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26-540: The Codex Salmasianus is a Latin uncial manuscript named after its former owner, the French philologist Claudius Salmasius (1588–1653). According to Alexander Riese , the codex dates to the 7th or probably to the 8th century. Today it is a part of the French National Library at Paris ( Codex Parisinus Latinus 10318 ). The Codex Salmasianus is the most important collection of minor Latin poems. It

52-444: A body of knowledge which was not merely scanty and meager, but as accurate and as well-tested as possible in a field which had not been previously investigated. This work brought Mabillon to the attention of Jean-Baptiste Colbert , who offered him a pension (which he declined), and King Louis XIV . He began to travel throughout Europe, to Flanders , Switzerland , Germany , and Italy , in search of medieval manuscripts and books for

78-483: A cut-down version of uncial in the famous Codex Basilicanus of Hilary , which contains sections in each of the two types of script. The terminology was continued in the mid-18th century by René Prosper Tassin and Charles François Toustain . Despite the common and well-fixed usage, half-uncial is a poor name to the extent that it suggests some organic debt to regular uncial, though both types share features inherited from their ancient source, capitalis rustica . It

104-469: A form of evolved Latin-based uncial hand that would probably be best compared to the later 7th to 10th century examples, though admittedly, the variations in Latin uncial are much wider and less rigid than Greek. Modern uncial has borrowed heavily from some of the conventions found in more cursive scripts, using flourishes, variable width strokes, and on occasion, even center axis tilt. In a way comparable to

130-535: A monumental collection of the lives of the Benedictine Saints, under the title Acta Ordinis S. Benedicti (published in nine volumes between 1668 and 1701). The later work was undertaken in collaboration with Dom Luc d'Achery . This monk had long been the librarian of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and was senior to Mabillon. It was upon historical materials which d'Achery had collected that Mabillon drew for his Acta . A foreword subsequently added by Mabillon used

156-585: Is insular , not uncial. Uncial Greek (commonly called "Byzantine lettering" by Greeks themselves) is commonly used by the Greek Orthodox Church and various institutions and individuals in Greece to this day. The Modern Greek State has also used uncial script on several occasions in official capacity (such as on seals, government documents, etc.) as did many of the Greek provisional governments during

182-491: Is also sometimes used to refer to manuscripts that have been scribed in uncial, especially when differentiating from those penned with minuscule. Some of the most noteworthy Greek uncials are: The Petropolitanus is considered by some to contain optimum uncial style. It is also an example of how large the characters were getting. For further details on these manuscripts, see Guglielmo Cavallo Ricerche sulla Maiuscola Biblica (Florence, 1967). Modern calligraphy usually teaches

208-635: Is denoted by the letter A in the editions of the Anthologia Latina (Riese 1894, Shackleton Bailey 1982) and by the letter S in most editions of the Pervigilium Veneris . It is also named Carmina Codicis Parisini 10318 Olim Salmasiani ["Poems of the Paris Codex 10318, Formerly [belonging to] Salmasianus"]. Uncial script Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from

234-473: Is necessary to devise and hand down rules for distinguishing genuine manuscripts from those that are false and interpolated. ... I undertook this task after long familiarity and daily experience with these documents. For almost twenty years I had devoted my studies and energies to reading and examining ancient manuscripts and archives , and the published collections of ancient documents. ... I compared and weighed them with one another that I might be able to compile

260-419: Is possible that Jerome was punning on this; he may conceivably also have been playing with the other meaning of codex , "block of wood". The term uncial in the sense of describing this script was first used by Jean Mabillon in the early 18th century. Thereafter his definition was refined by Scipione Maffei , who used it to refer to this script as distinct from Roman square capitals . The word, uncial ,

286-535: Is some doubt about the original meaning of the word. Uncial itself probably comes from St. Jerome 's preface to the Book of Job , where it is found in the form uncialibus , but it is possible that this is a misreading of inicialibus (though this makes little sense in the context), and Jerome may have been referring to the larger initial letters found at the beginning of paragraphs. In classical Latin uncialis could mean both "inch-high" and "weighing an ounce", and it

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312-736: The Greek War of Independence . The height of uncial usage by the Modern Greek State was during the Greek military junta of 1967–74 , when even Greek Drachma coins had uncial lettering on them. Since the Metapolitefsi , the Greek State has stopped using uncial script. The term half-uncial or semi-uncial was first deployed by Scipione Maffei , Istoria diplomatica (Mantua, 1727); he used it to distinguish what seemed like

338-684: The 20th century. In general, there are some common features of uncial script: In later uncial scripts, the letters are sometimes drawn haphazardly; for example, ⟨ll⟩ runs together at the baseline, bows (for example in ⟨b⟩ , ⟨p⟩ , ⟨r⟩ ) do not entirely curve in to touch their stems, and the script is generally not written as cleanly as previously. Due to its extremely widespread use, in Byzantine , African , Italian , French , Spanish , and "insular" ( Irish , Welsh , and English ) centres, there were many slightly different styles in use: There

364-429: The 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes . Uncial letters were used to write Greek and Latin , as well as Gothic , and are the current style for Coptic and Nobiin . Early uncial script most likely developed from late rustic capitals . Early forms are characterized by broad single-stroke letters using simple round forms taking advantage of the new parchment and vellum surfaces, as opposed to

390-612: The age of 12 he became a pupil at the Collège des Bons Enfants in Reims . Having entered the seminary in 1650, he left after three years and in 1653 became instead a monk in the Maurist Abbey of Saint-Remi . There his dedication to his studies left him ill, and in 1658 he was sent to Corbie Abbey to regain his strength. He was ordained at Corbie in 1660. In 1663 he was transferred again to Saint-Denis Abbey near Paris , and

416-482: The angular, multiple-stroke letters, which are more suited for rougher surfaces, such as papyrus . In the oldest examples of uncial, such as the fragment of De bellis macedonicis in the British Library , of the late 1st–early 2nd centuries, all of the letters are disconnected from one another, and word separation is typically not used. Word separation, however, is characteristic of later uncial usage. As

442-583: The basis for these simplified, smaller scripts. There are over 500 surviving copies of uncial script; by far the larger number of these predate the Carolingian Renaissance . Uncial was still used, particularly for copies of the Bible , until around the 10th century outside of Ireland . The insular variant of uncial remained the standard script used to write the Irish language until the middle of

468-460: The continued widespread use of the blackletter typefaces for written German until well into the 20th century, Gaelic letterforms, which are similar to uncial letterforms, were conventionally used for typography in Irish until the 1950s. The script is still widely used in this way for titles of documents, inscriptions on monuments, and other 'official' uses. Strictly speaking, the Gaelic script

494-555: The following year to the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. This was a move which offered wide opportunities for scholarly acquaintances and Mabillon was to meet and work, among others, with Luc d'Achery , Charles du Fresne , Sieur du Cange , Étienne Baluze , and Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont . At Saint-Germain, Mabillon prepared an edition of the works of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (published in 1667), and also worked on

520-641: The lives of the saints in order to illustrate the history of the early Middle Ages. In 1681, prompted by the doubts raised by the Jesuit Daniel van Papenbroek over the authenticity of supposed Merovingian documents held at the Abbey of Saint-Denis , Mabillon published his De re diplomatica . This work investigated different types of medieval documents and manuscripts , including scrutiny of their script , style, seals , signatures, testimonia , and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors, using an acquired taste derived from long experience, and consulting

546-461: The royal library. Some of the less scholarly monks in Mabillon's own abbey criticized his Lives for being too academic; while Armand de Rancé , Abbot of La Trappe , declared that he was breaking the rules of his Order by devoting his life to study rather than manual labour. He also caused trouble by denouncing the veneration of the relics of "unknown saints", wrote a controversial critique of

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572-431: The script evolved over the centuries, the characters became more complex. Specifically, around AD 600, flourishes and exaggerations of the basic strokes began to appear in more manuscripts. Ascenders and descenders were the first major alterations, followed by twists of the tool in the basic stroke and overlapping. By the time the more compact minuscule scripts arose circa AD 800, some of the evolved uncial styles formed

598-549: The views of other document scholars. Manuscripts from many archives are addressed, and references made to items dating back to Dagobert I (King of the Franks, c. 629–639). Concerned often with "distinguishing genuine documents from forgeries " the work is now seen as the foundation work of palaeography and diplomatics . Mabillon writes: I do not deny that in fact some documents are false and others interpolated , but all of them should not be dismissed for that reason. Rather, it

624-571: The works of St. Augustine of Hippo , and was accused of Jansenism , but at all times he was supported by the king and the Church. In 1701 Mabillon was appointed by the king as one of the founding members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , and in 1704 a supplement to De re diplomatica was published. In 1707 he died and was buried in the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris. According to Fritz Stern , writing in 1956, Mabillon

650-538: Was brought to Ireland in the 5th century, and from there to England in the 7th century . In England, it was used to create the Old English Latin alphabet in the 8th century. Jean Mabillon Mabillon was born in the town of Saint-Pierremont , then in the ancient Province of Champagne , now a part of the Department of Ardennes . He was the son of Estienne Mabillon and his wife Jeanne Guérin. At

676-545: Was first used around the 3rd century (if we don't consider its earliest example a transitional variant of the rustic script, as Leonard Boyle did) and remained in use until the end of the 8th century. The early forms of half-uncial were used for pagan authors and Roman legal writing, while in the 6th century the script came to be used in Africa and Europe (but not as often in insular centres) to transcribe Christian texts. Some general forms of half-uncial letters are: Half-uncial

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