Editing Insular script (section)

==Appearance==
[[File:Script, Chad-Gospels.jpg|thumb|[[St Chad Gospels]]: {{lang|la-x-medieval|Et factum est iter[um cum sabbatis ambula] / ret ihs [Ihesus] per sata}} (Mark 2:23, p.&nbsp;151) "And it came to pass, that Jesus went through the corn fields on the sabbath day".]]
[[File:Evolution of minuscule.svg|thumb|400px|Simplified relationship between various scripts, showing the development of Insular uncial from Roman and the Greek uncial]]

Works written in Insular scripts commonly use large initial letters surrounded by red ink dots (although this is also true of other [[script (styles of handwriting)|scripts]] written in Ireland and England). Letters following a large initial at the start of a paragraph or section often gradually diminish in size as they are written across a line or a page, until the normal size is reached, which is called a "diminuendo" effect, and is a distinctive Insular innovation, which later influenced Continental illumination style. Letters with [[Ascender (typography)|ascenders]] (''b'', ''d'', ''h'', ''l'', etc.) are written with triangular or wedge-shaped tops. The bows of letters such as ''b'', ''d'', ''p'', and ''q'' are very wide. The script uses many [[ligature (typography)|ligatures]] and has many unique [[scribal abbreviation]]s, along with many borrowings from [[Tironian notes]].

Insular script was spread to England by the [[Hiberno-Scottish mission]]; previously, uncial script had been brought to England by [[Augustine of Canterbury]]. The influences of both scripts produced the Insular script system.
Within this system, the palaeographer Julian Brown identified five grades, with decreasing formality:
*Insular half-uncial, or "Irish majuscule": the most formal; became reserved for [[rubric]]s (highlighted directions) and other displays after the 9th century.<ref name="formal">{{cite book |last=Saunders |first=Corinne |title=A Companion to Medieval Poetry |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=CTtR2i7I3dgC&pg=PA52 |date=2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-1910-1 |page=52}}</ref>
*Insular hybrid minuscule: the most formal of the minuscules, came to be used for formal church books when use of the "Irish majuscule" diminished.<ref name="formal" />
*Insular set minuscule
*Insular cursive minuscule
*Insular current minuscule: the least formal;<ref>{{cite book |author1=Michael Lapidge |author2=John Blair |author3=Simon Keynes |author4=Donald Scragg |title=The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=WaAzAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA423 |date=2013 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-31609-2 |page=423}}: Entry "Script, Anglo-Saxon"</ref> ''current'' here means ‘running’ (rapid).<ref>{{OED|current, a.}} (definition ''e''.)</ref>
Brown has also postulated two phases of development for this script, Phase II being mainly influenced by Roman uncial examples, developed at [[Wearmouth-Jarrow]] and typified by the [[Lindisfarne Gospels]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Thomas Julian |title=A Palaeographer's View. Selected Writings of Julian Brown. |editor=J. Bately |editor2=M. Brown |editor3=J. Roberts. |date=1993 |publisher=Harvey Miller Publishers |location=London}}</ref>