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| The beginning of the Gospel of Mark from the Book of Durrow. (example of Insular (Gaelic) script, Wikipedia) |
Contrary to what most Irish believe, the Uncial script is not their invention. Uncial was derived from "Old Roman Cursive" between the 1st and 2nd century with the oldest known Uncial manuscript found in Egypt. It remained as a high-level book hand until the 12th Century but was not a major influence past Britain. Emerging alongside Uncial in the Roman Empire was Half Uncial, which was a derivative of "New Roman Cursive"
Two of the best examples of
Half Uncial known are the Lindisfarne Gospel circa 700 AD and the Book Of
Kells, now in Trinity College, dated about 100 years after the Lindisfarne
Gospels. The Half Uncial used in Roman England, after the
Romans departed, developed into several distinctive scripts, which have
been named Insular.
Insular scripts were "of
the Islands" and followed the flow of Christian missionaries and scribes,
particularly to and from Ireland. A
distinctive Insular Half Uncial, sometimes called Insular Majuscule, was first
used in Christian Ireland where it adopted a Celtic influence especially
in its use of decoration and illumination.
On the continent, the Half
Uncial script, with an extra 300 (or so) years of Roman influence
developed into several "National Hands” like Lombardic and
Merovingian. These variations were consolidated by Charlemagne and
Alcuin of York into Carolingian, which is the ancestor of our present day minuscule
(lower case letters). Carolingian, made it to England by the 9th century where
it became known as English Caroline. This script never had a major
influence in Ireland, which continued to develop and use the Insular
Half Uncial, until quite recently.
An early typographic font,
from the 16th Century, used the distinctive rounded letter form, flattened pen
angles and some distinctive letters like the "a", "d",
"g" and "t" of the historical script. This font when used in Ireland today is
commonly called Gaelic Uncial or Irish Uncial while our normal selection
of fonts like Times New Roman are used for everyday printing.
The Irish can certainly take
pride in the script which has become associated with them and the Book Of Kells,
the highest example of the Insular Half Uncial and its illumination. A history
and pictures of the Book of Kells can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells
A word of caution, Paleography,
the study of ancient writing, is not a precise science and accurate dating of
scripts or manuscripts is difficult.
My sources for this summary were Claude Mediavilla, Calligraphy,
Scriptus Publications; Stan Knight, Historical Scripts from Classical Times
to the Renaissance, Oak Knoll Press: Michelle Brown and Patricia Lovett, The
Historical Source Book for Scribe, the British Library; Michelle
Brown, A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to
1600, University of Toronto Press and Rutherford Aris, Explication
Formarum Letterarum - The Unfolding of Letterforms, The Calligraphy Connection; all
of which would be good sources for further study."
By Rick Draffin
(Rick is a Professional Calligrapher who provides
calligraphy services to Veterans Affairs Canada. You can see his work on the “Book of
Remembrance,” in the Peace Tower).
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