2. Copy out a line, using pen and ink. What do you notice about the mechanics of writing?
Feedback, please!

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3 a. How does this script differ from the Roman Rustic script you did last week in overall aspect?

More cursive: a generally ‘rounder’ effect (possibly 'Greek-flavoured'), because

• Some letters have acquired curves where in Roman Rustic they had straight verticals
  compare especially E, M which is 'arched', and made in only two strokes, T:

  Roman Uncial
  Roman Rustic

• the aspect ratio is squarer: for example, O, C, S are almost round rather than oval:

  Roman Uncial
  Roman Rustic

  though the angle of thickness of the pen strokes still makes O and C look ‘backwards-leaning’.

  
  
  
• Width has shifted to the verticals: see I, B, F, P, etc.
  
  

  Roman Uncial
  Roman Rustic

• More casual in appearance, because
  
  • in this script, verticals are not always all in same plane (this is less true of other hands writing the same script: for example, see Drogin, Plate 16, which is much more regular):
    

    but in fact the script is contained reasonably regularly between head- and base-line:

    

    though the rounded letters like S overflow them.

  • Far fewer serifs, though there are some straight/curved flicks to begin and end letter-strokes.
    
    

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Roman Uncial	Comparison	Roman Rustic
	E is rounded: sometimes the top-stroke bow appears to join with the mid-stroke to form a closed loop.
	A is made with a small oval loop starting halfway down the main diagonal, instead of a straight line and serif.
	D is rounded, and has a curved ascender: it can be made all in one penstroke.
	the first stroke of the U/Vis distinctly curved.
	M is bowed, whereas N remains angular.
	Q has developed an upright descender, like our modern lower-case q: this is possibly the tail of the Q realigned.
	H has developed an ascender, and the separate cross-stroke has become part of an arch.

N.b. also the Greek letter Y, used in words adopted from Greek:

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Which could you get mixed up?

They appear to be pretty distinctive: necessary for a rapidly-written script.

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4. How are the letters drawn in relation to the baseline and headline?

Some letters ascend above the headline or descend below the baseline. These are not always as we might expect:

Ascenders:
Descenders:

Some other letters, such as N and R, occasionally develop descenders.

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5. Do the letter forms look more like upper- or lower-case modern letters? What gives that impression?
This is of course a distortion: the question should be, 'Which of these shapes do we use for upper-case and which for lower-case letters?'

• One answer is, 'The ones which look more like Roman Square Capitals are our capitals'. So:
  
  
• Then there are those which could be either upper- or lower-case, depending on size:
  
  

• and those, usually more cursive, which we have adopted as lower-case letters:
  
  

• But the most striking feature is the appearance of some ascenders and descenders. We tend to associate these with lower-case letters:
  
  
  
  
• Where these are combined with cursive (curved) forms, they look familiar to us. Where they are combined with more angular forms, they look odd to us: we expect them to be capitals, and the whole script appears a cross between capitals and lower-case:
  
  

Notice a precursor of the 'capital' letter in the U/V in line 6. It is not an Uncial form. From which script is it taken?
It would be wrong, however, to see this as a V and the fourth letter in the word as a U. There is still no difference between U/V.
This is divinitatis, as in divinity:
this is sunt.

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6. Why do you think it has changed in aspect and form?
Your experience of writing it should provide the answers here.

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7. Is there any punctuation?
Not in this example: but see answer to Question 8.

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8. Are there any gaps between the words yet?
Not really. There are however gaps to indicate pauses for breath/syntactical breaks.
Words are even broken in the middle, without a hyphen, if there is not room for a whole word at the end of a line, as at the end of line 5/beginning of line 6, where the word is AUXEN-TIUS, and at the end of line 7, where INTELLE- must have an ending:

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9. Overall layout:
Left-justified; this example roughly right-justified, but see Drogin Plate 16 for a much more formal layout.

Spaces between lines are slightly wider than the lines of text:

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© MEG TWYCROSS 1999