![]() Īs mentioned in a letter by Vespasiano, a Florentine bookseller, another central figure for the spread of the Humanistic script that will be discussed later in this post, Niccoli could write both cursive and book-hand in a beautiful and quick manner. He entered the court of Cosimo de’ Medici and was ordered by him to travel through Europe and search for ancient manuscripts of authors the influential ruler of Florence admired. Son of a merchant, he invested his inheritance in manuscripts and in the study of Latin (RIGHTFULLY SO!), of which he became a true connoisseur. It was possibly Coluccio that directly inspired them. Coluccio’s prominence is not only limited to his experimentations only! He also came in contact with two figures credited for the actual development of the Humanistic script: Niccolò Niccoli and Poggio Bracciolini. Thanks to Salutati and his script-mixing experiments we had the first examples of the Italian semi-gothic script, an early, crucial step towards the development of our Humanistic script. In order to adapt his style to the Carolingian script his manuscripts were written in, he started experimenting by mixing typical gothic ligatures and forms with typical humanistic straight “s” and “d” with a reduced use of the abbreviations. This is significant because, since Coluccio owned many manuscripts that were written in Carolingian script, and added his name at the end of those texts too, he had the possibility to practice writing in the ‘ antica littera’. Also, and most interestingly, Salutati had the good practice of writing his name at the end of the writing of any manuscript he owned, trying to adapt the writing style to to the script he found in the text. In his life Salutati collected over 800 manuscripts, and in many of his documents that have survived until our times we can still find his handwriting in the notes surrounding the main text, written in gothic script. From a not-better identified manuscript in the Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence.Ĭoluccio Salutati, born in 1331 in a small town near Pistoia, Tuscany, and was one of the most influential men in Florence during the fourteenth century. Coluccio SalutatiĬoluccio Salutati, in his natural environment, and displeased with his gothic script manuscript. That person is widely acknowledged to be Coluccio Salutati, an Italian scholar who played a seminal role in the development of Humanism in the 14th century. The consensus among experts in the field of Humanistic script is that the genesis of this script can be traced back to a single individual who set in motion the sequence of events that ultimately gave rise to the various forms of Humanistic script that are recognized today. The origins of this script, which superseded the Gothic script, are attributed either to Poggio Bracciolini, who is believed to have devised the script in its book-hand form, or to Niccolò Niccoli, who is credited with inspiring the cursive variation of the script, which was easier and faster to write. These challenges, coupled with the growing interest among Humanists in classical texts and literature, as well as the direct influence of renowned Italian scholars on Italian society, ultimately paved the way for the development of the Humanistic script. The difficulties posed by the Gothic script’s limited legibility are exemplified by the two episodes described above. Tempera colors, gold leaf, and gold paint on parchment ![]() His preference for this script was driven by the belief that it was easier on his aging eyes.įlemish, probably Ghent, about 1450 – 1455 Similarly, during the same century, Coluccio Salutati, an early Humanist in his own right, requested a copy of Abelard, a French scholastic philosopher of the 12th century, to be written in the “antica littera” – the Carolingian script – in preference to the Gothic script. Instead, he advocated for a “littera…castigata et clara,” which featured neat and clear letters. He bemoaned the contemporary style of script, which he likened to that of a painter, and which he found to be arduous on the reader’s eyes. In 1366, Petrarch, then sixty-two years old and a celebrated scholar, poet, and Humanist, corresponded with his contemporary, Boccaccio, lamenting the fashion in which his ‘Epistles’ were being copied. Such might have been also the sentiments of Petrarch and Coluccio Salutati, distinguished Italian scholars of the 14th century, as they manifested their desire for manuscripts to be written in a clear and legible script: Mimi numinum niuium minimi munium nimium uini muniminum imminui uiui minimum uolunt Įncountering such a perplexing manuscript may have left one feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, perhaps to the point of tossing it aside and succumbing to a fit of tears.
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