Carolingian minuscule
Minúscula carolina
- Date
- c. 780-800 · confidence medium
- Place
- Corbie, Somme, France
- Credited to
- Carolingian scriptoria (Corbie, Tours)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A clear, round script with separated letters, spread under Charlemagne to standardise the Empire's books. Its forms gave the lowercase letters read today.
Sometimes credited to Alcuin of York and Tours, but the first examples come from Corbie; it was a collective process.
What it led to
- legible, uniform text across the Carolingian Empire
- copying of the Latin classics that survive
- Renaissance humanist script and printing types