Editing Roman cursive (section)

== New Roman cursive ==
[[File:Roman letter, 4th century, Achillio Vitalis.jpg|thumb|400px|Beginning of a [[4th century|4th-century]]

Roman letter, from one Vitalis to a governor named Achillius, showing some ''litterae grandiores'', i.e. letters made larger at the beginning of sentences, ultimately the ancestors of [[uppercase]]: '''''d'''omino suo '''a'''chillio, '''u'''italis. <br>'''c'''um in omnibus bonis benignitas tua sit praedita, tum <br>etiam scholasticos et maxime, qui a me cultore tuo hono- <br>rificentiae tuae traduntur, quod honeste respicere velit, <br>non dubito, domine praedicabilis. Quapropter Theofanen...'']]

During the 1st and 2nd centuries the style of formal Roman cursive experienced dramatic changes. Documents from this period contain innumerable versions of the Roman cursive letters; many documents contain different variations on cursive letters within the same text. This process continued until scribes had adopted a uniform, professional cursive script utilized by them around the 2nd to 3rd centuries. This more standardized style typically consisted of downward strokes followed by right-leaning upward strokes. Collectively, these characteristics gave the style a two-line pattern. Although common in professional writing, this style of cursive is not universal to all documents in Roman cursive. More informal documents still retained disorganized features and were unsuitable for ligatures. During the 3rd century, informal cursive styles almost completely replaced the scribal cursive, even in formal contexts.<ref name=":0" /> 

The informal style developed into a four-line script known as New Roman cursive, sometimes also called minuscule cursive or later Roman cursive.<ref name=":0" /> It was used from approximately the 3rd century to the 7th century. This style of cursive uses letterforms that are more recognizable to modern readers: "a", "b", "d", and "e" have taken a more familiar shape, and the other letters are proportionate to each other rather than varying wildly in size and placement on the line.<ref name=":0" /> The right-leaning vertical strokes of New Roman cursive were rounder and longer than similar strokes found in Old Roman Cursive. Although there were a smaller number of ligature combinations in New Roman cursive, some new ligature styles emerged by imposing the characteristics of one letter onto another. Letters had short lines extending horizontally towards the next letter.<ref>{{Citation |last=De Robertis |first=Teresa |title=New Roman Cursive: (IVth–VIIth centuries) |date=2020-12-17 |work=The Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography |pages=59–78 |editor-last=Coulson |editor-first=Frank T. |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/38645/chapter/335475146 |access-date=2024-04-11 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195336948.013.37 |isbn=978-0-19-533694-8 |editor2-last=Babcock |editor2-first=Robert G.|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

These letter forms would gradually evolve into various scripts with a more regional character by the 7th century, such as the [[Visigothic script]] in [[Visigothic Kingdom|Spain]], the [[Beneventan script]] in southern Italy, or the [[Merovingian script]] in northern [[France]]. They also formed part of the basis of the [[uncial]] and [[half-uncial]] scripts, particularly for the letters "a", "g", "r", and "s", which in turn are the basis for [[Gaelic type]].<ref>Oxford, [http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/exhibition/paleo-1.shtml Scripts at Vindolanda: Historical context].</ref>