The fact that the graphic substance of writing oscillates between text and image is a potential which writing carries in itself from the very beginning. Every graphic trace on the manuscript page relates to the conventions of time in a way that is determined by the scribe. This becomes particularly tangible when the conventions are deliberately and systematically broken and replaced by new ones on the basis of a concrete concept. By introducing the humanistic minuscule, a script developed on the basis of the historical model of the Carolingian minuscule, Poggio Bracciolini and his mentors and friends Coluccio Salutati and Niccolò Niccoli, created philologically revised copies of the texts of classical authors in what they called littera antiqua, the new old script. This paper wants to show how the conscious incorporation of elements of historical manuscripts and their transformation into a specifically humanistic product makes use of the graphical potential of script and mise-en-page in order to translate a humanistic discourse into SchriftBild.
University of Hamburg, Germany
Chapter Title
Script as Image: Visual Acuity in the Script of Poggio Bracciolini
Authors
Philippa Sissis
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3.10
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2020
Copyright Information
© 2020 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Poggio Bracciolini and the Re(dis)covery of Antiquity: Textual and Material Traditions
Book Subtitle
Proceedings of the Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College on April 8-9, 2016
Editors
Roberta Ricci
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
220
Publication Year
2020
Copyright Information
© 2020 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3
ISBN Print
978-88-6453-967-6
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-6453-968-3
Series Title
Atti
Series ISSN
2239-3307
Series E-ISSN
2704-6230