Gothic script was a medieval script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500.

Origins

Folio 56r of the Aberdeen Bestiary, an early example of Gothic script from the 12th century.

The term Gothic was first used to describe this script in 15th century Italy, in the midst of the Renaissance. Renaissance Humanists believed it was a barbaric script; Flavio Biondo, in Italia Illustrata (1531) thought it was invented by the Lombards after their invasion of Italy in the [[6th century]. Any other seemingly illegible scripts, such as Visigothic, Beneventan, and Merovingian, were also labelled "Gothic", in contrast to Carolingian minuscule, a highly legible script which the Humanists called littera antiqua, "the ancient letter", believing that it was the script used by the Romans.

In fact, Carolingian minuscule was actually the direct ancestor of Gothic script. Gothic developed from Carolingian as an increasingly literate 12th century Europe required new books in many different subjects. New universities were founded, each producing books for business, law, grammar, history, and other pursuits, not solely religious works for which earlier scripts had usually been used. These books needed to be produced quickly to keep up with demand. Carolingian, though legible, was was time-consuming and labour-intensive to produce. It was large and wide and took up a lot of space on a manuscript. As early as the 11th century, different forms of Carolingian were already being used, and by the mid-12th century, a clearly distinguishable form, able to be written more quickly to meet the demand for new books, was being used in north-eastern France and the Low Countries.

Forms of Gothic

Textualis

Textualis, also known as textura or Gothic bookhand, was the most calligraphic form of Gothic.

According to Dutch scholar Gerard Lieftinck, the height of Gothic script was the 14th and 15th centuries. For Lieftinck, the highest form of textualis was littera textualis formata, used for de luxe manuscripts. The usual form, simply littera textualis, was used for literary works and university texts. Lieftinck's third form, littera textualis currens, was the cursive form of Gothic, extremely difficult to read and used for textual glosses, less important books, etc.

Textualis was most widely used in France, the Low Countries, England, and Germany. Some characteristics of the script are:

• tall, narrow letters, as compared to their Carolingian counterparts.
• letters formed by sharp, straight, angular lines, unlike the typically round Carolingian; as a result, there is a high degree of "breaking", i.e. lines that do not necessarily connect with each other, especially in curved letters.
• ascenders (in letters such as b, d, h, etc.) are vertical and often end in sharp finials
• when a letter with a bow (in b, d, p, q, etc) is followed by another letter with a bow (such as "be" or "po"), the bows overlap and the letters are joined by a straight line (this is known as "biting").
• a related characteristic is the shape of R when attacked to other letters with bows; only the bow and tail were written, connected to the bow of the previous letter. In other scripts, this only occurred in a ligature with the letter o.
• similarly related is the form of the letter d when followed by a letter with a bow; its ascender is then curved to the left, like the uncial d. Otherwise the ascender is vertical.
• the letters g, j, p, q, y, and the hook of h have descenders, but no other letters are written below the line.
• the letter a has a straight back stroke, and the top loop eventually became closed, somewhat resembling the number 8. The letter s often has a diagonal line connecting its two bows, also somewhat resembling an 8 (but the long s is frequently used in the middle of words).
• minims, especially in the later period of the script, do not connect with each other. This makes it very difficult to distinguish i, u, m, and n. A 14th century example of the difficulty minims produced is mimi numinum niuium minimi munium nimium uini muniminum imminui uiui minimum uolunt ("the smallest mimes of the gods of snow do not wish at all in their life that the great duty of the defences of the wine be diminished"). In Gothic script this would look like a series of single strokes. Dotted i and the letter j developed because of this. Minims may also have finials of their own.
• the script is much more highly abbreviated than Carolingian, adding to the speed in which it could be written.

Rotunda

In Italy, Gothic script was less angular than in nothern centres, and is thus also called rotunda, or littera bononiensis because the main Italian centre for Gothic rotunda was the University of Bologna. Biting is a common feature in rotunda, but breaking is not.

Cursiva

Cursiva refers to a very large variety of forms of Gothic; like modern cursive writing there is no real standard form. It developed in the 14th century as a simplified form of textualis, with influence from the form of textualis as used for writing charters. Cursiva developed partly because of the introduction of paper, which was smoother than parchment. It was therefore easier to write quickly on paper in a cursive script.

In cursiva, descenders are more frequent, especially in the letters f and s, and ascenders are curved and looped rather than vertical (seen especially in the letter d). The letters a, g, and s (at the end of a word) are very similar to their Carolingian forms. However, not all of these features are found in every example of cursiva, which makes it difficult to determine whether or not a script can be called cursiva at all.

Lieftinck also divided cursiva into three styles: littera cursiva formata was the most legible and calligraphic style. Littera cursiva textualis (or libraria) was the usual form, used for writing standard books, and was generally written with a larger pen, leading to larger letters. Littera cursiva currens was used for textbooks and other unimportant books, and had very little standardization in forms.

Hybrida

Hybrida is also called bastarda (especially in France), and as its name suggests, refers to a hybrid form of the script. It is a mixture of textualis and cursiva, developed in the early 15th century. From textualis, it borrowed vertical ascenders, while from cursiva, it borrowed long f and s, single-looped a, and g with an open descender (similar to Carolingian forms).

Legacy

Gothic script remained in use after the 16th century, especially in Germany and parts of Eastern Europe, where it developed into typefaces like fraktur.

External links

• Handwriting Guide: German Gothic (http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/rg/guide/German_Gothic99-36316.ASP?)