Insular ScriptsDescriptions of scripts are from Michelle Brown's A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 London, The British Library: 1990 By s. viii, when we begin to find tangible examples of script [in Britain and Ireland], this script had evolved in two direction: firstly, to produce a formal book script which resembled Roman Half-Uncial, but lacked its formality...secodnly, to produce a more rapid, working cursive minuscule which may be divided into three groups: 1. Irish; 2. Type A - Northumbrian Phase I minuscule; 3. Type B - Southumbrian Phase I minuscule. From s. viex the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons had begun as a pincer movement by the Celtic church (largely through the Scottish monastery of Iona, founded by the Irish St Columba, and its daughter houses such as Lindisfarne) and by the Roman church (through St Augustine's mission to Canterbury). Continental manuscript production, especially of Uncial manuscripts produced in Rome c. 600, may have influenced these early developments in script and was certainly a significant factor in Phase II. This began s. vii ex and may be particularly asspcoated with developments in romanizing centres such as Wearmouth/jarrow and Celtic centres, such as Lindisfarne, which, following the Synod of Whitby of 664, had become reconciled with the Roman church. Within Phase II (s. viiex-s. ix) a complete hierarchy of scripts emerged. High grade 'majescule' scripts used a striaght pen and encompassed the following: Rustic Capitals for display purposes; Uncials, with three variants - text, capitular and display - used for complete formal texts in romanizing centres such as Wearmouth/Jarrow and Canterbury; Half-Uncials, considered one of the most characteristic Insular scripts, epitomized by the Lindisfarne Gospels of c. 700. A characteristic Insular feature is cross-fertilization of scripts, with d, n r and s particularly prone to variation. Insular display script similarly combines forms from the whole spectrum, along with distinctive square forms and runic derivatives. Insular Phase II minuscule assumes four different forms. The most formal, Hybrid minuscule (cursiva hybrida, resembles Half-Uncial, especially in its use of 'oc' a, but uses a slanted pen. It was, perhaps, the most general book script of the period. The three remaining grades are determined by ductus: Set (cursiva formata), Cursive (cursiva) and Current (cursiva currens). Insular minuscule became increasingly pointed and calligraphic in aspect. It was used both for books and documents, with minuscule even being used for formal liturgical volumes by s. ix, perhaps responding to, or even anticipating Caroline developments. These scripts exerted a profound influence upon certain continental scriptoria, especially those founded by Insular missionaries and peregrini such as Bobbio, Fulda and Echternach. Insular scribes also favoured a greater use of abbreviations, with wider use of tironian notae, and emplyed word division, an Irish development prompted by learning Latin as a 'foreign language'. Insular artist/scribes also favoured a more intimate relationship between script and decoration, leading to the exuberant innovation of Insular illumination. Diffusion and duration: Anglo-Saxon England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and Man; s. V (?) to s. vii-s. ix in England and throughout the early Middle Ages in Celtic areas and Even to s. xix/s. xx in Ireland.
[B]eata pauperes sp[irit]u quoniam
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