Latin palaeography 7 2010
Humanist scriptsFifteenth century
Humanist script• litterae antiquae – attested in
the 13th c. (vs. modernae)• attempts at imitating 10th-11th-
c. Carolingian minuscule c. 13th c.: Lovato Lovati (Padua), Landolfo Colonna in Avignon
• Petrarca: vetustioris litteremaiestas re an 11th-c. ms. in Carolingian (sobrius ornatus, fam. 18.3, 11-4.1355)
• develops his own semi-Gothic• Boccaccio adopts Petrarc’s
semi-Gothic• Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of
Florence: pre-antiqua
Petrarch’s hand, 1357-62
Antiqua horum temporum• Salutati’s circle in Florence: Poggio
Bracciolini (1380-1459), Niccolò Niccoli (1364-1437)
• Poggio beg 1390s: 12th-c. Carolingian minuscule
• decoration with bianchi girari (=Florentine vinestem) < central Italy 10th-11th c. < Saint Gall –Reichenau – Einsiedeln 9th c.
• Poggio 1408: capitalis monumentalis (quadrata) as display script
• Niccoli: central idea in developing the Florentine humanist ms.
• Niccoli finances Poggio’s expeditions during the Council of Constance 1414-1418)
PoggioVat. Urb. Lat. 224Francesco d’Antonio del Chierico
Vat. Urb. lat. 224
bianchi girari
Scribe: Nicolaus Riccius Spinosus =Niccolò di Antonio di Pardo de’ Ricci1434/5-after 1490Active between
End 1450s- 1480s(at least 21 mss.
Urbb.)Artist: Francesco
d’Antonio del Chierico
active 1450s-1480s
Bottega Vespasiano Bisticci
Classical antiqua
• Scribe: Amerigo Corsini, 1465
• Artist: Francesco d’Antonio del Chierico
Bianchi girari
• Firenze, Francesco d’Antonio del Chierico, 1465
Bianchi girari = Florentine vinestem
• Florence, Francesco d’Antonio del Chierico, 1465
Niccolò Niccoli’s (1364-1437) cursive hand
Northern Italy• Veneto, Padua and surroundings• Venice: first centre of antiqua outside Tuscany from 1412/3 • from 1406 Guarino Guarini (Veronese) (1374-1460): archaicising semi-
Gothic script based on 12th-13th-c. Italian Gothic cursives, with Greek elements (A, M)
• Northern Italy: no Carolingian model, based on Bastard and cursive scripts of the late 14th c.
• Decoration: Gothic still in the 1420s• Personal variation, different degrees of cursivity
Humanism of the second half of the fifteenth century
• From c. 1460• Restauration of the Roman capitals• Antiquarian studies: epigraphy, Classical
archaeology• Centres: Padua, Verona • Giovanni Marcanova: epigraphy (doctor, d. 1467)• Felice Feliciano, scribe (1433-1479)• Andrea Mantegna, artist (c. 1431-1506)
Epigraphic capitalsDomenico Ghirlandaio, Cappella SassettiS. Trinita, Florence 14831486
Pala d’altare: Adorazione dei magi
Humanist script 1450-1500
• Northern Italy: geometrical model (< Classical capitals) > vertical littera antiqua (writing angle 90 degrees)
• Italics: Veneto, then Roma• Slightly inclined, calligraphical• Cursive a, long f s plunge, round s end of words• Roman epigraphic capitals with chiaroscuro• Florentine models eliminated• Print characters derive from the Northern antiqua,
Italics and restored Classical capitals
KB, GKS 2145 4°, Plutarch, Vitae, Lat. transl. by Leonardo Bruni, Vita Aristotelis
Petrarch, Trionfo sulla morteBL, Harley 5761, f. 29. Francesco d’Antonio delChierico. 1475-1484.
Classical ItalicsCopenhagen, KB, Fabr. 80 8°: Franciscus Petrarca, Bucolicum carmen. Parchment, 41 ff., ca. 21 × 12 cm
Lorenzo Parmenio, De rebus gestis Julii II. Pont. Max. (1510 – 1513), BAV, Vat. lat. 3702
Italics
• Costanzo Felici, Historia de coniuratione CatilinaeDedication copy for Leo X Early sixteenth century