Caroline Miniscule

Part 2 of 5

Alcuin of York, advisor to Charlemagne and master of the palace school, developed Caroline miniscule to promote Latin language literacy across the Carolingian empire. This script became standard for copying all texts beginning in the 8th century. The script standardized features like its use of spaces between words, and ascenders and descenders on letters like ‘d’ and ‘p’. With its clear and legible forms, this script increased literacy throughout Europe, especially in monasteries and towns which sprung up around them. Renaissance scholars of the 1400s, seeking the earliest manuscripts of classical texts, mistakenly attributed these Carolingian texts to classical Rome, and so referenced the letterforms in their Humanist script. This misunderstanding of the textual record eventually influenced the names and appearance of modern scripts and fonts, such as the Foundational Hand developed by the 20th-Century calligrapher, Edward Johnson, and type faces such as Times New Roman. The Ramsey Psalter (British Library, Harley MS 2904), a magnificent 10th-century illuminated book of psalms, likely made at Winchester for the Benedictine monastery of Ramsey Abbey, shows this beautiful script at its apogee. The rise of book culture throughout Western Europe reflects the spread and influence of Christianity.

Holcomb, M. (2009). Pen and Parchment : Drawing in the Middle Ages. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Ramsey Psalter (British Library, Harley MS 2904)