Late Carolingian: Italy

The article surveys the areas of Italy where Late Carolingian was in use in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, discussing the development of regional varieties of Late Carolingian script. "Writing provinces" are distinguished: the Northwest (Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia), the Northeast (regions of Venice, Adige valley and Aquileia), and the Center. Scripts of the area of Bologna and Romagna are closer to those of Central Italy than to those of the North; south of the Apennines a distinction must be drawn between Tuscany and the Umbro-Roman area; at Rome itself a peculiar stylized script was employed, called Romanesca. In addition to the geographic distinctions, chronological developments are discussed, as well as the differences based on differing classes of books, and the influence of documentary script on bookhands.