1. Ancient Scripts Roman Capitals Monumentalis Quadrata Rustica Uncials
Half-Uncials
Carolinian Minuscules
Textura
Ancient Scripts
As a consequence of all the stuff that was known in the middle ages only through oral knowledge—but not committed to writing—the written word represented a culture, it was not a universal skill.

3. Roman Capitals Capitalis Monumentalis
Formal
All capitals
No word spacing, punctuation, indentation
only twenty letters used in the ancient Roman alphabet : A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T V X
the models for all Majuscule (Capital) alphabets used in the western world
Trajan’s Column, AD 114

4. Roman Capitals Capitalis Monumentalis
The inscriptional letterforms employed by Roman Imperial coin die engravers, particularly those of the early Empire, closely follow CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS letterforms.
Limited space available on coins for inscriptional lettering necessitated some differences. Most notably, they were modified to produce closer spacing and a compaction of the wide letters C O Q and M resulting in more uniform and “square” lettering. The essential letterform constructs were closely followed for coins of the early to mid Empire who’s inscriptions are generally stately and elegant: E and F have equal length horizontal bars; A has a sharp apex; V has a sharp junction; the bowls of B P R S are always nicely formed. P is frequently rendered on Imperial coins with an open bowl, i.e. not touching the vertical stem at the bottom — especially on coins of the early Empire. The quality of Roman Imperial coin lettering reached its zenith on late period Julio-Claudian coins.

5. Roman Capitals Capitalis Monumentalis

6. Roman Capitals Capitalis Quadrata
Alternative name : scriptura monumentalis
Script Type : majuscule
Date : Early Roman (1st century AD) in origin, used until around 6th century, revived in Carolingian era (9th century)
Function : Originally mainly for carved inscriptions but found rarely as a formal book hand; later found occasionally in manuscripts for display headings.
Square capitals, due to their square forms
When written carefully and slowly with a flat pen, square capitals had stately proportions and outstanding legibility, therefore these were only used in very important works. They were also used in special pages or as headings.

7. Roman Capitals Capitalis Quadrata
The space between lines and letters was generous, but there was no space left between words. The letters were written between two horizontal baselines. Serifs were added with the pen and strengthened the ends of the strokes.
Distinctive letters : M, N and A are all made of straight lines. U and V are identical, both angular. I and J are also identical, although there is no example of J here. There is also no K, Q, X, Y or Z in this example.
There are many abbreviations, which are indicated by dots between the words. Complete words run together continuously and gurgle over the ends of the lines.
The letters are easy for us to read as they are familiar forms from typefaces. The computer font, Book Antiqua, is essentially the same in form as Roman Capitalis Quadrata, apart from the rounded U.

8. Roman Capitals Capitalis Quadrata
Vergilius Augusteus, Virgil, 4th Century

9. Roman Capitals Capitalis Rustica
canonical capitalis or canonized capitals
most important script for rolls and codices from the 1st till the 6th century
less rigid, influenced more by pen and ink writing on papyrus or parchment than the writing used for inscriptions. The letters are thinner and more compressed, use many more curved lines than do square capitals, and have descenders extending below the baseline
decorating/inspirations/writingcalligraphy/calligraphy- training/basics/shape/ancient-scripts/
Vergilius Romanus, Virgil, 4th Century

10. Roman Uncial
majuscule script commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD to write Greek, Latin, and Gothic.
Likely to have developed from late Old Roman cursive.
Characterized by broad single strokes using simple round forms taking advantage of the new parchment and vellum surfaces, as opposed to the angular, multiple stroke letters, which are more suited for rougher surfaces, such as papyrus.
In the oldest examples, such as the De bellis macedonicis manuscript, all of the letters are disconnected from one another, and word separation is typically not used. Word separation, however, is characteristic of later uncial usage.

11. Roman Uncial
As the script evolved over the centuries, the characters became more complex. Around AD 600, flourishes and exaggerations of the basic strokes began to appear in more manuscripts.
Ascenders and descenders were the first major alterations, followed by twists of the tool in the basic stroke and overlapping.
By the time the more compact minuscule scripts arose circa AD 800, some of the evolved uncial styles formed the basis for these simplified, smaller scripts.

12. Roman Uncial
In later uncial scripts, the letters are sometimes drawn haphazardly; for example, ⟨ll⟩ runs together at the baseline, bows (for example in ⟨b⟩, ⟨p⟩, ⟨r⟩) do not entirely curve in to touch their stems, and the script is generally not written as cleanly as before.
Due to its extremely widespread use there were many slightly different styles in use. Therefore it is important to know the country of origin when attempting to identify uncial letter forms.
Gaelic letterforms, are similar to uncial letterforms. Strictly speaking, the Gaelic script is insular, not uncial.
Insular script was a medieval script system originally used in Ireland that spread, by way of Anglo-Saxon England, to continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity.

13. Simplified relationship between various scripts, showing the development of Uncial from Roman and the Greek Uncial.

14. Gaelic Script
Irish character, Irish type, or Gaelic script is a family of insular typefaces devised for printing Irish. It was widely used from the 16th until the mid-20th centuries but is today rarely used. Sometimes all Gaelic typefaces are called Celtic or uncial, though most Gaelic types are not uncials. The “Anglo- Saxon” types of the 17th century are included in this category because both the Anglo-Saxon types and the Gaelic/Irish types derive from the Insular manuscript hand.
The Irish uncial alphabet originated in medieval manuscripts as an “insular” variant of the Latin alphabet. The first Gaelic typeface was designed in 1571 for a catechism commissioned by Elizabeth I to help convert the Irish Roman Catholic population to Anglicanism.

15. Gaelic Script
Book of Deer written in Gaelic in in the 12th century in Scotland

16. Insular Script
Insular script was a medieval script system originally used in Ireland that spread, by way of Anglo-Saxon England, to continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity.
In Ireland, Insular script was superseded in c. 850 by Late Celtic (Gaelic) script; in England, it was followed by a form of Caroline minuscule.
Insular script comprised a family of different scripts used for different functions. At the top of the hierarchy was the Insular half-uncial (or “Insular majuscule”), used for important documents and sacred text. The full uncial, in a version called “English uncial”, was used in some English centers. Then “in descending order of formality and increased speed of writing” came “set minuscule“, “cursive minuscule” and “current minuscule”. These were used for non- scriptural texts, letters, accounting records, notes, and all the other types of written documents.

17. Insular Script
Letters following a large initial at the start of a paragraph or section often gradually diminish in size as they are written across a line or a page, until the normal size is reached, which is called “diminuendo”, and is a distinctive insular innovation.
Letters with ascenders (b, d, h, l, etc.) are written with triangular or wedge-shaped tops. The bows of letters such as b, d, p, and q are very wide. The script uses many ligatures and has many unique scribal abbreviations.
Insular script was used for every kind of book, including vernacular works. Examples include the Book of Kells, Book of Durrow, Echternach Gospels, Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Book of Armagh.
Insular script was influential in the development of Carolingian minuscule in the scriptoria of the Carolingian empire.

18. Insular Script
The beginning of the Gospel of Mark from the Book of Durrow.
St Chad Gospels,
Mark 2:23, p. 151

19. Carolinian Minuscules
“The Carolingian court discarded the ligatured, flowing chancery scripts that it had inherited from late Antiquity via the Merovingians (ancient Franks) in favor of a revived half-uncial script, modified to produce the form we call Carolingian minuscule. The speed with which the script was adopted across the empire, between 800 and 830, can only be explained by the smallness of the ruling class of abbots and bishops who were responsible for its propagation. The literature of the past was recopied in the new script. By the end of the 9th C. the Carolingians had produced a remarkable number of manuscripts, over 6,700 of which survive. Unfortunately, every manuscript copied in the legible new script rendered its exemplar superfluous. The movement that insured the survival of ancient literature also entailed the physical destruction of many late Roman manuscripts. Altogether, only some 1,865 Latin manuscripts survive, wholly or in part from all the centuries before AD 800.”

20. Carolinian Minuscules
The script ultimately developed from the Roman half uncial and its cursive version exploiting the characteristics of rounded, open and clean forms, uniformity, and above all, legibility. Because both ligatures and scribal abbreviations were avoided each letter became a fully realized and independent form. However, these choices slowed down the speed by which it could be written compared to Textura.
A script which developed as a calligraphic standard in Europe so that the Latin alphabet could be easily recognized by the literate class from one region to another. It was primarily used between approximately 800 and 1200 AD. Revived in the Renaissance.
Carolingian minuscule was the direct predecessor of blackletter. Blackletter developed from Carolingian as an increasingly literate 12th-century Europe required new books.

21. Charlemagne
Created partly under the patronage of the King of the Franks and new Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne.
Government became more organized and under cultural stabilization the arts could begin to flourish again. Romanesque architecture and writing styles reemerged through the medium of the Catholic church.
Although Charlemagne was never fully literate, he understood the value of literacy and a uniform script in running his empire.
In 789 he “ordered a revision of the books of the church. He did not evidently intend any textual revision; instead he wanted the most beautiful and accurate copies made of finest existing manuscripts.”

22. Carolinian Minuscules
Charlemagne sent for the English scholar Alcuin of York to run his palace school and scriptorium at his capital, Aachen, where he was master from 782 to 796, with a two-year break.
The new minuscule script was disseminated first from Aachen, of which the Ada Gospels provide classic models, and later from the influential scriptorium at Marmoutier Abbey (Tours), where Alcuin withdrew from court service as an abbot in 796 and restructured the scriptorium.
The style continued to develop in various locations over time. Contemporary scholars attribute Maurdramnus, the abbot of Corbie from 772–781, with the fully realized version of the script.

23. Carolinian Minuscules
His clear and distinct letterform design was based upon studies of classical letterforms from ancient Rome. The compact form was not only legible, it used less material.
Centuries later, it would make the jump to moveable type easier. The Carolingian minuscule was as important a development as the standard Roman capital—for it was this style that became the pattern for the Humanistic writing of the fifteenth century; this latter, in turn was the basis of our lower-case roman type.
 (there is a font named “Alcuin” by Gudrun Zapf- Von Hesse). 

24. Carolinian Minuscules
Uniform, with rounded shapes in clearly distinguishable glyphs, disciplined and above all, legible.
Clear capital letters and spaces between words became standard in Carolingian minuscule, which was one result of a campaign to achieve a culturally unifying standardization across the Carolingian Empire.
Fewer ligatures than other contemporary scripts, although the et (&), æ, rt, st and ct ligatures are common. The letter d often appears in a uncial form with an ascender slanting to the left, but the letter g is essentially the same as the modern minuscule letter, rather than the previously common uncial ᵹ. Ascenders are usually “clubbed” – i.e. they become thicker near the top.

25. Carolinian Minuscules
During Charlemagne’s reign in the late 8th C and early 9th C, has widely varying letter forms in different regions. The uncial form of the letter a, similar to a double c (cc), is still used in this period.
Book production increased and language was standardized— pronunciation and spelling as well as writing conventions— capitals at the start of a sentence, spaces between words and punctuation.
During the 9th C, regional hands developed into an international standard, with less variation of letter forms.

26. Carolinian Minuscules
The question mark, andm odern glyphs, such as s and v, began to appear (as opposed to the “long s” ſ and u)
Ascenders, after thickening at the top, were finished with a three- cornered wedge.
In the 10th C and 11th C, ligatures were rare and ascenders began to slant to the right and were finished with a fork and the letter w began to appear.
By the 12th century, Carolingian letters had become more angular and were written closer together, less legibly than in previous centuries; at the same time, the modern dotted i appeared.

27. Carolinian Minuscules

28. Textura Textualis, or Gothic bookhand
littera textualis formata, (textual form letter) used for de luxe manuscripts
littera textualis, (square letter) was used for literary works and university texts
littera textualis currens, (cursive square letter) cursive form of black letter, extremely difficult to read, used for textual glosses, & less important books
Also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, Old English or Blackletter, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to well into the 17th century.

29. Textura Textualis, or Gothic bookhand
Tall, narrow letters, as compared to Carolingian.
Letters formed by sharp, straight, angular lines, causing a high degree of “breaking”, i.e. lines that do not necessarily connect with each other, especially in curved letters.
Ascenders are vertical and often end in sharp finials
Letters with a bow (in b, d, p, q) followed by another letter with a bow (such as “be” or “po”), the bows overlap and the letters are joined by a straight line—“biting”.
The half r, the shape of r when attached to other letters with bows; only the bow and tail were written, connected to the bow of the previous letter. In other scripts, this only occurred in a ligature with the letter o.

30. Textura Textualis, or Gothic bookhand
The letter d when followed by a letter with a bow; its ascender is then curved to the left, like the uncial d. Otherwise the ascender is vertical.
The letters g, j, p, q, y, and the hook of h have descenders, but no other letters are written below the line.
The letter a has a straight back stroke, and the top loop eventually became closed, somewhat resembling the number 8. The letter s often has a diagonal line connecting its two bows, also somewhat resembling an 8, but the long s is frequently used in the middle of words.

31. Textura Textualis, or Gothic bookhand
Minims (a short, vertical stroke used in handwriting) especially in the later period of the script, do not connect with each other. This makes it very difficult to distinguish i, u, m, and n. A 14th-century example of the difficulty minims produced is, mimi numinum niuium minimi munium nimium uini muniminum imminui uiui minimum uolunt (“the smallest mimes of the gods of snow do not wish at all in their life that the great duty of the defences of the wine be diminished”). In black letter this would look like a series of single strokes. Dotted i and the letter j developed because of this. Minims may also have finials of their own.
In palaeography, a minim is a short, vertical stroke used in handwriting. The word is derived from the Latin minimum, meaning "least" or "smallest".
A minim is the basic stroke for the letters i, m, n, and u in uncial script and later scripts deriving from it. Parts of other letters are based on minims as well: when a minim is extended above the line, it becomes an ascender, as in the letters d and b, and when it is extended below the line, it becomes a descender, as in the letters p and q. It is a stem when it forms only part of a letter, such as r.
Minims often have a connecting stroke which makes it clear that they form an m, n, etc.; however, in Gothic scripts, also known as textualis especially in late examples, minims do not connect to each other at all and it is nearly impossible to tell what letter is meant. A 14th-century example of this is: mimi numinum niuium minimi munium nimium uini muniminum imminui uiui minimum uolunt ("the smallest mimes of the gods of snow do not wish at all in their life that the great duty of the defences of the wine be diminished"). In Gothic script this would look like a series of single strokes (this problem eventually led to a dotted i and a separate letter j).[citation needed]
Middle English scribes adopted a practice of replacing u before n, m, or v with o in order to break up the sequence of minims. The resulting spellings have persisted into modern times in words such as come, love, and honey, where an o stands for a short ŭ.[1][2]
Gothic minims may have various decorations (essentially serifs), from a simple initial headstroke, to large diamond-shaped finials at the top and bottom, such as in textualis quadrata, the most decorated form of Gothic. Textualis sine pedibus, literally "textualis without feet", has minims with no finials at all, while textualis rotunda has round finials.

32. Textura Textualis, or Gothic bookhand