Lapidary writing
The lapidary script (from the Latin lapis stone; also stone script) describes the script of two epochs of script development in Greece and the Roman Empire, which have in common that they were carved in stone and later chiseled. The Greeks adapted the Phoenician script and developed from it the Greek lapidary script , which reached its peak from the 8th to the 5th century BC. Had. The Romans adopted the Greek script for the development of the Latin alphabet, but this was not used until the 2nd century BC. As a Roman lapidary script, it adopts the geometrical forms of the Greek model. Already in the 1st century BC The Romans write their script with a wide writing implement and chisel it, which also leads to the emergence of the serifs . The development of the written script with reed or quill pen on papyrus or parchment, and thus the development of the lower case letters, only begins afterwards.
The monumental font Capitalis monumentalis with its geometric shapes is considered the formal high point of Western writing. This late form of lapidary script was therefore still used in the 15th century as a template for the capital letters in humanistic script. This document is still used today, e.g. B. as Antiqua .