Handwriting Becomes Print
7th - 15th century AD Handwriting Becomes Print
20th century letters and handwriting styles derive from the last centuries of the Roman Empire. In 100 AD, members of the Roman battalion inscribed Latin messages on Hadrian’s Wall.
Parchment was developed for pages of books, or codices, for Western European Christian monks to inscribe elaborate holy texts. These manuscripts were written in Roman empirical script with variations in style from region to region.
Italian manuscripts in 7th and 8th century AD were formally written entirely in capital letters. The most prolific Irish Celtic monks wrote in a more informal and Roman style of Latin, owing this influence to the Roman garrison writing of neighboring Hadrian’s Wall. The 7th century Cathach of St. Columba, a sacred text written by Celtic monks, displays the first known examples of majuscule and minuscule writing. This upper and lower case distinction was created to differentiate significant passages in the text by writing grandiose first letters of a passage and tapering the letterforms gradationally until they returned to the prescribed scale. This innovative technique influenced later western European script. The codex of these early Christian religious texts, written in a manuscript with two facing pages, separated by a binding and written in calligraphy, highly influence later standards in style and printed material.
In the 8th century court of Charlemagne, these ancient codices are reestablished into neater and clearer manuscripts under the official order of King Charlemagne. These texts fall into disorder in the Middle Ages but are renewed in clarity during the 15th century Renaissance. The Renaissance calligraphers readopt the earlier style established before the Middle Ages, simply and cleanly immortalizing for centuries the spirit and grandeur of these very important texts and influencing writing and printing styles for all time.
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