#insular majuscule

[tuxedolascribalblogger]

AoA for Peaches of Rusted Woodlands, words by Lydia Webbe. Jacques Herbin "Shogun" ink and Coliro Arabic Gold watercolor on 6x8" Fluid watercolor paper. Irish Half-Uncial script.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Some Early Forms of Handwriting

MAJUSCULE

Relatively large letters generally contained within a single pair of imaginary horizontal lines; now usually called capital letters.

The Greek and Latin alphabets were both originally written in this way.

MINUSCULE

Relatively small letters whose parts often extend above and below a pair of imaginary horizontal lines; now usually called small letters or lower-case letters.

Minuscule writing was a gradual development, known in Greek from the 7th–8th centuries AD.

UNCIAL

A form of professional writing used in Greek and Latin manuscripts during the 4th–8th centuries AD.

The style consists of large (the name means ‘inch-high’), simple, rounded letters.

A later development, now known as half-uncial or semi-uncial, prepared the way for modern small letters.

Half-uncial is often found in early manuscripts from the British Isles, where the style of writing developed an ‘insular’ character of its own.

CURSIVE

Handwriting in which the characters are joined in a series of rounded, flowing strokes, which promotes ease and speed.

Often now known colloquially as ‘script’ (US) or ‘joined-up writing’ (UK), it was widely used from the 4th century BC, and eventually replaced uncial and half-uncial as the handwriting norm.

DUAL ALPHABET

The use of capital letters and small letters in a single system.

This development took place during the renaissance associated with the reign of Emperor Charlemagne (742–814), as part of the script which was later called Carolingian minuscule.

Carolingian writing, promoted throughout Europe, was an important influence on later handwriting styles.

For example, modern Roman printed letters derive from a classical style, based on the Carolingian, introduced in Italy by humanist printers in the early 15th century.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References ⚜ Worldbuilding ⚜ Typography

[eagle-writes]

can u write "nazi punks fuck off" in insular majuscule hand

Nazi punks fuck off

Alas, I currently have but the one hand at my disposal.

Ink: Sailor Jentle yama-dori

[renegade-hierophant]

Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels, incipit to the Gospel of Matthew.

The main text contains the first sentence of the Gospel: “Liber generationis Iesu Christi filii David filii Abraham” (“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham”).

The first line contains the word “liber” (“the book”) with illuminated letters in insular majuscule; the first three letters (“lib”) are much more ornate than the last two (“er”) in white.

The next two lines are in runic capitals (i.e. Latin letters in a rune-inspired script, also seen in the Book of Nunnaminster for example): the first of these lines partially contains the word “generationis” as “-onis” appears in the next line, followed by the contracted form of “Iesu”, namely “Ihu” with a tilde on the “h”; this type of contraction is called a nomen sacrum.

The last line is in insular majuscule and begins with another nomen sacrum, the contraction “χρi” with a tilde, meaning “Christi”. This is followed by a more compressed series of words. The first is “filii” (“son”) with an “fi” ligature and a letter “l” with two stacked “i” letters on its leg. Then “David” is seen and is formed with a letter “d” with an “a” stacked on a “v” in its counter followed by “id”. After that, “filii” is present again, however this time the “fi” ligature is replaced with the Greek letter phi (φ) due to its phonetic similarity. The last word is “Abraham”, which is split into two lines.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Saint Matthew from the Book of Kells, MS 58, folio 28v., Ireland, c 800 CE. Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. 

* * * * *

Matthew's face, with its vast, staring eyes and long, snaking yellow hair, has an ecstatic visionary aspect that transfixes. This Celtic evangelist is an enraptured, strange figure. His symmetrical features - the black arches of the eyebrows coiling into the outline of a pillar of a nose, the beard a perfectly balanced, mask-like shape - are not lacking individual features as a result of medieval clumsiness, but are emphatically cleansed of identity, transfigured into a divine, iconic generality. There is something unsettling and powerful about this face, as if transformed by knowledge into something inhuman. The hair, so wild, suggests intoxication rather than asceticism. The design of the page - the purple robe with its gold repeated device of three circles, the animal emblems of the other evangelists, the frame that literally squashes against him as it orgies in the compulsive repetition of organic yet balanced forms, the squares, circles, circles within squares and spiralling metallic forms - is suggestive of rhapsody, a sensuous delight in the scriptures, in copying, in visions experienced in silence in a remote community on a cold island. In his left hand, Matthew holds a book, an object of mystery and power. Its representation folds the act of reading back on itself; the Book of Kells is a monument to the idea of the book.

[Scott Horton]

* * * * *

“The writing, in huge insular majuscule script, is flawless in its regularity and utter control. One can only marvel at the penmanship. It is calligraphic and as exact as printing, and yet it flows and shapes itself into the space available. It sometimes swells and seems to take breath at the ends of lines. The decoration is more extensive and more overwhelming than one could possibly imagine. Virtually every line is embellished with color or ornament.”

― Christopher de Hamel, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts

[clarethorngarden]

Might be able to paint this one, but thought I'd see what you could do with a line drawing in the meantime.

This one is a simplification of the Norse Pagan Futhark rune Dag.

Text in Insular Majuscule.

[inspiraldreams]

The Book of Kells (Latin: Codex Cenannensis; Irish: Leabhar Cheanannais; MS ID: Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I.) is an illuminated gospel book - containing the four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) as well as various additions such as Easter tables for calculating the date of Easter etc. The text is primarily from the Vulgate Latin form of the Gospels but it also contains passages from the Vetus Latina - a term for Latin gospels predating the Vulgate. It is an illuminated work - high decorated and filled with illustrations, many depicting the figures associated with each gospel - Matthew - the Man, Mark - the Lion, Luke - the Calf (or Lamb in some works), and John - the Eagle. The text contains some interesting variations - for example an additional ancestor in the genealogy of Jesus, 'I come to bring not only peace, but also joy' in place of 'not peace but a sword' (the former says gaudium in place of gladium), and the opening if John says 'True Word' as distinct from 'Word'. This means it is possibly a free translation of the Greek rather than a Latin copy. Its written in a hand called Insular Majuscule (meaning from the British Isles and primarily in capital letters). It is considered to be one of the greatest examples of medieval Insular art from the time period. It is one of my favorite medieval manuscripts and part of why I chose to study the period in question.

The Book of Kells (détail)

[senshilegionnaire]

FUCKIN TITIVILLUS https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titivillus

[mimiuptostuff]

Callivember 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 - Shiny, courage, keep writing, calligraphy masters, calligraphy.

[louhearted]

i am so fucking scared that i won’t be able to tell carolingian minuscule apart from insular minuscule, much less insular majuscule from semi uncial script. and like. college is FUCKED because that is not a fear a normal person should have. not only did they give the monkey anxiety, they gave the monkey anxiety about LETTER FORMS

[tuxedolascribalblogger]

now if only i could write in medieval polyphonic notation

“The power of her heart will save us. Her love enlightens us. She is the soldier who embraces all.”

https://soundcloud.com/ginadonahue/illa-miles-est

[tuxedolascribalblogger]

this evening's efforts~ noodler's american eel black ink, reeves gouache, and coliro/finetec arabic gold, opal, and sterling silver; capital A from the book of nunnaminster; words from a scout camp song. i also avoided W by using ou and ough 😅

[opencommunion]

[The artist] wrote the small letters in Insular Majuscule, a striking script invented by Irish monks. It derives ultimately from the uncial script invented by Christian scribes in Egypt who used curving Greek penstrokes to write Latin letters. Uncial was the first peculiarly Christian handwriting; the faithful throughout the Latin-speaking world adopted it to distinguish holy manuscripts from pagan literature. The display capital letters of the Lindisfarne Gospels have an unmistakable resemblance to Germanic runes. Runes were known at Lindisfarne; they were even used to carve the nomina sacra on the reliquary casket of St. Cuthbert. Patterns of knots, spirals and keys; and interlaces of elongated beasts and birds decorate the manuscript. These are motifs from Celtic and Germanic art that predate the Christian missions.

The pages depicting the four Evangelists, however, resemble mosaics from Rome or Byzantium or Antioch. Eadfrith likely based their composition on pictures in an illustrated manuscript brought by missionaries from one of the Mediterranean urban centers of early Christianity. It was through small, portable objects such as books that iconography spread; a missionary, obviously, cannot carry a basilica decorated with mosaics with him into the wilderness. He can carry a great many books containing a great many pictures. In the monastic art of Northern Europe, fascinating combinations of Hellenistic, Syrian and Byzantine traditions are encountered. The influences can be distinguished as late as the twelfth century, and vary from monastery to monastery. This is because their libraries held books from all over the Christian world, which served as models for the resident artists. Cruciformally arranged ornament fills five pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels. Art historians call these carpet pages; one, Volkmar Gantzhorn, has proposed that they were inspired by actual carpets woven in Christian Armenia. Carpet pages appeared in Northumbro-Irish manuscripts about the time that Theodore of Tarsus arrived at Canterbury to become its archbishop in AD 669. Perhaps he carried, either in his memory or in his baggage, the tradition of the Oriental carpet as far as Lindisfarne. Other scholars see in the carpet pages an imitation of Coptic art; several intriguing early medieval documents mention Egyptian monks living in Ireland. A Psalter from this time, lined with Egyptian papyrus, was pulled intact from an Irish bog eleven years ago. The Lindisfarne Gospels is thus a work of sacred art to which Germanic, Celtic, Roman, Greek, Hebrew and possibly Armenian or Coptic Christians contributed. It pages illustrate the universality invoked by St. Wilfrid, whose words would have been fresh in the memory of the monks at Lindisfarne; here, at one and the same time, is the art of Africa, Asia, Egypt, Greece and all the world, wherever the Church of Christ is spread abroad, through the various nations and tongues. It was never more beautifully made than in a corner of the remotest island.

It annoys me to know that, upon seeing this page, most people would simply say: Oh, how Irish. A few would call it Celtic instead. And while that is not an inaccurate description, it is a meager one. This art is popular in the present day, not as an expression of universal Christianity, but of Irishness or (more commonly) pseudo-Irishness. You often see it on pub signs and knickknacks and other bits of paddywhackery; you rarely see it on sacred artwork. I cannot imagine a new church being decorated in this manner, unless it were intended for Irish immigrants. Certainly I am grateful to see this art linger at all, but I lament the loss of the idea that it belongs to everyone.

Icon painter Daniel Mitsui, commenting on the Lindisfarne Gospels

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

UNCIAL SCRIPTS AND THE CAROLINGIAN MINUSCULE

The upper and lower case letters we are used to today, along with spaces between words, punctuation, and enlarged initial letters, were a development of the late 8th century known as the Carolingian Minuscule. This manuscript hand not only established a uniform book hand that would be used throughout Charlemagne’s sprawling empire, but it also established the kinds of letter forms that would serve as the models for every Western typographic design to our current day. Today, we essentially read and write in the Carolingian Minuscule.

The Carolingian Minuscule itself developed from the insular uncial scripts and partly from the Roman half uncial that were used at Irish and Anglo-Celtic monasteries that had been founded all over Europe by the late 6th century. The insular monks who founded these monasteries also brought the traditions of word spacing, punctuation, and initial letters with them to the continent. The uncial scripts themselves derived from the late imperial Rustic Capitals, which themselves seem to have been based on Roman epigraphic letter forms.

The main characteristic of the miniscule is the breaking of the x-height with large capital letters and the characteristic ascenders and descenders found in such letters as b, d, f, g, h, k, l, p, q, t, and the rounding of capital letters into forms we know as “lower case” today, such as a, e, i, m, n. The precursors to these can be seen clearly in the first set of examples of the Irish half uncial from our facsimile copy of the Book of Kells (Luzern: Faksimile Verlag, 1990) and the Anglo-Celtic uncial form found in our facsimile copy of the Lindisfarne Gospels (second to last image; Olten and Lausanne, Switzerland: Urs Graf, 1956-60). The original manuscripts were produced at the monasteries of Iona in about 800 CE, and Lindisfarne around 725 CE, respectively. The difference between these and the Carolingian Minuscule is that the letter forms in these manuscripts are all majuscules, i.e., formal capital letters, not the informal miniscule hand that we associate with “lower-case” letters today.

The last example is that of the Roman half uncial, a majuscule hand, also used by Anglo-Celtic scribes on the continent. This example is from our facsimile copy of the Lorsch Gospels ( New York: George Braziller, 1967), a Carolingian manuscript originally produced at Aachen around 810 CE. Here, no spacing between words or punctuation can be seen.

It is said that Charlemagne tasked his main Anglo-Celtic scholar Alcuin of York with devising a new, uniform, manuscript book hand. Alcuin, but more likely others, turned to the informal versions of the uncial letter forms they were familiar with and the Carolingian Minuscule was born! With, of course, profound implications for how we read and write today.

View our post on the early use of the Carolingian Minuscule.

View our other Typography Tuesday posts.

[tomasorban]

The Book of Kells: An Immortal Cultural Heritage of the Gaels

Over the centuries, from its earliest beginnings, Christianity was the inspiration for some truly stunning art. From early frescoes, to illuminated manuscripts , magnificent churches and abbeys, Christian art knew no bounds. And one such piece of art is the iconic and famed Book of Kells.

A historic heritage of early Christianity in Ireland, this magnificently illustrated gospel book is a clear glimpse into the unique art style and identity of the Gaelic peoples. Adorned with intricate details and a dazzling array of colors, this manuscript really shows the result of Christian tradition mixing with the art of the Gaels. And the result is truly stunning.

Dating from the 9th century AD, the manuscript luckily survived to the present day largely unscathed, and it withstood the wheel of time. Today we are bringing you the history of this marvelous art piece and getting you closer to the origins of Christianity in Ireland and the identity of the Gaelic nations. Join us!

Born From the Spirit: The Early Origins of the Book of Kells

When we consider early Christian art and illuminated gospels, there is hardly anyone who has not heard about the famed Book of Kells. Its reputation precedes it, and rightly so, as this is, to date, one of the finest and intricate pieces of illuminated gospels that we know of today. It is also the chief representation of the so called insular art style, and also its culmination.

Insular art refers to the unique form of art that originated on the islands of Ireland and Britain, and its name comes from Latin insula (island). Also known as Hiberno Saxon art, it flourished from 6th to 9th century AD. It is characterized by iconic features of Irish art which is today a chief part of Celtic Christianity, and its main features are truly stunning and complex knotwork interlace designs, La Tène Celtic art elements such as spirals, triskelions, knots, and symbols, Saxon animal motifs, and so on.

All of these elements of insular art are perfectly combined in the Book of Kells, making it a crowning representative of the style.

The exact origin and creation period of the Book of Kells is still largely debated, with several main versions existing. On the basis of the fully developed insular art style that encompasses all the features from the previous centuries, most scholars place the Book of Kells into the 9th century.

Now, the gospel itself is often brought into connection with Saint Columba, as being created by Columban monks, i.e. his followers. Saint Columba (orig. Irish - Colm Cille - “church dove”) died long before the 9th century, in 597 AD. He was an Irish missionary who is credited with successfully spreading Christianity among pagan Gaels and the Picts.

Saint Columba converting King Brude of the Picts to Christianity. (Kim Traynor / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The original, old belief was that the Book of Kells was created during his lifetime, or even by Columba himself. But this tradition is usually dismissed on the basis of the complexity of the art style, which much more realistically belongs in the 9th century.

The other scholarly debate relates to the place of its creation. Most likely it was made on the island of Iona (Scottish: Ì Chaluim Chille ), a small island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. The island is the site of the historic Iona Abbey and was the very center of Gaelic monasticism and the spread of Christianity for roughly three centuries. This was the place of the followers of Saint Columba, and if the Book of Kells was created there in the 9th century, it would coincide with the arrival of Vikings and the beginning of their raids.

Why is this important? Well, the manuscript is not called the Book of Iona, but the Book of Kells. Kells is a town in County Meath , Ireland, and the place of the Abbey of Kells.

Quite far from Iona, the abbey was created in the late 8th and early 9th centuries and was most likely a refuge for Iona monks who fled from the Viking raiders , bringing the Book of Kells with them. As the manuscript spent the longest period of time in this abbey, it was named the Book of Kells.

In summary, there are currently several proposed theories as to the origins of this manuscript. It is possible that it was created in the 8th century at Lindisfarne, and with the onset of Viking raids, was brought to Iona, and from there to Kells. It could have also been started at Iona and then finished at Kells.

But even at the Abbey of Kells, this magnificent manuscript was not entirely safe. In the 10th century, the place was repeatedly ransacked by Vikings, and at one point the manuscript was stolen. It was recovered later on, but not without loss – the gold and jewel adorned cover was not recovered. Even in that period, the worth and splendor of the manuscript was clear.

In the 1007 AD the Annals of Ulster , the book was named as the chief relic of the Western World . It then successfully survived in Kells and remained there until 1654. To preserve it from Oliver Cromwell’s troops, that arrived at the abbey in that year, the officials sent the book to Dublin, and from there it was given to Dublin’s Trinity College by the Bishop of Meath, in 1661. The Book of Kells remained there ever since.

Spread the Word – Contents of the Manuscript

The Book of Kells consists of 340 sheets of fine vellum, which in turn totals 680 pages. It is comprised of the Four Gospels, and it is written in majuscule insular script, in yellow, red, purple, and black ink. The dimensions are 13 by 8.7 inches (330 by 220 millimeters), but these are the dimensions that resulted in a 19th century rebinding.

Interestingly, the Book of Kells seems to have never been finished. Several of the illuminations and decorations still remain only as outlines and were never filled and colored.

This ties in with the version that the manuscript’s completion was disturbed with the appearance of Viking raids. Either way, it is clear that this book was accomplished by a skilled team of monks in a scriptorium that was modern for its time, and that it most likely took them several years to accomplish.

It is written on a very fine vellum – aka animal skin or in this case the skin of a calf. It is thought that to produce the full Book of Kells, around 185 animals had to be killed to produce the vellum. Either way the quality is remarkable, although not all the pages are of same thickness – several are so fine that they are almost translucent.

The Book of Kells consists of preliminary writings and the Four Gospels – of Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John. The latter, Gospel of John, is incomplete, and goes only up to John 17:13 (And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.) The missing parts are generally attributed to the theft of the gold cover pages, which were torn off in the 10th century.

Of the preliminary writings, there are the Breves Causae (the Summaries of the Gospels), the Eusebian canons, and short biographies of the evangelists. All the writings are based from the Vulgate, a 4th century translation of the Bible into Latin. The Vulgate was completed by Saint Jerome in 384 AD.

The Book of Kells contains the symbols of the Four Evangelists (Clockwise from top left): a man (Matthew), a lion (Mark), an eagle (John), and an ox (Luke). (Magnus Manske / Public Domain )

As mentioned, there was a team of highly skilled scribes and artists from the abbey that worked on the book. All the big decorations were most likely produced by only three artists. There are subtle differences between each of the three, even though their names are unknown.

There were particular artists who did the major ornamental and interlaced knotwork designs such as the famous Chi Rho page. The stunning attention to detail and the mind dazzling intricacy of the woven lines is really amazing for the time period and is counted among the finest examples of Gaelic Celtic art.

The text was copied by four chief scribes. Slight differences can be observed through detailed studying of the writings, showing characteristic style shifts among the four.

It is observed that a particular scribe tended to repeat passages in order to fill up blank spaces on the page, as well as to use bright colors in the text itself. Another scribe did only the letters, avoiding decorations and leaving them to one of the artists.

Tedious Homework – Errors and Repetitions

An interesting glimpse into the trade network of the period can be seen from the many colors used in the Book of Kells. Most of these pigments had to be imported from abroad, often from quite far away, yet they still found their way to the small islands of Iona, Lindisfarne, and the Hebridean hermitages. The pigments were used for yellow, red, green, indigo, and blue.

Blue was made from woad, which was native to northern Europe, so that wasn’t such a problem to acquire. But the ochre for red and yellow, the verdigris green copper pigment, and lapis lazuli, all had to be imported from the Mediterranean. And in the case of ultramarine (lapis lazuli) it had to be acquired as far as Afghanistan.

One surprising aspect of the Book of Kells is the seeming careless transcription, with numerous mistakes present throughout the manuscript. Granted, copying a manuscript takes a ton of concentration and dedicated effort, so mistakes can happen. Still, such a number of silly mistakes either tells us that the book had a more ceremonial use – not for daily use – or the Gaelic monks weren’t perfect masters of either the Latin language or insular script.

Words were skipped, pages repeated, and transcriptions wrong.

For example, the page 218 is a duplicate. It was clearly reproduced by mistake, but rather than discard it (it was a lot of hard work to produce even a single page) the monks chose to keep it in the book, nonetheless. The only thing that was done was the addition of numerous red crosses and red lines to indicate that the page should be ignored – as it was a mistake.

Also, there are plenty of errors in the text. A notable example is Matthew 10:34 (I came not to send peace, but a sword.) The original phrase in Latin should be: “Non veni pacem mittere, sed gladium.” But the scribe mixed gladium with gaudium, which means joy. Thus, the passage wrongly states: ”I came not to send peace, but joy.”

But in the end, the acceptance of such mistakes by the monks and the order tell us that it was really the aesthetics of the Book of Kells that were praised, rather than the written content itself. With almost all of the population at the time being illiterate, it was of no consequence that a word or two was wrongly written.

It was the grandiose look that had the purpose – to leave a lasting impression on the common folk, and to kindle belief in the hearts of the flock. And with the magnificent illustrations, with the mind boggling intricacy of the details, and the splendor of colors, we can safely assume that every common man of the time would be awestruck upon seeing the Book of Kells.

A Heritage to Last Centuries

Even though it is Christian in purpose and origin, the Book of Kells is still singlehandedly one of the most important insights into Irish and insular Gaelic art and culture. With numerous complex illustrations in this book, one certainly stands out. It is the page 34, with the full page illustration of the Chi Rho . Such an amazing level of detail, so many incredibly complex twists and interlaced designs, an abundance of La Tène Celtic art elements, bold colors, and endless depth, all tell us that the creation of even this single page could have taken many years.

The Book of Kells contains the Chi Rho monogram. Chi and rho are the first two letters of the word Christ in Greek. (Soerfm / Public Domain )

And the whole of the Book of Kells was surely a product of much hard labor, dedication, and tedious transcription that was done by the monks. Those same monks who dedicated their lives to spiritual matters, and who so desperately yearned to secure their place in the imagined afterlife by carefully creating this immortal piece of Gaelic art.

[falliblefabrial]

I got to spend an HOUR looking at medieval Irish manuscripts in the Trinity Library!! Including the Yellow Book of Lecan and a legal tract on Beekeeping.

Now I need to practice my insular majuscule