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 An Introduction to Reading Carolingian Manuscripts

 by Richard M. Pollard

Our manuscripts are just that: manu (by hand) script   (written). They were written with a pen,

made from a quill, dipped in ink made from branches of blackthorn and wine, on parchment made

from sheepskin. The scribes were monks for most if not all of our books, working in a scriptorium,a special room or building at the monastery for the copying of tets. !cribes in a particular

scriptorium were generally trained to write in a similar script. The particular script for "eichenau

and !t #all is known, unsurprisingly, as $"eichenau%!t #all !chool&.

'ost of our manuscripts are written in atin, though some hae additions in Old *igh #erman or

Old +rish.

"eading our atin manuscripts is somewhat different from reading atin in modern books. *ere

are some simple things to remember that should help you get started:

Letter Forms and Ligatures

  few letters are different in -arolingian script from modern typefaces. or eample, there is

usually no separate letter in early medieal atin, just u, which is used for both consonant and

 owel u. lso, scribes sometimes joined letters to one another to make a $ligature& which can be

difficult for a modern reader to recognise. *ere are some of the common letterforms and ligatures:

 Word Separation

'odern books always hae more separation between words than between indiidual letters. This was not always the case. +n late antiquity, books were written with all letters equally spaced,

effectiely meaning that there were no spaces to indicate where one word ended and another

 began. /ords were separated by reading the tet aloud. +n the -arolingian period, words were

mostly separated as they would be now, but short words, especially prepositions (e.g. in, per, pro,

ab, etc.), were frequently joined to the following word.

 Abbreviations

0en now, people use abbreiations like for $with& when writing by hand. +n an age when eery 

single book was entirely handwritten, there were many more abbreiations to make copying fasterand books shorter. 'aterials like parchment were epensie, after all1

These abbreiations can be daunting for anyone who knows atin, but hasn&t read manuscripts

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 before. 2ut a short list of the most common ones should make things easier:

3ote, in the transcriptions below, epanded abbreiations are marked with parentheses, e.g. d s

is transcribed as d(omi)n(u)s.

Scripts

The most popular script found in our manuscripts from !t #all and "eichenau is known as

$-arolingian minuscule& or $-aroline minuscule&. This style of script deeloped in the later eighth

century in what is now northern rance. +t spread throughout the realm of the -arolingians

afterward, reaching into modern%day !wit4erland, #ermany and +taly. 'any thousands of 

manuscripts surie in this script, and its popularity led to its eentual adoption as a model for

modern typefaces, such as the one you are reading right now. n eample and transcription:

ranscription!  Et erit in die illa . adiciet d(omi)n(u)s secundomanu(m) suam ad  possi-dendum residuu(m) populi sui . quod relinquetur ab assyriis

et ab aegypto . et a fetros . et ab aethiopia . et ab elam . etasennaar.

There are other scripts to be found in our books, howeer. 'ost prominent is $lemannic

minuscule&, which is named for the region (lemannia) in which !t #all and "eichenau stand. +t is

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 ery similar to -aroline minuscule:

ranscription! imperatori . et imperatorem lęsisse perhibent(ur) .depelli debuerunt . Et in deum qui su(m)mus et uer-rus e(st) imperator acacium delinquentem .

The main differences between lemannic and -aroline minuscules are: a wider, rounder

appearance5 tall ascenders (the high strokes on the h, d, l, etc.) and long descenders (e.g. p, q)5

double%c (cc) a5 frequent ligatures of n6t.

!ometimes we run into contemporary scripts from entirely different places, like the below, from

central +taly. They are easily distinguished from scripts used at "eichenau 7 !t #all:

ranscription! utrarumq(ue) epacteUerum quia facillime d\i/em paschęuel cęteros temporum temporum recursus con- p(re)hendit qui soli et lunae circulum

Rubrics

'uch in the way that modern books hae headings marked off in bold or larger typefaces,

manuscripts used different scripts to organise the tet for the reader. *ere we hae an eample

from "eichenau:

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ranscription! Incipit raefatio origenis

in epistula(m) pauli apostoli ad roman(os)!olentem me paruo suuectu(m) naui\gi/o ora(m)tranquilli littoris stringere . et minutos de grecorum stagnis pis\ci/culos legere.in altu(m) frater eracli la"are uela conpellis

The top two lines of script in this eample are in a style known as $capitalis& or $rustic capitals&, and

 which deries directly from ancient "oman writing. The main tet then begins (after an enlarged

letter known as an $initial&) using standard -aroline minuscule.

Puctuation

The punctuation of our manuscripts is somewhat different from modern practice. *ere are the

equialences:

Carolingian Modern

, 8 , (comma)

,9 8 , (comma)

; 8 . (period)

; 8 . (period)

.< 8 = (question)