grew the Lombardic hand of Italy, the Visigothic hand of Spain,
and the Merovingian and, later, the Carolingian hand of the
Frankish Empire. The earliest charters of the three national
divisions, written in cursive hands directly descending from
the Roman cursive, and dating generally from the 7th century,
still remained related in their general style. It was in the
book-hands, elaborated from the cursive character, that the
lines of national demarcation became more clearly defined,
although naturally there occur also many examples in mixed
styles which it is difficult to assign to one or another country.
Lombardic Writing.—The national handwriting of Italy did
not follow one and the same lines of development throughout
the peninsula. In ordinary documents the cursive hand which
is seen in the Ravenna deeds, the direct descendant of the
Roman cursive, continued in use, growing, in course of time,
more and more intricate and difficult to read, the earliest
examples, down to the middle of the 9th century, being in the
large straggling character of their prototype. The illegible
scrawl into which the hand finally degenerated in notarial
instruments of southern Italy was at length suppressed by order
of Frederick II. (A.D. 1210–1250). But at an early date the
Lombardic book-hand was being formed out of this material.
In northern Italy new influences were brought into action by
Charlemagne’s conquest, the independent growth of the native
hand was checked, and a mixed style in which the Merovingian
type was interwoven with the Italian was produced, to which
the name of Franco-Lombardic has been given (see below,
fig. 39). But in the Lombardic duchies of the south the native
Lombardic book-hand had an unimpeded growth. In such
centres as the monasteries of Monte Cassino near Naples and
La Cava near Salerno, it took in the 9th century a very exact
and uniform shape. From this date the attention which it
received as a calligraphic form of writing, accompanied with
accessory ornamentation of initial letters, brought it to a high
state of perfection in the 11th century, when by the peculiar
treatment of the letters, they assume that strong contrast of
light and heavy strokes which when exaggerated, as it finally
became, received the name of broken Lombardic. This style
of hand lasted to the 13th century.
Fig. 33.—Exultat roll (Lombardic, 12th century).
([H]ec nox est de qua scriptum est Et
nox ut dies illuminabitur)
Papal Documents.—A word must be said in this place regarding
the independent development of the hands used in the papal
chancery, that great centre which had so wide an influence by
setting the pattern for the handsome round-hand writing which
became so characteristic of the Italian script. Specimens of a
special style of writing, founded on the Lombardic and called
littera romana (fig. 34) are to be seen in the early papal
documents on papyrus dating from the latter part of the 8th century.
In the earliest examples it appears on a large scale, and has
rounded forms and sweeping strokes of a very bold character.
Derived from the official Roman hand, it has certain letters
peculiar to itself, such as the letter 𝑎 made almost like a Greek
ω, t in the form of a loop, and e as a circle with a knot at the top.
Fig. 34.—Bull of Pope John VIII. (much reduced, A.D. 876).
(Dei genetricis mariae filib—
haec igitur omnia quae huius praecepti)
This hand may be followed in examples from A.D. 788 through
the 9th century (Facs. de chartes et diplomes, 1866; Ch. Figeac,
Chartes et doc. sur papyrus, i–xii.; Letronne, Diplom. merov. ætat.,
pl. 48. In a bull of Silvester II., dated in 999 (Bibl. l’Ec.des chartes, vol. xxxvii.), we find the hand becoming less round;
and at the end of the next century, under Urban II., in 1097
(Mabillon, De re dipl. suppl. p. 115) and 1098 (Sickel, Mon.graph. v. 4), it is in a curious angular style, which, however, then
disappears. During the 11th and 12th centuries the imperial
chancery hand was also used for papal documents, and was in
turn displaced by the exact and calligraphic papal Italian hand
of the later middle ages.
Visigothic Writing.—The Visigothic writing of Spain ran a
course of development not unlike that of the Lombardic. In
the cursive hand attributed to the 7th century the Roman
cursive has undergone little change in form; but another century
developed a most distinctive character. In the 8th century
appears the set book-hand in an even and not difficult character,
marked by breadth of style and a good firm stroke. This style
is maintained through the 9th century with little change, except
that there is a growing tendency to calligraphy. In the 10th
century the writing deteriorates; the letters are not so uniform,
and, when calligraphically written, are generally thinner in
stroke. The same changes which are discernible in all the hand-writings
of western Europe in the 11th century are also to be
traced in the Visigothic hand—particularly as regards the
rather rigid character which it assumes. It continued in use
down to the beginning of the 12th century. Perhaps the most
characteristic letter of the book-hand is the q-shaped g. The
following specimens (figs. 35, 36) illustrate the Visigothic as
written in a large heavy hand of the 9th century (Cat. Anc.MSS. ii. Plate 37), and in a calligraphic example of 1109 (Pal.Soc. Plate 48).
Fig. 35.—Prayers, 9th century.
(tibi dulcedine proxi
morum et dignita
te operum perfectorum)
Fig. 36.—Beatus on the Apocalypse, A.D. 1109.
(patrum et profetarum et sanctorum et apostolorum
que gemitibus et tormenta desiderii sui
habuit usquequo fructum ex plebe sua)
Merovingian.—The early writing of the Frankish Empire, to
which the title of Merovingian has been applied, had a wider
range than the other two national hands already described. It
had a long career both for diplomatic and literary purposes.
In this writing, as it appears in documents, we see that the
Roman cursive is subjected to a lateral pressure, so that the
letters received a curiously cramped appearance, while the heads
and tails are exaggerated to inordinate length.
Facsimiles of this hand, as used in the royal and imperial chanceries,
are to be found scattered in various works; but a complete
course of Merovingian diplomatic writing may be best studied
in Letronne’s Diplomata, and in the Kaiserurkunden of Professors
Sybel and Sickel. In the earliest documents, commencing
in the 7th century and continuing to the middle of the 8th
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