Editing Rustic capitals

{{short description|Roman calligraphic script}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2009}}

[[File:Schriftzug Capitalis Rustica.svg|thumb|Roman brushed capitals: ''Capitalis rustica'']]
'''Rustic capitals''' ({{langx|la|littera capitalis rustica}}) is an [[Ancient Rome|ancient Roman]] [[calligraphy|calligraphic]] script. Because the term is negatively connoted supposing an opposition to the more 'civilized' form of the [[Roman square capitals]], [[Bernhard Bischoff]] prefers to call the script ''canonized capitals''. The script was used for writing secular texts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hamel |first=Christopher de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w93ACwAAQBAJ |title=Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-241-00309-1 |pages=20 |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:RomanVirgilFolio014rVergilPortrait.jpg|thumb|Folio 14 recto of the [[Vergilius Romanus]], [[author portrait]] of [[Virgil]].]]

== History ==
[[File:Affiche électorale très ancienne.JPG|thumb|Electoral graffiti in [[Pompeii]]]]
The script was used between the 1st century and the 9th century, most often between the 4th and 6th centuries. After the 5th century, rustic capitals began to fall out of use, but they continued to be used as a display script in titles and headings, along with [[uncial]] as the script of the main text.

== Structure ==
Rustic capitals are similar to [[Roman square capitals]], but are less rigid, influenced more by pen and ink writing on [[papyrus]] or [[parchment]]. The letters are thinner and more compressed, use many more curved lines than do square capitals, and have [[descender]]s extending below the baseline. 

=== Syntax ===
The scripts written in rustic capitals use ''punctus'' marks (dots which are placed between the words) to denote word separation, contrary to the common practice of ''scriptura continua (''the continuous writing of words without any form of separation see [[Uncial script]]).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600|last=Brown|first=Michelle P.|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1990|isbn=0-8020-5866-3|location=Buffalo, NY|pages=18}}</ref>

== Surviving works ==
[[File:Terence, Phormio, Vatican Vat. lat. 3226.jpg|thumb|Page of the [[Codex Bembinus]]]]
About fifty manuscripts with rustic capitals survive, including four copies of works by [[Virgil]] (including the [[Vergilius Vaticanus]] and the [[Vergilius Romanus]]), one copy of a work by [[Terence]], and one of a work by [[Prudentius]]. The script was usually used for ''de luxe'' copies of pagan authors; the only works by Christian authors which use this script are those by Prudentius and [[Coelius Sedulius|Sedulius]].

==See also==
* [[Roman cursive]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Capitalis rustica}}
* [https://www.typofonts.com/LATIN_PALEOGRAPHY.pdf 'Manual of Latin Palaeography'] (A comprehensive PDF file containing 82 pages profusely illustrated, 6th edition, January 2024).

{{European calligraphy}}

{{latin-script-stub}}
{{papyrus-stub}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rustic Capitals}}
[[Category:Latin language in ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Latin-script calligraphy]]
[[Category:Palaeography]]
[[Category:Greek New Testament uncials| ]]
[[Category:Papyrology]]
[[Category:Writing]]
[[Category:Medieval scripts]]
[[Category:Early Middle Ages]]
[[Category:Western calligraphy]]