbino, gli Aragonesi di Napoli e gli stessi pontefici sono avidi di arricchire la propria biblioteca con codici sontuosi che rendino testimonianza del loro mecenatismo. Firenze e Ferrara si contendono il primato con le loro botteghe in cui lavorano artisti di chiara fama e dove giungono commissioni da ogni parte; ma anche Napoli, Perugia, Siena e altre città vantano scuole di prim'ordine. Non essendo possibile riassumere in breve le peculiarità di ciascuna e citare i nomi degli artisti maggiori e i loro prodotti più famosi, si rinvia il lettore alle opere indicate in bibliografia. - V. di tav. LXXII.