From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Roman cursive
Roman cursive
Pseudolus: I will do this for you. But what is this, I
ask?
Calidorus: What’s wrong?
Pseudolus: In my opinion, these letters are seeking
children for themselves: one mounts the other.
Calidorus: Are you mocking me with your teasing?
Pseudolus: Indeed, by Pollux I believe that unless
the Sibyl can read these letters, nobody else can un-
derstand them.
Calidorus: Why do you speak harshly about these
charming letters and charming tablets, written by
a charming hand?
Roman cursive, old and new Pseudolus: By Hercules I beg you, do even hens have
hands like these? For indeed a hen wrote these let-
Roman cursive (or Latin cursive is a form of hand-
cursive) ters.
writing (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to some
extent into the Middle Ages. It is customarily divided into (Plautus, Pseudolus, 21–30)
old (or ancient) cursive, and new cursive.
Old Roman cursive
Old Roman cursive, also called majuscule cursive and
capitalis cursive, was the everyday form of handwriting
used for writing letters, by merchants writing business
accounts, by schoolchildren learning the Roman alpha-
bet, and even emperors issuing commands. A more for-
mal style of writing was based on Roman square capitals,
Cursive handwriting from the reign of Claudius (41 to 54 AD):
but cursive was used for quicker, informal writing. It was
uobis · ujdetur · p · c · décernám[us · ut · etiam]
most commonly used from about the 1st century BC to
prólátis · rebus ijs · júdicibus · n[ecessitas · judicandj]
the 3rd century AD, but it probably existed earlier than imponátur quj · jntrá rerum [· agendárum · dies]
that. In the early 2nd century BC, the comedian Plautus, jncoháta · judicia · non · per[egerint · nec]
in Pseudolus, makes reference to the illegibility of cursive defuturas · ignoro · fraudes · m[onstrósa · agentibus]
letters: multas · aduersus · quas · exc[ogitáuimus]...
Calidorus: Cape has tabellas, tute hinc narrato tibi Old Roman cursive is very difficult to read for modern
quae me miseria et cura contabefacit. people used to the current cursive forms of the ’Latin’
Pseudolus: Mos tibi geretur. Sed quid hoc, quaeso? script, which have evolved beyond recognition. The
Calidorus: Quid est? script uses many ligatures, and some letters are unrec-
Pseudolus: Ut opinor, quaerunt litterae hae sibi ognizable – "a" looks like an uncial "a", but with the left
liberos: alia aliam scandit. stroke still straight, "b" and "d" are hard to distinguish,
Calidorus: Ludis iam ludo tuo? "e" spans the whole line, "p" and "t" are very similar,
Pseudolus: Has quidem pol credo nisi Sibylla legerit, and "v" is written above the baseline, almost resembling
interpretari alium posse neminem. a chevron.[1]
Calidorus: Cur inclementer dicis lepidis litteris lep-
idis tabellis lepida conscriptis manu?
Pseudolus: An, opsecro hercle, habent quas gallinae New Roman cursive
manus? Nam has quidem gallina scripsit. New Roman cursive, also called minuscule cursive or lat-
er Roman cursive, developed from old Roman cursive.
Calidorus: Take these letters, then tell yourself It was used from approximately the 3rd century to the
what misery and concern are wasting me away.
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Roman cursive
7th century, and uses letter forms that are more recog- [2] Oxford, Scripts at Vindolanda: Historical context.
nizable to modern eyes; "a", "b", "d", and "e" have tak- [3] Jan-Olaf Tjäder, (Lund, 1955).
en a more familiar shape, and the other letters are pro- [4] Oxford, Vindolanda Tablets
portionate to each other rather than varying wildly in
size and placement on a line. This evolved into the me-
dieval script known as Carolingian minuscule, which was
References
used in 9th century France and Germany in the imperi- • Jan-Olaf Tjäder, Die nichtliterarischen lateinischen
al chancery, and whose revival in the Renaissance forms Papyri Italiens aus der Zeit 445–700 (Lund, 1955).
the basis of our modern lowercase letters. The uncial and • Staff, Vindolanda Tablets on line, Centre for the
half-uncial scripts also most likely developed from this Study of Ancient Documents and the Academic
script; "a", "g", "r", and "s" are particularly similar. [2] Computing Development Team at Oxford University.
According to Jan-Olaf Tjäder, new Roman cursive in-
fluenced the development of not only uncial, but of all
the other scripts used in the Middle Ages.[3][4]
Further reading
• Staff, Latin cursive presented by the University of
Michigan Papyrus Collection
See also • Staff, Vindolanda: Roman documents discovered,
• Demotic (Egyptian) Current Archaeology, a World Wide Web article,
• Hieratic based on a fuller accounts in Current Archaeology
Nos. 116, 128. 132 and 153.
Notes
[1] Oxford, Scripts at Vindolanda page 2 page 3
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Categories:
• Western calligraphy
• Ancient Rome
• Latin calligraphy
• Penmanship
• Palaeography
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