[Fig. 12.]—Psalter: English tenth century.
(See also [Plate VIII.])
THIRTEENTH, FOURTEENTH, AND FIFTEENTH CENTURY WRITING.—The tendency to compression continued, and a further economy of space was effected in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the general use of much smaller writing (see fig. [13]). In the fifteenth century writing grew larger and taller again, but the letters had steadily become [p047] narrower, more angular, and stiffer, till the written page consisted of rows of perpendicular thick strokes with heads and feet connected by oblique hair-lines—which often look as if they had been dashed in after with a fine pen—all made with an almost mechanical precision (see [Plate XVII.]).
[Fig. 13.]—Colophon of English MS., dated 1254.
ITALIAN WRITING.—In Italy alone the roundness of the earlier hands was preserved, and though in course of time the letters were affected by the “Gothic” tendency, they never lost the curved forms or acquired the extreme angularity which is seen in the writings of Northern Europe (compare Plates [X.] and [XI.]).
At the time of the Renaissance the Italian scribes remodelled their “hands” on the beautiful Italian writing of the eleventh and twelfth centuries (see Plates [X.] and [XVIII.], [XIX.], [XX.]). The early Italian printers followed after the scribes and modelled their types on these round clear letters. And thus the fifteenth century Italian formal writing became the foundation of the “Roman” small letters, which have superseded all others for the printing of books. [p048]
ITALICS.—The Roman Letters, together with the cursive hand of the time, gave rise to “Italic” letters (see fig. [1], & pp. [311], [316], [483]).
ORNAMENTAL LETTERS originated in the simple written forms, which were developed for special purposes, and were made larger or written in colour (see Versals, &c., fig. [1], [189]).