During the first and second centuries A.D., Roman cursive developed a system of ligatures between letters tha was to remain virtually unchallenged until a new cursive structure came about in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. This remarkably coherent system was based on top-down connections, in the form of angular joints between the last, horizontal stroke of one letter to the first, vertical and downward stroke of the next; but from the outset different combinations, although sporadic, even exceptional, are evidence that other solutions were technically possible, namely bottom-up connections, particularly between vertcal strokes. Why, then, was a broad range of artifices developed to enable the use of top-down, angular connections even with letters whose 'natural' forms were incompatible, instead of resorting more widely to upstrokes? Mainly because this type of ligature was quite similar to the manner in which scribes tended to arrange strokes constituting letters: the ligatures were consistent with a certain organisation of handwriting, which they in turn conditioned. This is all the more apparent in the fourth century when the structure of cursive letter forms and ligatures both developed in the same direction: although bottom-up connections remained relatively scarce and specific to certain variant letter forms (quite different in nature from medieval cursive ligatures), they henceforth became part of the system.

Quelques remarques sur les conditions et les principes de la ligature dans l’écriture romaine / T. De Robertis. - In: BIBLIOTHEQUE DE L'ECOLE DES CHARTES. - ISSN 0373-6237. - STAMPA. - 165:(2007), pp. 29-45.

Quelques remarques sur les conditions et les principes de la ligature dans l’écriture romaine

DE ROBERTIS, TERESA
2007

Abstract

During the first and second centuries A.D., Roman cursive developed a system of ligatures between letters tha was to remain virtually unchallenged until a new cursive structure came about in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. This remarkably coherent system was based on top-down connections, in the form of angular joints between the last, horizontal stroke of one letter to the first, vertical and downward stroke of the next; but from the outset different combinations, although sporadic, even exceptional, are evidence that other solutions were technically possible, namely bottom-up connections, particularly between vertcal strokes. Why, then, was a broad range of artifices developed to enable the use of top-down, angular connections even with letters whose 'natural' forms were incompatible, instead of resorting more widely to upstrokes? Mainly because this type of ligature was quite similar to the manner in which scribes tended to arrange strokes constituting letters: the ligatures were consistent with a certain organisation of handwriting, which they in turn conditioned. This is all the more apparent in the fourth century when the structure of cursive letter forms and ligatures both developed in the same direction: although bottom-up connections remained relatively scarce and specific to certain variant letter forms (quite different in nature from medieval cursive ligatures), they henceforth became part of the system.
2007
165
29
45
T. De Robertis
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Utilizza questo identificatore per citare o creare un link a questa risorsa: https://hdl.handle.net/2158/320667
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