Bede was an inspiration to Albinum Alcuin of Britain, who had a major role in the Carolingian renaissance. Alcuin was invited to Charlemagne's court, where he helped develop a script that became the standard across Charlemagne's realm. The text above is from a dialogue between Charlemagne and Alcuin, and it is written in the Carolingian script that Alcuin fostered. (Parker Library 206, fol. 101r, by permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.)

In the 8th century, Carolingian handwriting developed in Europe. It was named for Charlemagne, who ruled France and much of what is now Germany. It turned out to be immensely successful, prevailing in Western Europe for three centuries. Later, around 1400, it was rediscovered by Italian Humanists, and it has been used in Western books and newspapers ever since. It is a perfect book script, with clear, broad, round letters that are generally unconnected.

Below are some representative letters. (Information about uncial letters can found in the Majuscules III lesson, whereas examples of half-uncial letters can be seen here.)

		"a" is uncial.						"d" is half-uncial.
		"e" is rounded and sometimes has an extended final stroke.						"g" is open at the bottom.
		"i" is generally short.						"m" is half-uncial.
		"r" has a wavy stroke to the right.						"s" is upright.
		"t" is short, not going above the headline.						"y" is generally dotted.

Exercise:  Which letter above is the most different from its modern version? Hint: It has more curves today.

Striving for clarity, the creators of the Carolingian script used a limited number of ligatures. The principal ones are below. Some, like "ct" and "st" are easier to understand than others.

Characters consisting of two or more joined letters.

		"ae" can be written as a ligature.						"ae" can also be written as an "e" with a tail (e caudata).
		"ct" can be written as a ligature.						"et" can be written as an ampersand ligature.
		"nt" can be written as a ligature, especially at the end of words.						"or" can be written as a ligature.
		The "rt" ligature disappeared early because it looked too much like st.						"st" can be written as a ligature.

Exercise:  Which letter is most commonly involved in ligatures?

Exercise:  Slight variations in scripts must be expected. Can you type the letters below? They do not look exactly like our examples above.

Exercise:  The words below are written in the Carolingian style. Please type each one:

Challenge: Please type this phrase:

for help, look at this

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Images

Parker Library images from MS. 206, used with permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.