15.2 Caroline in time and in space; its circulation and types

Caroline spread rapidly, between the end of the 8th century and the first decades of the 9th, in the Frankish territories between the Rhine and the Loire, by means of the writing centers of Aachen, Tours, Corbie, Fleury, Laon, Cluny. Before the end of the century, it had replaced the previous early medieval writings in practically all the territories of the Carolingian empire, and had spread to Burgundy, Aquitaine and at least in part, even further south, in the Spanish Pyrenees, in Rhineland Germany and in Bavaria, in the region of ​​Lake of Constance, and in northern Italy. It entered only later the territories outside the empire. It arrived to Britain together with the conquest of the Normans in the second half of the 11th century, and replaced Insular script, which also happened during the 12th century in Ireland. Caroline began to spread to the Iberian peninsula along with the ecclesiastical reform in the 11th century, starting from the Pyrenean area. This was helped by the strong influence of the Cluny monasteries that were gradually founded in the Christian kingdoms formed in the north of the Iberian peninsula, and here Caroline definitively supplanted the Visigothic script in the 12th century. In southern Italy the penetration of Caroline was less strong, since for a long time Beneventan continued to be used, and when the latter concluded its cycle at the end of the twelfth century, it was then replaced by the Gothic script, which meanwhile was to a certain extent replacing Caroline everywhere.

In addition to those already mentioned for its origins, the reasons for the success of this writing include: the large number of well-organized scriptoria present in the abbeys, which were capable of producing books not only for their own internal use but also in order to be exported to other study centers; the circulation of books that were lent to be copied, an economic improvement that allowed their production (books were always an expensive purchase) and also the type of texts that were copied. An extensive work of transcription of the Latin Classics and of the Church Fathers of the preceding centuries was carried out in Caroline minuscule, especially by monks. This work added to the production of contemporary texts and biblical and liturgical texts as well. The uniformity of a common script, one that was moreover easily legible and orthographically correct, allowed for the use of books produced even in places other than those in which one had learned to read; the use of the script in this way thus opened wide horizons of study and research to the ever increasing number of readers who moved from one monastery to another, from one school to another.

In the different centers of book production, however, the script underwent some slight stylistic developments, although substantially its morphology remained unchanged. These slight modifications were often linked to the graphic tradition of the place and cannot be configured as real types. However, two interesting cases can be taken into account.

The first refers to the use of Caroline in Rome and in Lazio, where the script appears in the last quarter of the 9th century, and is influenced by the use of Uncial, which was produced in Rome in previous centuries. An example is Vat. lat. 4965, which contains texts by Anastasius the Librarian, produced in Rome in 870-871. During the 9th century a type was defined that is usually defined as roman minuscule, characterized by a slant to the right, its relatively large letter size, the rather irregular arrangement of the letters, which adopt a more square design, from the presence of high ligatures above the top line, and sometimes the wavy shape of the shafts.

The second case refers to the use of Caroline not in a book but in a documentary context. By the 9th century it had been used with some special modifications in the imperial Carolingian chancery, to replace the Merovingian; in later centuries it grew to be widespread in Europe, and again served for documentary purposes (public but also private), taking on a typology called DIPLOMATIC MINUSCULE, characterized by the considerable lengthening of the shafts, which at the top turn into bows or other flourishes; the absence of ligaments; the presence of the crested c; the g with the lower extended stroke sometimes intertwined; the first line of the document usually presents a series of narrow, tall, interconnected capitals. This non-librarian writing is mentioned here because later, from the 13th century, it will lay the foundations for another particular book script (which will be called “CANCELLERESCA” MINUSCULE).

In the 12th century Caroline completed its course and was replaced by Gothic, which represented an advancement but which nevertheless resulted in the loss of the characteristics of easy legibility that had characterized Caroline. It was rediscovered in its forms of clear reading by the Italian humanists who imitated it and in the 15th century they spread it as Humanistic Minuscule. From here it passed into printing with Movable type, crystallized in the forms of round typefaces called Roman and still today its forms are the ones normally used in printing and electronic scripts (for example in the fonts, Times New Roman, Palatino Linotype, Courier, Cambria, Garamond, Arial and many others).