English Caroline Script and Monastic History: Studies in Benedictinism, AD 950-1030

by David N. Dumville

An analysis and study of Caroline script from 200 years of ecclesiastical and secular records reveals important historical detail relating to late Anglo-Saxon England.

Caroline minuscule script was adopted in England in the mid-tenth century in imitation of Continental usage. A badge of ecclesiastical reform, it was practised in Benedictine scriptoria but was also taken up by members of the royal writing office; the chancery occupied an important place in the pioneering of calligraphic fashions. During its approximately two-century history in England, Caroline script developed a number of forms, in part reflecting different tendencies within the Reform-cause. The Rule of St Benedict was focal for this movement.

In the aftermath of the final Scandinavian conquest of England AD1016] a Canterbury master-scribe created the form ofCaroline writing which was to become a mark of Englishness and outlive the Norman Conquest. In the closing chapter its inventor's career is discussed and his achievement assessed. This volume offers analysis of manuscript evidenceas a basis for the cultural and ecclesiastical history of late Anglo-Saxon England.

David N. Dumville is professor of History and Palaeography at the University of Aberdeen

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0851153232
• ISBN13: 9780851153230
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: Boydell Press
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.6"