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