Rhaetian script

Rhaetian script in a codex probably written in Chur around 800 ( Augustinus , In Iohannem tractatus ). Chur, State Archive Graubünden AI 2b / No. 1

Rhaetian script in a sacramentary of the 8th / 9th centuries Century. St. Gallen, Abbey Library , Codex 350, fol. 3r

The Rhaetian script is an early medieval minuscule that was used as a regional script in the second half of the 8th century and in the first decades of the 9th century in Churrätia . It is similar to the Carolingian minuscule .

The Rhaetian script belongs to the group of scripts known as "pre-Carolingian minuscule" (praecarolina) . It is considered a further development of the northern Italian minuscule. It was used as a book font from the late 8th century. Just a few decades later, it was replaced by the Carolingian minuscule. Their distribution area connected to that of the Alemannic minuscule to the south . Its center was the episcopal scriptorium of Chur . There the Rhaetian script was maintained under Bishop Remedius von Chur . A sacramentary written for him around 800 is considered the high point of Rhaetian writing.

The term "Rhaetian script" was introduced in 1898 by Ludwig Traube . Albert Bruckner made a major contribution to research into the Rhaetian regional style , who distinguished between an older and a younger Rhaetian script. However, this distinction is not accepted by recent research, since the supposedly older variant is the script of a northern Italian group of manuscripts (according to Bernhard Bischoff and Pascal Ladner ).

The Rhaetian script is upright, round and taller rather than wide. It shows a pronounced refraction. The typeface is simple. Noticeable is the t with a split deck beam, which is often bent down so far on the left that it touches the shaft and forms an eyelet. Often there is an a, which is formed from two consecutive round cs ("cc-a"). Ligatures are relatively rare, but more common than in the Carolingian minuscule.

literature

• Ursus Brunold: Newly discovered fragments of manuscripts in Raetian minuscule . In: Helmut Maurer (ed.): Churrätisches and st. Gallic Middle Ages. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1984, ISBN 3-7995-7028-4 , pp. 7-21
• Heidi Eisenhut et al. (Ed.): Script, script usage and text types in the early medieval Churrätien. Schwabe, Basel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7965-2437-0
• Hans Foerster, Thomas Frenz: Outline of the Latin palaeography. 3rd, revised edition, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-7772-0410-2 , pp. 162 f., 166 f.

Remarks

1. ↑ Sankt Gallen, Abbey Library , Ms. 348.
2. ^ Hans Foerster, Thomas Frenz: Abriss der Latinischen Paläographie , 3rd, revised edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 162 f .; Bernhard Bischoff: Medieval Studies , Vol. 3, Stuttgart 1981, p. 22 f.
3. ↑ Bernhard Bischoff: Medieval Studies , Vol. 3, Stuttgart 1981, p. 22, note 83.
4. ^ Pascal Ladner: Rhaetian script . In: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Vol. 7, Munich 1995, Col. 461.
5. ↑ Ursus Brunold: Newly discovered fragments of manuscripts in Raetian minuscule . In: Helmut Maurer (ed.): Churrätisches and st. Gallisches Mittelalter , Sigmaringen 1984, pp. 7-21, here: 7; Bernhard Bischoff: Palaeography of Roman Antiquity and the Occidental Middle Ages , 4th edition, Berlin 2009, p. 154; Bernhard Bischoff: Medieval Studies , Vol. 3, Stuttgart 1981, p. 23; Hans Foerster, Thomas Frenz: Abriss der Latinische Paläographie , 3rd, revised edition, Stuttgart 2004, p. 162.