The Beneventan script was a

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 Duchy of Benevento in

southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...

. In the past it has also been called ''Langobarda'', ''Longobarda'', ''Longobardisca'' (signifying its origins in the territories ruled by the

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

), or sometimes ''Gothica''; it was first called ''Beneventan'' by palaeographer E. A. Lowe. It is mostly associated with Italy south of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, but it was also used in Beneventan-influenced centres across the

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Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...

. The script was used from approximately the mid-8th century until the 13th century, although there are examples from as late as the 16th century. There were two major centres of Beneventan usage: the monastery on

Monte Cassino The Abbey of Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a Catholic Church, Catholic, Benedictines, Benedictine monastery on a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Valle Latina, Latin Valley. Located on the site of the ancient ...

, and

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

. The Bari type developed in the 10th century from the Monte Cassino type; both were based on Roman cursive as written by the Langobards. In general the script is very angular. According to Lowe, the perfected form of the script was used in the 11th century, while Desiderius was abbot of Monte Cassino, declining thereafter.

Features

Beneventan features many ligatures and "connecting strokes" – the letters of a word could be joined together by a single line, with forms almost unrecognizable to a modern eye. Ligatures may be obligatory as: , , , and (two different forms: ''ti-dura'' where t had kept the t sound and ''ti-assibilata'' where t had taken the vulgar ts sound). They may be optional: frequent as , and ; or rare as , and .The Scriptorium and Library at Monte Cassino, 1058-1105, Francis Newton Ligatures involving the letter resemble late New Latin Cursive as in the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

and

Visigothic The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...

, exception made for peculiar ligature where is connected to on top influencing later on the German pre-caroline script and all the script from this derived until nowadays.Fonts for latin paleography, 4th ed., Juan-José Marcos In ligatures can take many forms depending on the letter joined to it. Ligatures with the letters and are also common. In early forms of Beneventan, the letter has an open top, similar to the letter ; later, it resembled "cc" or "oc", with long tails hanging to the right. In the Bari type, the letter often has a "broken" form, resembling the Beneventan form of the letter . However, itself has a very long middle arm, distinguishing it from . The letter can have a vertical or left-slanting ascender, the letter resembles the uncial form, and the letter is very tall and resembles . The script has a unique way to signify

abbreviations An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

both by omission and contraction – like most other Latin scripts, missing letters can be signified by a macron over the previous letter, although Beneventan often adds a dot to the macron. There is also a symbol resembling the digit , or a sideways , when the letter has been omitted. In other scripts there is often little or no punctuation, but standard punctuation forms were developed for the Beneventan script, including the basis for the modern

question mark The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation, punctuation mark that indicates a question or interrogative clause or phrase in many languages. History The history of the question mark is ...

. Beneventan shares some features with Visigothic and Merovingian script, probably due to the common late Roman matrix.

References

External links

'Fonts for Latin Paleography: User's Manual. 6th edition'
A manual of Latin paleography; a comprehensive PDF file containing 82 pages profusely illustrated, 4 January 2024).
Bibliography of beneventan manuscripts
{{Authority control Latin-script calligraphy Medieval scripts Duchy of Benevento Western calligraphy

Features

References

Further reading

External links