Escritura cortesana
The escritura cortesana [eskri'tura korte'sana, = Spanish for “courtly cursive ”], also letra cortesana ['letra korte'sana], is a cursive script that was written in Castilian at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century -leonesian yard has been used. Hence its name ( cortesa = Spanish for “courtly”), which was coined by the users themselves. Many documents of the Catholic Kings were written in escritura cortesana. It is a subject of study in Spanish palaeography . The escritura procesal , which was used until the end of the 16th century, later developed from it .
Temporal and geographical classification
The escritura cortesana developed from the escritura de albalaes , the cursive script that was predominant in Spain well into the 15th century. Like all other Spanish scripts, it is based on the Romance script , which has been influenced by Greek elements. The beginnings of the escritura cortesana are dated to the second half of the 15th century, Jesús Muñoz y Rivero sees its beginnings as early as the 14th century and places them into the 17th century. Cursive script has a very short lifespan, less than a century in total. By the middle of the 16th century it had already been completely replaced by the escritura procesal, a further development of the escritura cortesana itself. At this time, two other typefaces developed in Spain: the escritura redonda was mainly used for writing books, while the escritura cancelleresca for intended for curial, everyday and communicative use. Both ultimately contributed to the suppression of the cortesana. In contrast to their short period of use, there is a relatively large number of documents in the archives that have been written in escritura cortesana.
By order of June 7, 1503, it was determined that ten maravedis would be paid for each sheet that was closely written in escritura cortesana. This was intended to counteract the fact that the scribes were increasingly writing their documents in a more illegible escritura procesal and the words were also increasingly larger and more extravagant. Since at that time people paid by pages, a higher number of pages and thus a higher fee should be achieved with this method. The resolution was intended to counteract this development, but ultimately could not do anything to prevent the procesal prevailing over the cortesana.
use
Courtly cursive script was used at the Castilian-Leonese court. In it, specially trained scribes wrote documents, in particular letters and resolutions, in the secretariats of kings, councils and chancelleries.
Typeface
General
The cortesana is characterized by a round, narrow, dense, small, uneven, networked and difficult to read typeface. It is assigned to italics. It is generally considered to be very difficult to read. At the time of the Catholic Monarchs, however, it was easier to read because by then it had taken over some elements of the more easily decipherable escritura bastarda. The typeface is very reminiscent of the escritura de albalaes, from which the escritura cortesana developed. It differs from her in particular in the roundness of her letters. It differs from the typical Latin typeface in that, in particular, the long and short lengths of some letters have been additionally expanded. With consonants , for example, the descenders are often lengthened over the left side of the letter from the bottom to over the letter to the right and are finally connected with the subsequent letter. The situation is similar with At (@), but in reverse and mirror-inverted direction. In the escritura cortesana, the letters “h”, “i”, “m”, “n”, “q”, “s”, “y” and “z”, sometimes also “ҫ”, “are affected by this peculiarity. g ”,“ p ”and“ d ”. This notation also has the similarities with the escritura de albalaes.
The escitura cortesana is minuscule . This means that it is written in a four-line scheme . The letters can thus form ascenders and descenders.
The letters in detail
At that time the alphabet had a total of 25 letters, five of which were vowels and 20 were consonants . The illustrations of the letters come from the beginnings of the escritura cortesana. Later other forms of writing were sometimes developed. You can find them in the alphabet table at the beginning of the article.
A : This letter coined two main forms in the escritura cortesana: On the one hand, there was a form that is strongly reminiscent of our written, small "a". On the other hand, the "A" was also written in a way that looks like an Omega (Ω).
B : The capital "B" looked exactly like today's "B" in the escritura cortesana. The small "b" is also very similar to its current form. Sometimes, however , the ascender ended in an arc, which made the letter look like a mixture of block and cursive "B".
C : The "C" at that time is very reminiscent of the present day. Every now and then a vertical line was added to the arch of the "C", which crossed the inside of the arch. There was also another form: In some cases, the "C" was written in a square variant similar to an "r", which made it prone to mix-ups.
Ҫ : See descriptions for C. The cedilla was identified by a small arc that started under the "C" and then circled it over the left.
D : There are different forms of writing for the large and small "D". The most common of them looks vaguely similar to today's “d”, but is much more curved.
E : The “E” formed four primary forms: Mainly the letter appeared in its present form, but it could also only be written as a small line on the preceding letter. There was also a variant that was similar to the "A" described above and was only supplemented by a small, horizontal line. Finally it appeared in a square shape that resembles an "r". So it was easy to confuse it with an "R" or a "C". The latter had a similar spelling at the time.
Q : The capital "F" is reminiscent of ours today, but it is more curved in its execution. There are different variants, but the basic figure was retained. The shape of the lowercase "f" is no different from its current equivalent.
G : The capital “G” is based on a “C”, but the arch has more swing at the top and a small semicircle at the bottom. The small "g" often looked very similar to today's "g". But it also happened that it was more reminiscent of a "y", the open head of which is closed by a horizontal line.
H : In the escritura cortesana, the capital "H" was equivalent to today's lower-case "h". The only difference was that, in contrast to today's "h", it developed a descender . In addition, it was much more extravagant and peppy in its spelling.
I / J : Until the 15th century, no distinction was made between the two letters. Both were shown as a simple vertical line, which often also had a descender. Then the "I" was written like a mirror-inverted "S", but with ticked off arcs, and the "J" like a "z" in old German cursive. This made it easy to confuse with the correct "Z".
K : This letter was almost never used. The spelling is the same as it is today.
L : There were two versions of this letter: The first took very little to the then "I / J", which is why there was a risk of confusion. The second variant corresponded to today's written "l". In the course of time the loop tilted further and further to the right, which meant that it could be mistaken for an "e".
M : The capital letter is very similar to today's one. The small "m" also corresponds perfectly to its current equivalent.
N : The same applies here as for the "M". There is one exception, however: a second spelling of this letter was later developed. It looked like a capital "H", the right, vertical line of which ended in a slightly curved descender.
O : The capital letter does not differ from its current form. With the small "o" it often happened that the "o" was not closed at the top.
P : The large and the small "P" were very similar. In the early days of escritura cortesana, they still had a lot in common with their current counterparts. Later the head of the "P" remained open at the top, making it resemble a gamma (γ).
Q : The capital "Q" looked the same as today's one, but the line crossing the circle was a little longer. The small “q” also showed a high level of agreement with today's variant. It happened that the descender was extended in an arc to the left.
R : This letter formed four primary spellings: If there was an "R" at the beginning of the word, it was made into a double "R". A character that is no longer in use was used for this, vaguely reminiscent of a cross between V and R. Otherwise it could be written as a typical “r” or similar to a “z”. The fourth form is also known as martillo (= Spanish for "hammer"). The name is derived from the spelling reminiscent of a hammer.
S : The "S" can be written in different ways. The first variant consists of a vertical line - including an upper and a lower length - which often begins in a loop at the upper end. It is referred to as a "high S". In addition, the "S" was still written in its current form. The third alternative is very reminiscent of a sigma (σ).
T : The "T" is reminiscent of today's, but its vertical line has been extended to the right in an arc. In the later years of the cortesana period, a small horizontal line was added to this "t", which crossed the "t" and thus brought it closer to its current form.
U / V : These letters have been used interchangeably. Both are strongly reminiscent of their current forms. Often the first stroke of the "V" began with an ascender, which gave the letter more pep.
X : It was already written in its usual form today, but a spelling that is more reminiscent of a "Y" was more common. In fact, it looked so similar to it that it could easily be confused with it. There was also another notation that was used in particular when a number was to be expressed (X = Roman number for ten). Then the "X" looked like a mixture of "e" and "l".
Y : The only difference to today's Y is that the descender could end in an arc to the right or was led around the letter to the left. Due to the almost identical shape, the “Y” could easily be mistaken for an “X”.
Z : Both the uppercase and lowercase letters could be written either as “S” or as “Z”. Another variant developed later, which corresponds to the "z" of the old German cursive script and thus was very similar to the "J" of that time.
particularities
The escritura cortesana was particularly difficult to read because many letters were very similar in their execution. For example, “J” and “Z”, “E”, “R”, “C” and “L” or “X” and “Y” could easily be confused with one another.
In addition, legibility was made difficult by the many nexus. These are special connections between certain letters to increase writing speed. For example, it often happened that you put an “r” in the form of a superscript loop on the preceding letter. The combination of “c” and “o” looked like an infinity sign (∞), while an “an” quickly became an at (@). In this way, spellings for the individual vowels and consonants were added again. However, they were only used in certain letter combinations.
numbers
In Spain, Arabic numbers were used for the first time at the beginning of the 16th century . Before, numbers were always written out. Both spellings appear in the escritura cortesana. In many cases, quantities were also abbreviated with the Roman characters. For example, an "M" was written for a thousand or an "X" for ten.
Dates were often given according to the following pattern: ... dias del mes de ... de ... años (= Spanish for "... days of the month ... of the ... th year").
Abbreviations
For reasons of space and time, many abbreviations were used in the documents of that time. Besides, paper was expensive. The more you got on a sheet, the better it was. The only exception were the professional scribes, who were paid per page written and therefore preferred to write in large and extravagant form. In contrast to other cursive scripts, escritura cortesana was not quite as susceptible to abbreviations. Nevertheless, the texts are often interspersed with them.
A distinction must be made between two different types of abbreviations:
- On the one hand, there are abbreviations for individual syllables. These are mostly special characters that are only used in this context. “Que”, “qui”, “par”, “con” or “ser” were often replaced by such an abbreviation. The syllable “pre” was written as gamma (γ), which ended again in a right loop.
- There were also the word abbreviations. Long words in particular were represented using a combination of a few letters. It was often the case that individual syllables and especially vowels were omitted. There are a particularly large number of these abbreviations for common first and last names, for months, job titles and currencies. Some of these abbreviations have been used to this day, for example “n °” for número (Spanish for “number”) or “Da” for doña (Spanish for “woman”, “lady”). The following is a selection of abbreviations used at the time:
- Bme = Bartolomé
- caa = carta
- canallos = cavalleros
- capn = capitán
- ҫibd = ҫibdad
- co = consejo
- conor = contador
- da = doña
- Dgo = Diego
- dha, dhas, dho, dhos = dicha, dichas, dicho, dichos
- dl, dlos, dla, dlas = del, delos, dela, delas
- dos = doscientos
- esrno / esruo = escrib (u) ano
- Fco / Fraco = Francisco
- Ga = García
- gor / goor = gobernador
- gra / graa = gracia
- home = hombre
- Lz = López
- Ma = Mária
- Maa = María
- m̧d = merced
- mrs = maravedis
- nra, nras, nro, nros = nuestra, nuestras, nuestro, nuestros
- no / numo = número
- otas = otras
- qal = qual
- qe / q = que
- qnientas = quinientas
- veҫo / veҫio = vecino
- Xo / Xpo = Christ
spelling
spelling, orthography
At that time, there was no uniform spelling for Spanish. As a result, it is handled very variably in the documents. Antonio de Nebrija had published his Gramática de la lengua castellana , the first Spanish grammar ever, in 1492, but at that time it did not have a major impact on the uniformity of the Spanish language. In comparison with today's spelling, the following spellings are particularly striking:
- A capital "R" at the beginning of a word was written as a double "R".
- The letters "U" and "V" have been used interchangeably. It also happened that the scribe wrote an "N", although a "U" or "V" was actually required at this point. This phenomenon was also possible in reverse.
- Often “f” stands for “h”, for example “fagan” was sometimes written instead of “hagan”.
- Sometimes individual words were written together. Example: "enlas" instead of "en las".
- Instead of today's “y” (= Spanish for “and”), “e” was written back then.
- The double “F” and the “high S” still common in the escritura de albalaes no longer existed in the escritura cortesana.
punctuation
The scribes used next to no punctuation in the 15th and 16th centuries . Neither escritura cortesana nor escritura procesal documents were punctuated. Punctuation marks were only used again with the introduction of the escritura itálica . By the end of the 17th century, punctuation marks had become fully accepted in Spain.
Accents
No accents were used in the escritura cortesana . However, the "C" s in the syllables "ca", "co" or "cu" were given a cedilla so that it was clear that they were pronounced as [k] and not as [θ]. The "C" is then not spoken like the German "K", but rather like a "Z" or an English "th". The cedilla consisted of a curl under the "C", which sometimes extended beyond the letter to indicate an abbreviation or a connection to the following letter. This tradition soon became so all-encompassing that the syllables "ce" and "ci" were also provided with the cedilla. These syllables do not normally need a separate marking, as the “C” before an “E” or an “I” in Spanish is pronounced as [θ] anyway.
Stylistic peculiarities
Special linguistic formulas have often been used in the documents written in escritura cortesana. An example of a very common greeting is “sepan cuantos esta carta vieren” (= Spanish for “To those who read this letter”). Many of these formulas were also used in the other cursive scripts in use in Spain at the time.
In addition, many documents were marked with a simple cross or a chrismon, a church symbol.
Official documents were signed by the scribe and the person in whose name the document was drawn up.
In order to confirm the authenticity of a document, seals (sellos) or counter seals (contrasellos), which could be made of wax, but also of various metals, for example lead, were often attached to it. The Spanish kings mainly used lead seals. The seals of the Catholic Kings Ferdinand II and Isabella I showed the profile of the queen seated on the throne on the right and the king on horseback on the left. From the 15th century, the signatures gradually replaced the seals.
example
This document is dated July 2nd, 1501. Although it was most likely written by a scribe, the legal authors are the Catholic Kings Ferdinand II and Isabella I.
Transcription:
El Rrey e la Rreyna
Deuoto padre prior del monasterio de San Pedro Martyr dela ҫibdad de Toledo, e Gracian de Verlan / ga, que aueis cargo de hazer enpremir las bulas dela Santa Cruzada que nuestro muy Santo / Padre nos concedió esta postrimera ves, nos vos encargamos e mandamos que deys / a Bartolome de Ҫuloaga, nuestro contador de lo extraordinario, copia firmada de vuestros nombres / de todas las bulas que se han dado y dieren a los thesoreros e rreҫebtores que tienen cargo delas / fazer pedricar e destribuir, asy en estos nuestros senorios de Castilla, / como en los Rreynos daragon e Seҫilia, e otras partes, porque a nuestro seruicio cumple que el tenga / rrazon de todo ello: e non fagades ende al. Fecha enla ҫibdad de Granada e dos / dias del mes de Julio de quinientos e vn años.
Yo el Rrey Yo la Rreyna
Bibliography
- Alverá Delgrás, D. Antonio : Compendio de paleografía española, ó escuela de leer todas las letra que se han usado en España desde los tiempos más remotos hasta fines del siglo XVIII. 1st edition Anselmo Santa Coloma: Madrid 1857.
- Muñoz y Rivero, Jesús : Manual de paleografía diplomática española de los siglos XII al XVII, Método teórico práctico para aprender a empty los documentos españoles de los siglos XII al XVII. 2nd edition Hernando y Comañía: Madrid 1889.
- Riesco Terreros, Ángel : Introducción a la Paleografía y la Diplomática. 1st edition Edición Sintesis: Madrid 2000.
Web links
- Alcalde Martín-Calero : Las letras y los Documentos.
- Cabrera Rodríguez, Ángel : La escritura cortesana. (PDF; 909 kB)
- Casado Quintanilla, Blas : De la escritura de albalaes a la humanística, una paréntesis en la Historia de la escritura. (PDF; 550 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 31.
- ↑ See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 36.
- ↑ See also Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 32; See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 35.
- ↑ Cf. Alverá Delgrás, 1857, p. 23.
- ↑ See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, pp. 35, 40.
- ↑ Cf. Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 31.
- ↑ See Alverá Delgrás, 1857, p. 18.
- ↑ See Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 31; See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 36.
- ↑ See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 39.
- ↑ See Cabrera Rodríguez, p. 1; see. also Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 31.
- ↑ See Alverá Delgrás, 1857, p. 17f .; see. Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 36.
- ↑ See Alverá Delgrás, 1857, pp. 15, 17; see. also Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 35; see. Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 35.
- ↑ Riesco Terreros, 2000, pp. 121f.
- ↑ See Alverá Delgrás, 1857, p. 17f .; see. Cabrera Rodríguez, p. 1.
- ↑ See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 40.
- ↑ See Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 33.
- ↑ See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 35.
- ↑ See Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 33; see. Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 36.
- ↑ See Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 33.
- ↑ See Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 33.
- ↑ See Casado Quintanilla, http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento11330.pdf , p. 33.
- ↑ See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, pp. 49ff., 59ff.
- ↑ See Alverá Delgrás, 1857, p. 19.
- ↑ See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, pp. 35f .; see. Alcalde Martín-Calero, archive link ( memento of the original from August 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Cf. Alcalde Martín-Calero, archive link ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 113.
- ↑ See Muñoz y Rivero, 1889, p. 114.
- ↑ Cf. Alverá Delgrás, 1857, p. 10.
- ↑ See also Alverá Delgrás, 1857, p. 10.
- ↑ Cf. Alverá Degrás, 1857, p. 13.
- ↑ Muñoz y Rivero, Jesús, 1889. pp. 444f. [Note: The spelling has been changed slightly to better match the original spelling in the document. Punctuation marks have been used to make the reading easier.]
