Re: VMs: MS408 Character Development

["Maurizio M. Gavioli" <mmg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:58 29-06-05, Tom Procter wrote:
> Don Latham wrote:
>
> Marcio wrote:
> >I can see that most VMS characters are built by combining a
> >few basic strokes.
>
> Isn't that nice?

I mostly lurk here, but this forced me to come back to a suggestion I put 
forth months (years?) ago:

This 'two-levels articulation' (if the term is allowed outside of 
linguistics) 'strokes into characters' and 'characters into script' is 
highly characteristic of the _littera moderna_ (aka 'gothic writing' in 
South Europe and probably 'black letters' in North Europe), i.e. the 
writing which developed during XI-XII c. mainly in University environments 
(Bologna, Paris, etc.) building on Irish-Briton -- on one side-- and 
possibly Beneventan -- on the other side-- earlier developments.

Making characters out of combinations of a very small repertory of strokes 
is explicitly theorized by the later 'writing masters' (XIV-XV c., but 
theory always comes after!) as a way to ease writing learning and 
practicing. According to the 'common tradition' of the early-Renaissance 
writing masters, the _littera moderna_ can be written combining  only three 
basic strokes (and some modifications of them).

This matches the need for quicker and, relatively speaking, larger literacy 
raised on one side by the Universities (and their mechanisms to create and 
multiply lecture notes) and on the other side by the emergency of a class 
of traders, merchants, even bankers, often with distant relationships to 
maintain.

Our low familiarity with it may mask to us the fact that the _littera 
moderan_ is really easy to learn and to read and quick to write; at any 
rate easiER and quickER than the previous styles (_uncialis_ and then 
_carolina_).

Which relevance has this with MS408 character development? Maybe nothing 
more than an example that 'combinatorial' scripts are not unheard of in the 
history of Western writing, that a very successful one existed for 
centuries and arose out of very practical needs, without any symbolic, 
sapiential (somebody would say: esoteric) meaning.

Regards,

        Maurizio


 Maurizio M. Gavioli -  VistaMare  Software
 via San Bernardo 5, I-16030 Pieve Ligure, ITALY
 http://www.vistamaresoft.com/

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