Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Visigothic script
open-in-new
<p>Visigothic script was a type of <a href="/facts/Middle_Ages/RqzEKB9v">medieval</a> <a href="/facts/Script_(styles_of_handwriting)/lFIUgDeW">script</a> that originated in the <a href="/facts/Visigothic_Kingdom/hXFkz67j">Visigothic Kingdom</a> in <a href="/facts/Hispania/EYd2cv27">Hispania</a> (the <a href="/facts/Iberian_Peninsula/ztFXI8zt">Iberian Peninsula</a>). Its more limiting alternative designations <i>littera toletana</i> and <i>littera mozarabica</i> associate it with <a href="/facts/Scriptorium/xX1KyjVW">scriptoria</a> specifically in <a href="/facts/Toledo%2c_Spain/uJx9PuV3">Toledo</a> and with <a href="/facts/Mozarab/LxWL4CGb">Mozarabic culture</a> more generally, respectively. </p><p>The script, which exists in <a href="/facts/Book-hand/sft6d8h8">book-hand</a> and <a href="/facts/Cursive/sbW2bKYq">cursive</a> versions, was used from approximately the late seventh century until the thirteenth century, mostly in <a href="/facts/Visigothic_Iberia/hXFkz67j">Visigothic Iberia</a> but also somewhat in the <a href="/facts/Catalans/ywqHKQMk">Catalan</a> kingdom in current <a href="/facts/Southern_France/Jm4I4xAl">southern France</a>. It was perfected in the 9th–11th centuries and declined afterwards. It developed from <a href="/facts/Uncial/uz6CgI4u">uncial</a> script, and shares many features of uncial, especially an uncial form of the letter ⟨g⟩. </p> <p>Other features of the script include an open-top ⟨a⟩ (very similar to the letter ⟨u⟩), similar shapes for the letters ⟨r⟩ and ⟨s⟩, and a long letter ⟨i⟩ resembling the modern letter ⟨l⟩. There are two forms of the letter ⟨d⟩, one with a straight vertical <a href="/facts/Ascender_(typography)/F4z0lTpa">ascender</a> and another with an ascender slanting towards the left. The top stroke of the letter ⟨t⟩, by itself, has a hook curving to the left; ⟨t⟩ also has a number of other forms when used in <a href="/facts/Ligature_(typography)/urMIGfmN">ligatures</a>, and there are two different ligatures for the two sounds of ⟨ti⟩ (“hard” or <a href="/facts/Assibilation/h2UUuVyS">unassibilated</a> and "soft" or <a href="/facts/Assibilation/h2UUuVyS">sibilated</a>) as spoken in Hispano-<a href="/facts/Latin/pM3Kge85">Latin</a> during this period. The letters ⟨e⟩ and ⟨r⟩ also have many different forms when written in ligature. Of particular interest is the special Visigothic z ⟨ꝣ⟩, which, after adoption into Carolingian handwriting, eventually transformed into the <a href="/facts/C-cedilla/aSdo3eHh">c-cedilla</a> ⟨ç⟩. </p> <p>A capital-letter <a href="/facts/Display_typeface/6Cojk7Hk">display script</a> was developed from the standard script, with long slender forms. There was also a <a href="/facts/Cursive/sbW2bKYq">cursive</a> form that was used for charters and non-religious writings, which had northern ("Leonese") and southern ("Mozarabic") forms. The Leonese cursive was used in the <a href="/facts/Christians/15hE11VR">Christian</a> north, and the Mozarabic was used by Christians living in the <a href="/facts/Muslim/W2ukq4pg">Muslim</a> south. The cursive forms were probably influenced by <a href="/facts/Roman_cursive/SCrDoLc3">Roman cursive</a>, brought to Iberia from <a href="/facts/North_Africa/ItxQAfs7">North Africa</a>. </p><p>Visigothic script has many similarities with <a href="/facts/Beneventan_script/UVLWtz4U">Beneventan script</a> and <a href="/facts/Merovingian_script/r1h4UMfM">Merovingian script</a>. </p> Character information<table><tbody><tr><th scope="row">Preview</th><th colspan="2">Ꝣ</th><th colspan="2">ꝣ</th><th colspan="2">Ç</th><th colspan="2">ç</th></tr><tr><th>Unicode name</th><td colspan="2">LATIN CAPITAL LETTER VISIGOTHIC Z</td><td colspan="2">LATIN SMALL LETTER VISIGOTHIC Z</td><td colspan="2">LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA</td><td colspan="2">LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA</td></tr><tr><th>Encodings</th><th>decimal</th><th>hex</th><th>dec</th><th>hex</th><th>dec</th><th>hex</th><th>dec</th><th>hex</th></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/Unicode/DDu3MfPV">Unicode</a></td><td>42850</td><td>U+A762</td><td>42851</td><td>U+A763</td><td>199</td><td>U+00C7</td><td>231</td><td>U+00E7</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/UTF-8/xlaVHSyf">UTF-8</a></td><td>234 157 162</td><td>EA 9D A2</td><td>234 157 163</td><td>EA 9D A3</td><td>195 135</td><td>C3 87</td><td>195 167</td><td>C3 A7</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/Numeric_character_reference/wCEzNIlC">Numeric character reference</a></td><td>Ꝣ</td><td>Ꝣ</td><td>ꝣ</td><td>ꝣ</td><td>Ç</td><td>Ç</td><td>ç</td><td>ç</td></tr><tr><td><a href="/facts/List_of_XML_and_HTML_character_entity_references/Pw0NWQLP">Named character reference</a></td><td colspan="2"></td><td colspan="2"></td><td colspan="2">Ç</td><td colspan="2">ç</td></tr></tbody></table>