English to Italian Art/Literary History origini della scrittura latina

By
the mid-second century ce old Roman cursive had developed a more
economical ‘ductus’ – that is the number, order and direction of letter
strokes required to create a character. Writing was speeding up, and the
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first sign of this was a rounding out of certain letters such as E D H L
M. This faster script was then put to new uses. In more carefully formed
versions it was employed for writing books. Using a pen that gives thicks
and thins to the strokes instead of the pointed stylus, a rather spacious
round hand developed; an example of a new script originating in ordinary
handwriting and then being deliberately elevated into a formal
script through the use of tools that entail more careful handling – in
this case the edged pen. The evidence shows this began in North Africa,
where Greek influence was still strong and the letters of Greek formal
bookhands already had a round character. The hand that resulted we
know today as ‘uncial script’. It was St Jerome (d. 420) who gave the
script this name in a tirade against letters in large sizes (uncial is derived
from the Roman word uncia, meaning inch), for by his day this script
had become over-elaborated and had drifted away from its WORKMANLIKE
origins towards more ostentatious display.