Script
These are some of the most important of the medieval scripts. Not every script is represented in the collection.
Scripts on the left-hand side of the page are major categories that were arranged roughly in the sequence they were developed.
Descriptions for individual leaves will often focus on characteristic letterforms for that script.
Types of handwriting were used for longer periods of time than when they were originally created. For instance, the Roman Square Capitals and the Roman Rustic Capitals in our collection are not from the ancient Roman period, but from the Middle Ages and about 1600. Roman Square Capitals are still commonly used. The schema and dates below are approximate and use of different styles of script often overlap.
| Script Style | Period |
|---|---|
| Square Capitals | ca. 1 – 500 |
| Rustic Capitals | ca. 1 – 500 |
| Uncials | ca. 300 – 900 |
| Semi-Uncials | ca. 400 – 900 |
| Caroline Minuscule | 783 – 1200 |
| Protogothic | ca. 1000 – 1200 |
| Gothic | ca. 1150 – 1500 |
| Bastarda | ca. 1300 – 1500 |
| Humanistic | ca. 1400 – |
| Cursive Humanistic (Italic) | ca. 1400 – |