4th Century: The Romans Are Out

Books, Miniatures, Writing and Supports
(Timeline Project)

By the 4th century—Roman Rustic and Roman Square Capital scripts were only used for manuscript titles. As yet unnamed uncial was primary text script.

This post is part of an ongoing series on books, miniatures, writing and supports since the year 1. Please consider it a kick-start for your own private timeline and a springboard for further research. See my blog for the rest of the series.

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4th Century: Official Script of the Christian Church

Books, Miniatures, Writing and Supports
(Timeline Project)

4th century – Latin is the official language of the Christian church in Rome. Uncial is the official script (though it had no official name until the 18th c.). It developed from late Majuscule (old Roman cursive). Uncial was in use until tapering off in the 10th c. – used to write Greek, Latin and Gothic

This post is part of an ongoing series on books, miniatures, writing and supports since the year 1. Please consider it a kick-start for your own private timeline and a springboard for further research. See my blog for the rest of the series.

3rd century: Roman Half-Uncial Script

Bookbinding, Miniatures, Writing and Paper
(Timeline project)

As early as 3rd century — Roman script Half-Uncial gaining popularity—easier to write, took up less space, required less skill than Uncial. Smoother writing surfaces of parchment and vellum allowed for smoother, rounder writing using fewer strokes per letter. Early development does not use word separation. Later use incorporated separated words.

This post is part of an ongoing series on bookbinding, miniatures, writing and paper since the year 1. Please consider it a kick-start for your own private timeline and a springboard for further research. See my blog for the rest of the series.

French Marginalia in 150 Year Old Homer

Aside

$1,000 prize went to the first person to identify the script

A recent contest to identify the script in a 150 year old copy of “Homer” resulted in a huge online response and a mystery solved!

Check out the full article from UChicagoNews here