![KellsFol309r](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/KellsFol309r.jpg)
Uncial is a
majuscule[ Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & ]The British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
, p. 494. script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
(written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
scribes. Uncial letters were used to write
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, as well as
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
and
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
.
Development
![Evolution of minuscule](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Evolution_of_minuscule.svg)
Early uncial script most likely developed from late
rustic capitals
Rustic capitals ( la, littera capitalis rustica) is an ancient Roman calligraphic script. Because the term is negatively connoted supposing an opposition to the more 'civilized' form of the Roman square capitals, Bernhard Bischoff prefers to call ...
. Early forms are characterized by broad single-stroke
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
s using simple round forms taking advantage of the new
parchment
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins o ...
and
vellum
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anima ...
surfaces, as opposed to the angular, multiple-stroke letters, which are more suited for rougher surfaces, such as
papyrus
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
. In the oldest examples of uncial, such as the fragment of ''
De bellis macedonicis'' in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
, of the late 1st-early 2nd century, 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 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
descender
In typography and handwriting, a descender is the portion of a letter that extends below the baseline of a font.
For example, in the letter ''y'', the descender is the "tail", or that portion of the diagonal line which lies below the ''v'' c ...
s were the first major alterations, followed by twists of the tool in the basic stroke and overlapping. By the time the more compact
minuscule
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
scripts arose circa AD 800, some of the evolved uncial styles formed the basis for these simplified, smaller scripts. There are over 500 surviving copies of uncial script, by far the largest number prior to the
Carolingian Renaissance. Uncial was still used, particularly for copies of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
, until around the 10th century outside of
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. The
insular variant of uncial remained the standard script used to write the
Irish language
Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
until the middle of the 20th century.
Forms
![Codex Bezae - Latin Luke 23-47-24-1 (The S](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Codex_Bezae_-_Latin_Luke_23-47-24-1_%28The_S.S._Teacher%27s_Edition-The_Holy_Bible_-_Plate_XXVI%29.jpg)
In general, there are some common features of uncial script:
* , , , , are relatively narrow.
* , and are relatively broad; is formed with curved strokes (although a straight first stroke may indicate an early script), and is written as to distinguish it from and .
* is formed with a curved stroke, and its arm (or ''hasta'') does not connect with the top curve; the height of the arm can also indicate the age of the script (written in a high position, the script is probably early, while an arm written closer to the middle of the curve may indicate a later script).
* has a small base, not extending to the right to connect with the next letter.
* has a long, curved shoulder , often connecting with the next letter.
* resembles (and is the ancestor of) the "
long s
The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" and "poſ ...
" ; in uncial it looks more like than .
In later uncial scripts, the letters are sometimes drawn haphazardly; for example, runs together at the baseline, bows (for example in , , ) do not entirely curve in to touch their stems, and the script is generally not written as cleanly as previously.
National styles
Due to its extremely widespread use, in
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
French,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, and "insular" (
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
,
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
, and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
) centres, there were many slightly different styles in use:
*African (i.e.
Roman North Africa
Africa Proconsularis was a Roman province on the northern African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, ...
n) uncial is more angular than other forms of uncial. In particular, the bow of the letter is particularly sharp and pointed.
*Byzantine uncial has two unique features: "b-d uncial" uses forms of and , which are closer to half-uncial (see below), and was in use in the 4th and 5th centuries; "b-r" uncial, in use in the 5th and 6th centuries, has a form of that is twice as large as the other letters, and an with a bow resting on the baseline and the stem extending below the baseline.
*Italian uncial has round letters (, , etc.) with flatter tops, and with a sharp bow (as in African uncial), an almost horizontal rather than vertical stem in , and forked finials (i.e.,
serifs in some letters such as , , and ).
*Insular uncial (not to be confused with the separate
Insular script
Insular script was a medieval script system originating from Ireland that spread to Anglo-Saxon England and continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries took the script to continental Europe, where they found ...
) generally has definite word separation, and accent marks over stressed syllables, probably because Irish scribes did not speak a language descended from Latin. They also use specifically Insular
scribal abbreviation
Scribal abbreviations or sigla (singular: siglum) are abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek, Old English and Old Norse. In modern manuscript editing (substantive and mechanica ...
s not found in other uncial forms, use wedge-shaped
finials, connect a slightly subscript "pendant " with or (when at the end of a word), and decorate the script with animals and dots ("Insular dotting", often in groups of three).
*French (that is,
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...
) uncial uses thin descenders (in , etc.), an with lines that cross higher than the middle, and a with a curled stem (somewhat resembling an apple), and there are many decorations of fish, trees, and birds.
*
Cyrillic manuscript developed from Greek uncial in the late ninth century (mostly replacing the
Glagolitic alphabet
The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...
), and was originally used to write the
Old Church Slavonic liturgical language. The earlier form was called ''ustav'' (predominant in the 11–14th centuries), and later developed into ''semi-ustav'' script (or ''
poluustav'', 15–16th centuries).
Etymology
![Schriftzug Unziale](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Schriftzug_Unziale.svg)
There is some doubt about the original meaning of the word. ''Uncial'' itself probably comes from
St. Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is com ...
'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.
:''Habeant qui volunt veteres libros, vel in membranis purpureis auro argentoque descriptos, vel uncialibus ut vulgo aiunt litteris onera magis exarata quam codices.''
:"Let those who so desire have old books, or books written in gold and silver on
purple parchment
Purple parchment or purple vellum refers to parchment dyed purple; codex purpureus refers to manuscripts written entirely or mostly on such parchment. The lettering may be in gold or silver. Later the practice was revived for some especially gran ...
, or burdens written in uncial letters, as they are popularly called."
In classical Latin ''uncialis'' could mean both "inch-high" and "weighing an ounce", and it 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
Dom Jean Mabillon, O.S.B., (; 23 November 1632 – 27 December 1707) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He is considered the founder of the disciplines of palaeography and diplomatics.
Early life
Mabi ...
in the early 18th century. Thereafter his definition was refined by
Scipione Maffei
Francesco Scipione Maffei (; 1 June 1675 – 11 February 1755) was a Italian writer and art critic, author of many articles and plays. An antiquarian with a humanist education whose publications on Etruscan antiquities stand as incunables of ...
, who used it to refer to this script as distinct from
Roman square capitals
Roman square capitals, also called ''capitalis monumentalis'', inscriptional capitals, elegant capitals and ''capitalis quadrata'', are an ancient Roman form of writing, and the basis for modern capital letters. Square capitals are characteriz ...
.
Other uses
![Codex sinaticus (The S](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Codex_sinaticus_%28The_S.S._Teacher%27s_Edition-The_Holy_Bible_-_Plate_XXII%29.jpg)
The word, ''uncial'', 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:
*
Codex Sinaiticus
The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscript ...
*
Codex Vaticanus
The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...
*
Codex Alexandrinus
The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...
*: – these being three of what are often called the four
great uncial codices
The great uncial codices or four great uncials are the only remaining uncial codices that contain (or originally contained) the entire text of the Bible ( Old and New Testament) in Greek. They are the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican Library, the C ...
*
Codex Bezae
The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, designated by siglum D or 05 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 5 (in the von Soden of New Testament manuscript), is a codex of the New Testament dating from the 5th century writ ...
*
Codex Petropolitanus Purpureus
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 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 the continued widespread use of the
blackletter typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are thousands o ...
s for written
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
until well into the 20th century,
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
letterforms, which are similar to uncial letterforms, were conventionally used for typography in
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
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 is
insular, not uncial. Uncial Greek (commonly called "Byzantine lettering" by Greeks themselves) is commonly used by the
Greek Orthodox Church
The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...
and various institutions and individuals in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
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 the
Greek War of Independence. The height of uncial usage by the Modern Greek State was during the
Greek military junta of 1967–74
The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...
, when even
Greek Drachma
The drachma ( el, δραχμή , ; pl. ''drachmae'' or ''drachmas'') was the currency used in Greece during several periods in its history:
# An ancient Greek currency unit issued by many Greek city states during a period of ten centuries, f ...
coins had uncial lettering on them. Since the
Metapolitefsi
The Metapolitefsi ( el, Μεταπολίτευση, , " regime change") was a period in modern Greek history
The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek peop ...
, the Greek State has stopped using uncial script.
Half-uncial
![Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 668 - British Library 1532r - Epitome of Livy - magnitudinem, Lusitani vastat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Papyrus_Oxyrhynchus_668_-_British_Library_1532r_-_Epitome_of_Livy_-_magnitudinem%2C_Lusitani_vastat.jpg)
The term ''half-uncial'' or ''semi-uncial'' was first deployed by
Scipione Maffei
Francesco Scipione Maffei (; 1 June 1675 – 11 February 1755) was a Italian writer and art critic, author of many articles and plays. An antiquarian with a humanist education whose publications on Etruscan antiquities stand as incunables of ...
, ''Istoria diplomatica'' (Mantua, 1727); he used it to distinguish what seemed like 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.
[L. E. Boyle, "'Basilicanus' of Hilary Revisited," in ''Integral Palaeography'', with an introduction by F. Troncarelli (Turnhout, 2001), 105–17.]
It 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
Leonard Eugene Boyle, OP, (13 November 1923 – 25 October 1999), was an Irish and Canadian scholar in medieval studies and palaeography. He was the first Irish and North American Prefect of the Vatican Library in Rome from 1984 to 1997.
He ...
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.
Half-uncial forms
Some general forms of half-uncial letters are:
* is usually round , sometimes with a slightly open top
* and have vertical stems, identical to the modern letters
* has a flat top, no bow, and a curved descender (somewhat resembling the digit 5)
* has a curved shaft
* , , and are similar to their uncial counterparts (with the same differences compared to modern letters)
Half-uncial 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 The Old English Latin alphabet generally consisted of about 24 letters, and was used for writing Old English from the 8th to the 12th centuries. Of these letters, most were directly adopted from the Latin alphabet, two were modified Latin letters ( ...
in the 8th century.
Letters
See also
*
Carolingian minuscule
Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...
*
Gaelic script
*
Insular script
Insular script was a medieval script system originating from Ireland that spread to Anglo-Saxon England and continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries took the script to continental Europe, where they found ...
*
Irish orthography
Irish orthography is very etymological which allows the same written form to represent all dialects of Irish and remain regular. For example, ("head") may be read in Mayo and Ulster, in Galway, or in Munster.
A spelling reform in the mid- ...
*
Rustic capitals
Rustic capitals ( la, littera capitalis rustica) is an ancient Roman calligraphic script. Because the term is negatively connoted supposing an opposition to the more 'civilized' form of the Roman square capitals, Bernhard Bischoff prefers to call ...
*
Tengwar
The Tengwar script is an artificial script, one of several scripts created by J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of ''The Lord of the Rings''.
Within the fictional context of Middle-earth, the Tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor, and use ...
*
List of New Testament uncials
References
External links
More information at Earlier Latin Manuscripts
{{Authority control
Latin-script calligraphy
Palaeography
Papyrology
Writing
Medieval scripts
Early Middle Ages
Western calligraphy