Capitalis

A family of ancient Roman capitals is referred to as capitalis ( Latin for “the head”) . These include:

• the Capitalis monumentalis , a monumental script carved in stone
• the Capitalis quadrata , a handwritten variant of the Monumentalis, which was mainly used in book manuscripts
• the Capitalis rustica (also canonized Capitalis ), a more delicate variant of the Quadrata
• the older Roman cursive , an italic variant of the quadrata for everyday use

The family of Roman capital fonts served as a model for the capital letters of the later antiqua fonts .