 

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              
Italy
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 

T T 
C S
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A to Bernhard Bischoff ’s definition, Caroline minuscule is a “general term

for a situation that was reached as a result of related tendencies and changes of forms.”¹
In Italy under Charlemagne, following the Frankish conquest of , the slow formal-
ization and consolidation of Caroline script had a non-linear chronological and
geographical development. We find accordingly a panorama of multiple minuscule
scripts with variegated letter forms, all more or less close to Caroline on the basis of
greater or lesser resemblance to a unitary canon that Giorgio Cencetti placed not earlier
than the beginning of the tenth century.² The only dated manuscript is an Isidore,
Chronicon of  (Modena, Archivio Capitolare, O.I., fols. r–r: CLA .; Kat.,
II ). The semi-cursive script, perhaps Modenese and rather irregular, has no
relation to the graphic style of the minuscule of Nonantola, which reached its full
development at that monastery a few kilometers from Modena within the first third of
the ninth century³. Points of contact with the pre-Caroline scripts of southern Italy and
with proto-Beneventan impose caution, however, with regard to the localization of
Isidore’s manuscript to Modena. Localizing manuscripts requires convergent lines of
analysis, among them study of text transmission. The Nonantola minuscule constitutes
the only standardization of a minuscule book hand in northern Italy: in the initial
period it has a peculiar ductus, heavy and with a tendency to roundness and larger,
strongly clubbed shafts, open cursive a or single shaped like two contiguous c’s, two-
tiered c, Uncial d with the shaft heavily sloping to the left, r with the second stroke
curled upwards, majuscule Q shaped like a . Common ligatures, among them ri in the
shape of a pointed arch and ti in the form of an , the i descending below the line,
   

become less frequent in the latest phase, in the second quarter of the ninth century; at
the same time the shafts become longer and less clubbed. Under the influence of
Caroline script, which became dominant from the mid-century, Uncial-type a becomes
established, g tends to close its upper bow, and round r in the form of  appears in the
group or, and also barred in the abbreviation for orum. Yet Nonantola, an avant-garde
and notably productive scriptorium, also used in parallel with this script a precocious
and primitive Caroline minuscule in the oldest witness of the Liber diurnus Roma-
norum Pontificum (Vatican City, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Misc., Arm. XI, , s. IX1/4;
Kat., III ), the papal formulary used in the monastery as a sourcebook for study.⁴ In
the same region, toward the end of the ninth century further affinities with Nonantola
are noticeable in two law books made at Modena cathedral; the episcopate was in fact
becoming markedly more important in northern Italy during this period. The minus-
cule of Nonantola influenced one of the scribes of the pseudo-Isidorean Decretales
(Modena, Archivio Capitolare, O.I., fols. r–v, r–v, s. IX³/₄: Kat., II ), and
it appears in consciously calligraphic form in a rare illustrated collection of Leges and
Capitularia (Modena, Archivio Capitolare, O.I., s. IX⁴/₄), ruled four bifolia at a time.⁵
As regards the preparation of manuscripts, in fact, in the eighth and ninth centuries,
Gregory’s rule that like pages should face like—flesh side against flesh side, hair side
against hair side—is observed throughout the peninsula (with very rare exceptions, e.g.,
Modena, Archivio Capitolare, O.I., fols. r–r; Kat., III ; Vatican City, BAV,
Pal. lat. , Kat., III ; Cesena, Biblioteca Malatestiana, S.XXI., Kat., III ). In
the first half of the ninth century, the ruling is done two or four bifolia at a time, with an
increasing tendency toward the latter, the predominant form in the second half of the
century (Milan is an exception, where liturgical books alone continue to be ruled four
bifolia at a time throughout the ninth century); during the tenth century in Piedmont
and Lombardy two bifolia at a time, at Bobbio one bifolium at a time.
In northern Italy the semi-cursive script of the eighth and ninth centuries is
characterized by a general verticality, which continues to be seen as Caroline script.
Shafts are clubbed and not extended very much, and a variety of letter forms appear:
three sorts of a (an open cursive type; a closed, Semi-uncial type, sometimes with a
flattened top; and Uncial), c short or two-tiered, e Semi-uncial or tall and broken with
an upper loop and a lower bow, g with the lower bow only open, m, n, o in the later
Caroline forms, t sometimes -shaped in ligature; in some cases, in ligatures, the second
letter is small and written below the line; occasional ligatures such as li, ct, st, and
ampersand & even within a word.
The process of formalizing Caroline script was slow and was often affected by the
conservative instincts of the scribes. In the first third of the ninth century, some
calligraphic and regular semi-cursive scripts were still in use. For north-central and
northern Italy, Bischoff lists a number of witnesses to scriptoria at Aosta, Ivrea,
Vercelli, Novara, Milan, Bobbio, Aquileia and Cividale del Friuli, Nonantola, Lucca,
and the abbey of S. Salvatore on Monte Amiata.⁶ The situation in the south and in
south-central Italy is more fluid.⁷ At Rome in the first half of the ninth century, Uncial
script was still in use for liturgical and non-liturgical books alike. The additions made
  

to the Homeliary of Agimundus (Vatican City, BAV, Vat. lat. : CLA I.b) in fact
date from around ; a luxury Evangeliary received illumination (Rome, Biblioteca
Vallicelliana, B..II, s. IX¹/₄: CLA .); of the same period are the additions made to
the Acta of the Sixth Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople (Vatican City, BAV,
Reg. lat. , written at Saint-Amand, s. VIII–IX: CLA .).⁸
In the scribal area of the northeast, at Novara, there is a detectable influence of
neighboring Rhaetia on the script, at times angular, in a group of three legal and
patristic manuscripts written for the cathedral toward the end of the eighth century
(Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, : CLA .; Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek,
Aug., CCLIV, fols. r–r: Kat., I ; Novara, Biblioteca Capitolare di S. Maria,
LXXXIV []: CLA .), the last of which has a section (fols. v–v) in contem-
porary Semi-uncial.⁹ Part of Isidore’s Etymologiae, I .–VI ., was presumably
written at Vercelli (Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare, CCII, s. IX¹/₃: Kat., II
p. ), known as the Apollo Medicus for the lively miniature that decorates it. At Ivrea
a static and archaic pre-Caroline was employed for a substantial Evangeliary in two
columns (Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, XCIX [], s. IX1/4; Kat., II ) at a time when
other copyists of the same scriptorium were already using Caroline script.
The pre-Caroline script of Seneca, De beneficiis and De clementia (Vatican City,
BAV, Pal. lat. , Kat., III ), copied around the year , and of the contem-
porary rex palimpsestorum, St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek,  (CLA VII –) derive from
the area of Milan.¹⁰
In these developments the writing of the area of Verona appears specially advanced.
Here the local minuscule took on a well-proportioned, calligraphic appearance as early
as the second half of the eighth century, a style it kept into the tenth. The first
standardization of the Caroline hand got under way during the episcopacies of Egino
(–), who came from Reichenau, and Ratoldus (–).¹¹ In this phase, under the
influence of the transalpine centres of Reichenau and St. Gall, it adopted the charac-
teristic large-face letters and rounded ductus of the Alemannic minuscule, alongside
forms and abbreviations of Irish derivation (e.g., the Orationale-Obituarium, Verona,
Biblioteca Capitolare, CVI [], s. IX1/4, Kat., III ; or the Cassiodorus, Expositio
Psalmorum of similar date, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Add. C. : Kat., II ). In
this process the persistence of the Semi-uncial tradition, well attested and still very
much alive alongside the pre-Caroline hands, was also decisive (Verona, Biblioteca
Capitolare, LV [], CLA IV : s. VIII²). Complete formalization came about after
 thanks to the intense production coordinated by the archdeacon Pacificus (†):
besides the clubbed shafts, Semi-uncial g with both bows open (like a ) stands out,
along with phenomena shared with the Italian pre-Caroline such as the alternation
between Uncial and cursive, open a, Uncial d and one with a straight shaft, capital N
and R within a word, and the majuscule ligature NT. A peculiar abbreviation, and one
useful for localization, is ma = misericordia, as opposed to the regular mia. The
precociousness of the handwriting in any case answers to larger movements for reform,
in the liturgical field among others. The production of the scriptorium was rich and
distinctive throughout the course of the ninth century. It was at Verona in the first
   

quarter of the ninth century that the text of the Franco-Carolingian Sacramentary was
copied for the first time in Italy (Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, XCI [], Kat., III ),
and it remained alone of its kind for an entire generation; an elegant Pontifical (Verona,
Biblioteca Capitolare, XCII [], s. IX1/4, Kat., III ) was written somewhat later.¹²
In northeast Italy, in the area of Aquileia and Cividale del Friuli, the influence of
Bavaria on the local minuscule is clear, with mixed letter forms, both Caroline and
cursive, in the contemporary historical work of Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobar-
dorum (Cividale del Friuli, Museo Archeologico, XXVIII, s. IX in.: Kat., I ).
From Emilia, around the Po, there remain two manuscripts, both dated to the first
third of the ninth century s. IX1/3: Isidore, Etymologiae (Cesena, Biblioteca Malatesti-
ana, S.XXI.: Kat., I ) and Praedicationes (Kraków, Archiwum Kapituly Metropo-
litanej,  []: Kat., II ).¹³
At Lucca the local minuscule, in the course of formalization between the first and
second quarters of the ninth century, is still marked by ostentatious ligatures and
Visigothic influences. Its character is seen in a block of patristic manuscripts containing
Ambrose, De fide, De spiritu sancto, and Augustine, De civitate Dei and Tractatus in
evangelium Iohannis (Lucca, Biblioteca Capitolare, , , : Kat., II , , ).¹⁴

T T  C

..................................................................................................................................

The spread of Caroline minuscule in Italy was doubtless closely tied to imperial
projects for institutional reform. In the revived cathedral and monastic chapters
there was a need for books suitable for performing divine service and pastoral care.
But the fundamental impulse was the program of studies and the re-establishment of
public teaching enjoined by the Capitulary of Corteolona in  and assigned to nine
principal seats of learning. At Pavia, the capital of the kingdom and nodal point of the
Italian northwest, the teaching was done by the Irishman Dungal, who came from the
abbey of Saint-Denis, in concert with the archbishop of Milan Angilbert II (–)
and with the monastery of Bobbio, to which he left his own books, which he had
brought from France. High-quality Caroline seems indeed to begin with Dungal’s own
working copy of his Responsa contra Claudium, (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, B 
sup. Kat., II ; Plate .). Finished in , the transcription of the work was given
under the author’s supervision to two scribes, one of them with a French hand showing
a delicacy of line and a pronounced slope to the right, as well as the Irish abbreviation
for est which later spread throughout northern Italy. The style of the Italian hand at the
beginning (perhaps Pavian) has more emphatic strokes with scarcely any inclination to
the right (shafts not extended and strongly clubbed, a always Uncial, oscillation
between Uncial d and one with a straight shaft, r in the ligatures re, rt sometimes
taking the -form after o, the ampersand & also found within words, and the terminal
ligature of majuscule NT; abbreviations b; and q; for bus and que); ur written as a
superscript  is also encountered, an abbreviation of French origin and more developed
  

 . Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, B  sup., fol. r. Dungal, Responsa, c., Pavia.

than the t with apostrophe for tur that was still practiced in the Milan–Pavia area in
this period. From this same educational milieu, probably at Pavia again, come the
Quintilian and the Brutus of Cicero (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, E  sup., and
Cremona, Archivio di Stato, Fondo Comunale, n , s. IX2/3: Kat., I ; II ).
Connected as it was with the court of the kingdom of Italy and its organizational and
judicial needs, Pavia became the center for the recovery and circulation of civil and
ecclesiastical law. Two law books may be associated with that environment: the first is a
collection of Capitularia and Leges Langobardorum, which combines more cursive
elements with a more Caroline section (fols r–v), where t with apostrophe for tur is
still found (Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, XXXIV [], s. IX2/4: Kat., I ); the second is
a rich Collectio canonum of the same period (Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare,
CLXV, Kat., III ), introduced by some leaves illustrated by ink drawings (fols. r–r),
with captions in Uncials (Plate .). The harmonious script has ascenders only slightly
clubbed, alternation of cursive open a with the Uncial form, of two-bow e with Semi-
uncial, the fused diphthong ae, g with both bows open, the cursive ligatures fi, li (with i
sinking below the line), re, r in the  shape after o, and sinking below the line when it has
a bar through it to indicate orum, capital R with a bar for runt and the ligatured
majuscule NT at the end of words; abbreviations b; q; or b₇ q₇; ur as a superscript .
The localization to Pavia is based on some verses in honor of St. Syrus, patron of the city,
written by the scribe of the text himself in the lower margin of fol. v.¹⁵
The imitation of models from France is clearly visible in an Augustine, De Trinitate
(Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare, CIV, s. IX1–2/4, Kat., III ). The scribes, who
   

 . Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare, CLXV, fol. v. Collectio canonum, s. IX
second quarter, presumably Pavia.

were active in a high-grade scriptorium, perhaps at Pavia, made an effort to adapt them-
selves to the style of Tours that they found in the first, elaborately decorated gathering.¹⁶
At Milan, too, the first attempt to move away from local scribal tradition, without
arriving at Caroline, is a school encyclopedia commissioned by the archbishop Angilbert
II, the Liber glossarum (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, B  inf., s. c. IX2/4: Kat., I ).¹⁷
Put together by a team of scribes, it shows a harmonious script with marked fluctuations
in the characters between more cursive forms and Caroline, and different abbreviations.
In general, decoration in the manuscripts is limited to initials and to the use of
display scripts, in rustic or epigraphic capitals and Uncial. For scholastic books the
prevalent format is medium-small, tending to be square in shape and written in long lines.
Collections of Canones and Bibles, in particular, were written in two columns, often very
large books. The Bible was available in various different textual recensions, such as the
edition of the Vulgate prepared by Theodulf of Orléans († ) contained in Vercelli,
Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare, XI (s. IX1–2/4, Kat., III ), executed by several con-
trasting hands in the characteristic pale vegetable ink widely used in northern Italy.¹⁸
An exemplary case of rapid formalization of Caroline script is seen in the episcopal
seat of Ivrea between the second and third quarters of the ninth century, during the
episcopate of Joseph (c.–), an arrival from northern France and arch-chaplain of
the young Louis II (†). Besides the presence of transalpine models in the episcopal
library, the fundamental impulse came from an able magister scriptorii. In preparing a
rare Epitome of Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job (Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, LXV
[]), he increasingly strove to shape the local minuscule to the Franco-Carolingian
  

 . Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, XXI (), fol. r. Gregorius Magnus, Regula pastoralis,
s. IX, second quarter or middle, Ivrea.

model offered by a manuscript of Saint-Amand, including its runic cryptograms and

display scripts. The scribal activity of the magister, now brought to perfection, is
recognizable in two other scholastic manuscripts containing patristic and computistical
texts (Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, XXI [] and XXXII [], Kat., III ).¹⁹ The
localization of the group to Ivrea is confirmed chiefly by the presence of Gregory’s
Regula pastoralis in Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, XXI [] (Plate .): it is a direct copy
of the Regula pastoralis written about  in Luxeuil minuscule for Bishop Desiderius
of Ivrea (Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, I []; CLA III )).
After the middle of the ninth century, in almost all of northern Italy as far as
Tuscany, the scribes together consolidated a canon of Caroline minuscule whose general
characteristics have been indicated by Petrucci, Bischoff, Cencetti, and Cherubini and
Pratesi.²⁰ Thereafter, a harmonious script becomes established, of medium size and free
of contrived, artificial features, with a tendency to separate the words, few abbreviations,
progressive elimination of majuscules (though the ligature NT remains) and of cursive
forms (the ligature for the diphthong ae and e caudata remain) and ligatures, with the
exception of ct, st, and &; open a tends to disappear entirely, Semi-uncial a remains,
sometimes with a flattened top, along with Uncial a with a gradual development to an
upright shaft, the latter then becoming the sole form in the tenth century; g is prepon-
derantly found with the lower bow only open, m and n elongate the last curved stroke
along the line, and then make little serifs to complete the letter. Ascenders become less
clubbed and sometimes take on a wedge-shaped form. There are various abbreviations
   

for bus and enclitic que, with b and q followed by a middle point, a colon, a semicolon, or
a large comma.
The Piedmontese and Lombard centers of Bobbio, Brescia, Milan, Novara, and
Tortona produce manuscripts. One that is dated is Claudius of Turin’s Expositio in
epistulas ad Corinthios, commissioned in  by Theodulf of Tortona for the monas-
tery of Bobbio (Vatican City, BAV, Vat. lat.  dated to , Kat., III ). This is
the scribal and chronological context in which to place such witnesses to the monastic
scriptorium of Bobbio as Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos (Milan, Biblioteca
Ambrosiana, D  inf., s. c. IX3/4: Kat., II ; Plate .) and the interesting
contemporary Bible, copied from different exemplars, in which the presence of a magister
scriptorii is manifest (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, E  inf.: Kat., II ). There is
notable manuscript production under Abbot Agilulf of Bobbio (–c.), with the
creation of two different scribal styles. In at least five deluxe copies of patristic and
liturgical texts, which are enriched by illuminated initials within panels, the handwriting
imitates the Caroline minuscule of Tours with great exactness, only with the ascenders
beginning to be wedge-shaped (e.g., Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, Turin, Biblioteca
Nazionale Universitaria, F I , Kat., III ; the Lectionary, Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosi-
ana, C  inf. or the slightly later Missal, Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, D  inf., Kat., II
 and ).²¹ The writing is more simple in the unpretentious Canones and Concilia
(Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, M  sup. and S  sup.: Kat., II  and ; Vatican
City, BAV, Vat. lat.  and , Kat., III  and ).²²
A mature and settled style of Caroline script was also in use at Milan during
the second half of the ninth century, morphologically similar to that of Bobbio:

 . Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, D  inf., fol. r. Augustinus, Enarrationes in
psalmos, s. c. IX3/4, Bobbio.
  

well-proportioned letter forms, the ductus more or less heavy, and very little sloping of
the letters (the shaft of a is almost upright); abbreviation mia for misericordia. It was
employed for liturgical books, such as the Evangelistary of Busto Arsizio, Biblioteca
Capitolare, M.I. (s. IX²: Kat., II ), and in books for study. In these manuscripts a
particular localizing feature is the characteristic ei with a horizontal stroke over it
(a titulus) for eius, seen in an Ambrosian Sacramentary (Bergamo, Curia Vescovile,
Archivio Vescovile, S.N., s. IX2/3: Kat., I ); in a Lectionary (Milan, Biblioteca
Ambrosiana, A  inf., s. IX³/₃: Kat., II ) with a script larger in face for greater
legibility, as well as a graphical layout which is recalled, in an archaizing manner, by a
Lectionary of the following century (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, C  inf.,
fols. r–r, s. X²: Kat., p. ); in a patristic manuscript (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosi-
ana, S  sup., s. IX³/₄: Kat., II ); and in two copies of Cassiodorus, Historia
tripartita, which are also tied together textually (Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capito-
lare, CI, s. IX2/3 and Milan, Archivio Capitolare della Basilica di S. Ambrogio, M , s. IX⁴/₄:
Kat., III  and II ). Two miscellanies of much the same date were made for the
medical school that was perhaps based in the monastery of S. Ambrogio in Milan (Milan,
Biblioteca Ambrosiana, G.  inf. and Florence, BML, ., s. IX med. or IX³/₄: Kat., II
 and I ). More emphatic is the ductus of Symeon, a monk at S. Ambrogio in the
time of Abbot Petrus II (–), in the Greco-Latin Psalter, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu
Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Hamilton  (Kat., I ).
An overall compactness in the writing, sometimes broken up by features of the
system of abbreviation, unites the mature Caroline of the metropolitan territory of
Milan. The influence of Frankish models is clear, as at Bobbio and Milan, which use the
abbreviation mia = misericordia. The scriptorium of Novara forms part of this scribal
catchment area toward the last third of the ninth century, with production of patristic
texts and collections of canons, e.g., Isidore, Sententiae (Novara, Biblioteca Capitolare
di S. Maria, XLIII [], s. IX²: Kat., II ); there is an interesting collection of
Canones (Novara, Biblioteca Capitolare di S. Maria, XXX [], s. IX3/3: Kat., II ),
which includes a direct copy of the Collectio canonum Novariensis in Novara, Biblio-
teca Capitolare de S. Maria, LXXXIV [] mentioned in Section . above; Eusebius-
Rufinus, Historia ecclesiastica (Novara, Biblioteca Capitolare de S. Maria, LXXVI [] +
the guard leaf of Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, , about s. IX3/4: Kat., II ), and
Augustine, Quaestiones and Locutiones in Heptateuchum (Novara, Biblioteca Capito-
lare de S. Maria, LXXXII [], s. IX3/3: Kat., II ). Some manuscripts presumably
written at Monza are also close to the Milanese style of the time: Flavius Josephus,
Antiquitates, Monza, Biblioteca Capitolare, b-/ (Kat., II ; Plate .);
Ambrosiaster, Monza, c-/ (Kat., II ); and the Liber glossarum, Monza,
h-/ (Kat., II ), a direct copy of Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, B  inf.
mentioned earlier in this section.
At Brescia, Hildemar of Corbie was active in teaching and monastic reform in the
monastery of SS. Faustino e Giovita toward the middle of the ninth century. Caroline
models were fully absorbed in the famous Liber Vitae of the monastery of S. Salvatore-
S. Giulia (Brescia, Biblioteca Civica Queriniana, G VI ), written by the principal
   

 . Monza, Biblioteca Capitolare, b-/, fol. r. Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates,
s. IX middle, presumably Monza.

copyist about  and localizable by the presence in the Sacramentary at the end of the
local saints Faustinus and Iovita (Kat., I ). The consolidation of the Caroline canon
took place here too in the last third of the ninth century, probably under the influence
of Milanese circles. Guided by an able magister scriptorii, three large-format books were
copied for the cathedral school: Seneca, Epistulae morales, Florus of Lyons, Collectanea
in epistulas Pauli, and Augustine, De civitate Dei (Brescia, Biblioteca Queriniana, B II ,
G III , G III : Kat., I , , ). From the middle of the ninth century, numerous
manuscripts were copied in northern Italy in this uniform Caroline script with its French
influences. Many, however, remain difficult to assign to a precise scriptorium, even if
they are preserved in the same chapter libraries which have certainly housed them since
the Middle Ages (Ivrea, Novara, Vercelli, Bergamo, Monza, Lucca, and Modena).
Examples of such manuscripts include two copies of Gregory the Great, Moralia in
Job, I–V (Bergamo, Biblioteca Capitolare,  and Intra, Archivio Capitolare di
S. Vittore,  [], s. IX med.: not registered in Kat., I); or an Augustine, De civitate Dei
(Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare, LXXI, s. IX4/4, Kat., III, p. ) with display
scripts similar to a glossed Psalter (Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare, LXII,
fols. r–r, s. IX4/4, Kat., III ): here the liturgical additions with Vercelli saints
(fols. v–v) by a hand different from that of the scribe, but contemporary with it and
very similar, perhaps place both manuscripts there.²³
In the area of Aquileia, two passionaries and a patristic manuscript were written in
the last quarter of the ninth century (Graz, Universitätsbibliothek, : Kat., I ;
Cividale del Friuli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, XXII; Kat., I ; Paris, BnF,
lat. , Kat., III ).²⁴
  

The preparation of Collectiones canonum for ecclesiastical jurisdictions was a special

characteristic of the ninth and tenth centuries. The way they were made is striking.
Their shared codicological features seem to indicate that they were all the product of a
single center in the metropolitan area of Milan, perhaps connected with Bobbio: several
scribes collaborated by dividing up the work into sections, using different styles of
Caroline script, often far from calligraphic. These Collectiones canonum generally bring
together the Collectio Dionysio-Hadriana, an ancient Italian compilation, the pseudo-
Isidorean Decretales, drawn up in France about the middle of the ninth century but
here in the shortened form common in northern Italy, and sometimes also rare
excerpta of Roman law. The scribal community to which they belong is the one in
which the same materials were used to compile the Collectio canonum Anselmo
dedicata for the archbishop of Milan Anselm (–), the high point of Lombard
canon law. Toward the end of the ninth century examples of this method of compil-
ation are found in Vercelli, Archivio e Bibliteca Capitolare, LXXX (Kat., III );
Monza, Biblioteca Capitolare, h-/ (Kat., II ); Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana,
G  sup. (Kat., II ), written at Bobbio and one of the two surviving witnesses of
the rare Excerpta Bobiensia, the other being the contemporary Livorno, Biblioteca
Comunale Labronica F.D. Guerrazzi, Sez. XVI n.  (Inv. ); a little later there are
Brescia, Biblioteca Civica Queriniana, B II  (s. IX–X, Kat., I ) and Bamberg,
Staatsbibliothek, Can. , of the tenth century.²⁵
In the tenth century the evidence for book production is drastically reduced. In
northwest Italy a uniform Caroline holds sway, still harmonious but more rigid than
before, and written in a characteristic ochre ink. The shafts are slightly slanted and of
uniform thickness (or they thicken with an oblique wedge at the top), or in less
calligraphic contexts the tops of ascenders become claw-shaped, or later, at the end
of the tenth century, fully wedge-shaped; a is now always Uncial, with a straight shaft,
upper bow of g tends to close, the minims end in serifs, ligatures are limited to ct, st, and
&; in the abbreviation orum, the barred -shaped r following o sinks below the line.²⁶
At Monza at the beginning of the tenth century, there are good examples of regular
Caroline script in a portion of the Bible (Books of Solomon, Monza, Biblioteca
Capitolare, a-/, fols. r–v) or in miscellanies with Isidore and books of com-
putus in Monza, Biblioteca Capitolare, b-/ (fols. r–v) and c-/.
At Bobbio the first third of the tenth century is particularly distinguished by its
liturgical production, with at least six books decorated in the style of Abbot Agilulf, but
less richly (e.g., the Homeliary, Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, F II , the
two copies of the Vita Columbani, Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, F III 
and F IV ).²⁷ Almost nothing survives from the second half of the tenth century.
At Vercelli, during the episcopate of the Milanese Atto (–), four manuscripts
stand out. Three make up an elegant liturgical ensemble in which can be seen the most
elaborate calligraphic style of the scribes of the Collectio canonum Anselmo dedicata
(Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare, XV), which was of Milanese origin
and given by Atto himself: the Orationale-Rituale (Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca
Capitolare, CLXXVIII), written at Vercelli between  and , and two copies of
   

 . Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare, CX, fol. r. Lectionary-Evangelistary,
s. X second quarter, Vercelli.

the Lectionary-Evangelistary (Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare, CX [Plate .]

and CXV) of the same period, marked by use of the abbreviation miscdia = misericordia.
The handwriting of the volume with Atto’s works, done by Vercellinus and Teutbertus at
the author’s own request, is more everyday (Vercelli, Archivio e Biblioteca Capitolare,
XXXIX).
An awareness of different registers of handwriting, albeit within a stable set of letter
forms, is a regular feature of well-organized scriptoria. About the year  the
phenomenon is seen again in exemplary form at Ivrea, thanks to the munificent
patronage of the bishop Warmund (c.–). Its production of liturgical books is
unparalleled in Lombardy outside the metropolitan seat at Milan. Finely illustrated
with iconographic cycles framed by captions, they culminate in a Sacramentary (Ivrea,
Biblioteca Capitolare, LXXXVI ()), and a Psalter (Ivrea, LXXXV ()): the script is a
large and solemn upright Caroline, the shafts short with their tips sometimes wedge-
shaped, almost devoid of cursive links, with majuscule S at the ends of words, and use
of majuscule N, e.g., in the ligature NT. Even under Warmund the writing of manu-
scripts for study is minute in size and more cursive. The scribal and cultural leadership
of an anonymous magister scriptorii, an avid reader and annotator, is manifest. He
arranged the manufacture of, or personally completed, a handful of classical and
patristic manuscripts such as Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, XVI (), LIII (), LXX
(), and LXXXVII (), including out-of-the-way authors like Martial and Optatianus
Porphyrius.
  

R C  

D  “R”
..................................................................................................................................

At Rome specimens of Caroline script were absorbed in a range of different ways, but
only from the second half of the ninth century.²⁸ Perhaps in connection with the papal
court, a strain of pure Caroline writing managed to establish itself, though so far
witnessed only by two collections of canons (Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, A , s. IX²,
Kat., III , by foreign scribes, and the similar Düsseldorf, Universitätsbibliothek, E :
Kat., I , of the same period).
The influence of Roman Uncial, bound up with the initial diffusion of the works of
Gregory the Great (†), remained persistently strong, and was a determining factor
in the earliest standardization of Caroline script in the area of Rome. Besides the use of
majuscule R M N T within a word, the terminal forms NS and US, and a small u in the
shape of a pointed v placed interlinearly between q and the following vowel, all letters
derive from Uncial. The style of the initial period, as yet not fixed, is attested in a few
manuscripts of the last third of the ninth century: Vatican City, BAV, Vat. lat. ,
Kat., III , a working copy of Anastasius bibliothecarius (–), executed under the
direction of the author in –, with the Acta of the Ecumenical Council of Constan-
tinople; Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, , Kat., III , with the recently finished
(–) Vita Gregorii of John Immonides, copied by Iohannes, priest of S. Peter’s (one of
the four principal basilicas of Rome); Vatican City, BAV, S. Maria Maggiore , Kat., III
, a Regula pastoralis of Gregory the Great, with a subscription of ‘Hermenulfus
peccator’; finally Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm , Kat., III , a
Collectio canonum to which were added, about , glosses in proto-Slavonic.²⁹
The “Romanesca” script was to be formalized at a later stage, the oldest witness being
a Homeliary (Vatican City, BAV, S. Maria Maggiore ), copied in – for the
female monastery of S. Bibiana.

D
..................................................................................................................................

Caroline in Italy, then, was at first essentially a book hand. Following the tradition of
their professions notarii, iudices, and tabelliones for their part continued to employ the
later Roman cursive throughout the ninth and tenth centuries. The occasional Caroline
element sporadically appears in these hands. At Asti in Piedmont, a document of 
has a semi-cursive hand in which open and Semi-uncial a alternate (ChLA² LVI ).
This uniformity of the notarial cursive, however, is disrupted by a number of docu-
ments, concerning in particular the great monasteries and certain bishops, where the
intervention of ecclesiastics accustomed to book hands is apparent. In these the turn
toward Caroline, with a special preference for Uncial a, was more prominent.
   

The subscriptiones of ecclesiastics demonstrate this at Brescia and Novara from the
beginning of the ninth century, at Milan from mid-century, and at Novara after 
(ChLA² LVII ).³⁰ Entirely in Caroline are, for example, the Bobbio deed of lease of 
(ChLA² LVII ), the Adbreviationes (i.e. fiscal declarations) of  and  written at
the same monastery (ChLA² LVII , ), and a document of the same sort, the
Polittico made for the monastery of S. Salvatore-S. Giulia at Brescia, perhaps about
 (Milan, Archivio di Stato, Museo Diplomatico, Capsa V n ).
At Rome, on the other hand, no private documents survive dating from the eighth to
the tenth centuries: hence the early medieval Roman notarial script is not attested.
Meanwhile, at the papal chancery the curialis script remained in use until the eleventh
century, a stylized descendant of later Roman cursive attested from  and employed
by the scriniarii, that is, clerics in minor orders.³¹

N
. Bischoff (, ).
. Cencetti (, ).
. Palma ().
. Palma (); Bischoff (, ).
. Not registered in Kat., II; see the studies in the facsimile edition, Leges Salicae Ripuariae
().
. Bischoff (, –).
. Bassetti and Ciaralli (, –).
. Bischoff (, , , ).
. Bischoff (, –, ).
. Bischoff (, , , ).
. Santoni (, Plates. III–VI).
. Bischoff (, ,  n. ).
. Bischoff (, –); Bellettini (, Figs. –, Plates. –, –).
. Bischoff (, , ).
. Gavinelli (, , –).
. Gavinelli (, –, Plate. ).
. Ferrari (, –, Plates I–II).
. Gavinelli (, ).
. Ferrari (, –).
. Petrucci (, ); Bischoff (, –); Cencetti (, –); Cherubini and
Pratesi (, –).
. Crivello (, Plates I–XL).
. Gavinelli (, –, Plates XXIX–XXXIII).
. Gavinelli (, –,  n. ).
. Pani (, –, Plates I–III); in earlier studies they had been dated to s. IX–X.
. Gavinelli (, –, Plates XXIV–XXVII).
. Petrucci (, –).
. Crivello (, Plates XLII–LXV).
  

. Petrucci and Supino Martini (); Supino Martini (, –, –); Cherubini and
Pratesi (, , Plate ).
. See the complete manuscript at http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db//bsb/
images/, accessed January , .
. Cau (–,  n. , –, Plates II, Xa); Valsecchi (, ).
. Radiciotti ().

B
ChLA² LVI = Chartae Latinae Antiquiores. Facsimile-Edition of the Latin Charters. nd Series.
Ninth Century, ed. G. Cavallo and G. Nicolaj, vol. , Italy , Piemonte I, Asti, ed.
G. G. Fissore, Dietikon-Zürich: U. Graf, .
ChLA² LVII = Chartae Latinae Antiquiores. Facsimile-Edition of the Latin Charters. nd
Series. Ninth Century, ed. G. Cavallo and G. Nicolaj, vol. , Italy , Piemonte II, Novara,
Torino, ed. G. G. Fissore. Dietikon-Zürich: U. Graf, .
Kat., I, Kat., II, and Kat., III = B. Bischoff, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des
neunten Jahrhunderts (mit Ausnahme der wisigotischen), vol. , Aachen-Lambach; vol. ,
Laon-Paderborn; vol. , Padua-Zwickau. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, –.
Bassetti, M. and A. Ciaralli. . “Scritture e libri nella diocesi di Perugia.” In La Chiesa di
Perugia nel primo millennio. Atti del Convegno di studi. Perugia, – aprile , ed.
A. Bartoli Langeli and E. Menestò, –. Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sull’alto
medioevo.
Bellettini, A. . “Testi e scrittura.” In Biografia di un manoscritto. L’Isidoro Malatestiano S.
XXI., A. Bellettini, P. Errani, M. Palma, and F. Ronconi, –. Rome: Viella.
Bischoff, B. . Latin Palaeography, trans. D. Ó Cróinín and D. Ganz. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press [tranl. of Paläographie des römischen Altertums und des
abendlandischen Mittelalters. Berlin: E. Schmidt, ].
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