Visigothic script was a type of medievalscript, so called because it originated in the Visigothic kingdom in Spain. It is also called littera toletana or littera mozarabica.
The script was used from approximately the late 7th century until the 13th century, mostly in Visigothic Spain but also somewhat in southern France. 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 g.
Other features of the script include an open-top a (very similar to the letter u), similar shapes for the letters r and s, and a long letter i resembling the letter l. There are two forms of the letter d, one with a straight vertical ascender, and another with an ascender slanting towards the left. The top stroke of the letter t, by itself, has a hook curving to the left; t also has a number of other forms when used in ligatures and there are two different ligatures for the two sounds of ti (“hard” and “soft”) as spoken in Spanish Latin during this period. The letters e and r also have many different forms when written in ligature.
From the standard script, a capital-letter display script was developed, with long slender forms. There was also a cursive form used for charters and non-religious writings, which had northern ("Leonese") and southern ("Mozarabic") forms. The Leonese cursive was used in the Christian north, while the Mozarabic was used by Christians living in the Muslim south. The cursive forms were probably influenced by Roman cursive, brought to Spain from North Africa.
Visigothicscript incorporated a number of half uncial forms and the uncial G into a base of New Roman cursive.
The abbey was destroyed by the Saracens in 732, causing the demise of the script, although the abbey was later rebuilt.
The script of the papal curia up to the 10th century, curialis or littera Romana, and the related Ravenna chancery script were highly exaggerated calligraphic scripts with long ascenders and descenders, loops and ligatures; very impressive but not highly legible.
Visigothic persecution of Jews had to wait for the conversion to Catholicism of the Visigothic king Reccared, and the same synod of Catholic bishops in 633 that usurped the Visigothic nobles' right to confirm the election of a king declared that all Jews must be baptised.
A Visigothic nobleman, Pelayo, is credited with beginning the Christian Reconquista of Iberia in 718, when he defeated the Umayyads in battle and established the Kingdom of Asturias in the northern part of the peninsula.
Other Visigoths, refusing to adopt the Muslim faith or live under their rule, fled north to the kingdom of the Franks, and Visigoths played key roles in the empire of Charlemagne a few generations later.
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