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Uncial is amajuscule[1]script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD byLatin andGreekscribes.[2] Uncial letters were used to writeGreek andLatin, as well asGothic, and are the current style forCoptic andNobiin.
Early uncial script most likely developed from laterustic capitals. Early forms are characterized by broad single-strokeletters using simple round forms taking advantage of the newparchment andvellum surfaces, as opposed to the angular, multiple-stroke letters, which are more suited for rougher surfaces, such aspapyrus. In the oldest examples of uncial, such as the fragment ofDe bellis macedonicis in theBritish Library, of the late 1st–early 2nd centuries,[3][4] all of the letters are disconnected from one another, and word separation is typically not used. Word separation, however, is characteristic of later uncial usage.
As the script evolved over the centuries, the characters became more complex. Specifically, around AD 600, flourishes and exaggerations of the basic strokes began to appear in more manuscripts.Ascenders anddescenders were the first major alterations, followed by twists of the tool in the basic stroke and overlapping. By the time the more compactminuscule scripts arose circa AD 800, some of the evolved uncial styles formed the basis for these simplified, smaller scripts. There are over 500 surviving copies of uncial script; by far the larger number of these predate theCarolingian Renaissance. Uncial was still used, particularly for copies of theBible, until around the 10th century outside ofIreland. Theinsular variant of uncial remained the standard script used to write theIrish language until the middle of the 20th century.[5]
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In general, there are some common features of uncial script:
In later uncial scripts, the letters are sometimes drawn haphazardly; for example,⟨ll⟩ runs together at the baseline, bows (for example in⟨b⟩,⟨p⟩,⟨r⟩) do not entirely curve in to touch their stems, and the script is generally not written as cleanly as previously.
Due to its extremely widespread use, inByzantine,African,Italian,French,Spanish, and "insular" (Irish,Welsh, andEnglish) centres, there were many slightly different styles in use:
There is some doubt about the original meaning of the word.Uncial itself probably comes fromSt. Jerome's preface to theBook of Job, where it is found in the formuncialibus, but it is possible that this is a misreading ofinicialibus (though this makes little sense in the context), and Jerome may have been referring to the larger initial letters found at the beginning of paragraphs.[6]
In classical Latinuncialis could mean both "inch-high" and "weighing an ounce", and it is possible that Jerome was punning on this; he may conceivably also have been playing with the other meaning ofcodex, "block of wood".[6]
The termuncial in the sense of describing this script was first used byJean Mabillon in the early 18th century. Thereafter his definition was refined byScipione Maffei, who used it to refer to this script as distinct fromRoman square capitals.
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The word,uncial, is also sometimes used to refer to manuscripts that have been scribed in uncial, especially when differentiating from those penned with minuscule. Some of the most noteworthy Greek uncials are:
The Petropolitanus is considered by some to contain optimum uncial style. It is also an example of how large the characters were getting.
For further details on these manuscripts, see Guglielmo CavalloRicerche sulla Maiuscola Biblica (Florence, 1967).
Moderncalligraphy usually teaches a form of evolved Latin-based uncial hand that would probably be best compared to the later 7th to 10th century examples, though admittedly, the variations in Latin uncial are much wider and less rigid than Greek. Modern uncial has borrowed heavily from some of the conventions found in morecursive scripts, using flourishes, variable width strokes, and on occasion, even center axis tilt.
In a way comparable to the continued widespread use of theblacklettertypefaces for writtenGerman until well into the 20th century,Gaelic letterforms, which are similar to uncial letterforms, were conventionally used for typography inIrish until the 1950s. The script is still widely used in this way for titles of documents, inscriptions on monuments, and other 'official' uses. Strictly speaking, the Gaelic script isinsular, not uncial. Uncial Greek (commonly called "Byzantine lettering" by Greeks themselves) is commonly used by theGreek Orthodox Church and various institutions and individuals in Greece to this day. The Modern Greek state has also used uncial script on several occasions in official capacity (such as on seals or government documents etc.) as did many of the Greek provisional governments during theGreek War of Independence. The height of uncial usage by the Modern Greek State was during theGreek military junta of 1967–1974, with evenmodern drachma coins had uncial lettering on them. Since theMetapolitefsi, the Greek State has stopped using uncial script.
The termhalf-uncial orsemi-uncial was first deployed byScipione Maffei,Istoria diplomatica (Mantua, 1727);[7] he used it to distinguish what seemed like a cut-down version of uncial in the famousCodex Basilicanus ofHilary, which contains sections in each of the two types of script. The terminology was continued in the mid-18th century byRené-Prosper Tassin andCharles-François Toustain.
Despite the common and well-fixed usage, half-uncial is a poor name to the extent that it suggests some organic debt to regular uncial, though both types share features inherited from their ancient source,capitalis rustica.[8] According to other views, it is derived from the lateRoman cursive.[9]
It was first used around the 3rd century (if its earliest example isn't considered a transitional variant of the rustic script, asLeonard Boyle did) and remained in use until the end of the 8th century. The early forms of half-uncial were used for pagan authors and Roman legal writing, while in the 6th century the script came to be used in Africa and Europe (but not as often in insular centres) to transcribe Christian texts.
Some general forms of half-uncial letters are:
Half-uncial was brought to Ireland in the 5th century, and from there toEngland in the 7th century. In England, it was used to create theOld English Latin alphabet in the 8th century.
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