Visigothic script was a type of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

script that originated in the

Visigothic Kingdom The Visigothic Kingdom, Visigothic Spain or Kingdom of the Goths () was a Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic people ...

Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...

(the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

). Its more limiting alternative designations and associate it with

scriptoria A scriptorium () was a writing room in medieval European monasteries for the copying and Illuminated manuscript, illuminating of manuscripts by scribes. The term has perhaps been over-used—only some monasteries had special rooms set aside for ...

specifically in Toledo and with Mozarabic culture more generally, respectively. The script, which exists in book-hand and

cursive Cursive (also known as joined-up writing) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and m ...

versions, was used from approximately the late seventh century until the thirteenth century, mostly in Visigothic Iberia but also somewhat in the Catalan kingdom in current

southern France Southern France, also known as the south of France or colloquially in French as , is a geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', Atlas e ...

. It was perfected in the 9th–11th centuries and declined afterwards. It developed from uncial script, and shares many features of uncial, especially an uncial form of the letter . Visigothic Z-C cedille

Other features of the script include an open-top (very similar to the letter ), similar shapes for the letters and , and a long letter resembling the modern letter . There are two forms of the letter , one with a straight vertical ascender and another with an ascender slanting towards the left. The top stroke of the letter , by itself, has a hook curving to the left; also has a number of other forms when used in ligatures, and there are two different ligatures for the two sounds of (“hard” or unassibilated and "soft" or sibilated) as spoken in Hispano-

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

during this period. The letters and also have many different forms when written in ligature. Of particular interest is the special Visigothic z , which, after adoption into Carolingian handwriting, eventually transformed into the c-cedilla . A capital-letter display script was developed from the standard script, with long slender forms. There was also a

form that was used for charters and non-religious writings, which had northern ("Leonese") and southern ("Mozarabic") forms. The Leonese cursive was used in the

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

north, and the Mozarabic was used by Christians living in the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

south. The cursive forms were probably influenced by Roman cursive, brought to Iberia from

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

. Visigothic script has many similarities with Beneventan script and Merovingian script.

See also

Further reading