View source for Insular script

{{short description|Medieval writing system common to Ireland and England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2008}}
{{Infobox writing system
|name= Insular (Gaelic) script
|type= [[Alphabet]]
|time= {{floruit}} 600–850 AD
|languages= [[Latin]], [[Old Irish]], [[Old English]]
|fam1      = [[Latin alphabet|Latin script]]
|fam2      = 
|children= [[Gaelic type]]
|sample= BookDurrowInitMark86r.jpg
|imagesize=
|caption=The beginning of the [[Gospel of Mark]] from the [[Book of Durrow]]
|iso15924= 
}}
'''Insular script''' is a [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[script (styles of handwriting)|script]] system originating in Ireland that spread to [[England]] and continental Europe under the influence of [[Hiberno-Scottish mission|Irish Christianity]]. Irish missionaries took the script to continental Europe, where they founded monasteries, such as [[Bobbio Abbey|Bobbio]]. The scripts were also used in monasteries, like [[Fulda monastery|Fulda]], which were influenced by English missionaries. They are associated with [[Insular art]], of which most surviving examples are [[illuminated manuscript]]s. It greatly influenced modern [[Gaelic type]] and handwriting.

The term "Insular script" is used to refer to a diverse family of scripts used for different functions. At the top of the hierarchy was the Insular [[half-uncial]] (or "Insular [[majuscule]]"), used for important documents and sacred text. The full [[uncial]], in a version called "English uncial", was used in some English centres. Then "in descending order of formality and increased speed of writing" came "set [[Lowercase|minuscule]]", "cursive minuscule" and "current minuscule". These were used for non-scriptural texts, letters, accounting records, notes, and all the other types of written documents.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Michelle P. Brown |last=Brown |first=Michelle P. |title=Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age |page=13 (quoted) |date=2007 |publisher=British Library |isbn=978-0-7123-0680-5}}</ref>

==Origin==
The scripts developed in Ireland in the 7th century and were used as late as the 19th century, though its most flourishing period fell between 600 and 850. They were closely related to the [[uncial]] and [[half-uncial]] scripts, their immediate influences; the highest grade of Insular script is the majuscule Insular half-uncial, which is closely derived from Continental half-uncial script.

==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>

==Usage==
Insular script was used not only for [[Latin]] religious books, but also for every other kind of book, including vernacular works. Examples include the [[Book of Kells]], the [[Cathach of St. Columba]], the [[Ambrosiana Orosius]], the [[Durham Cathedral Library A. II. 10. Gospel Book Fragment|Durham Gospel Fragment]], the [[Book of Durrow]], the [[Durham Gospels]], the [[Echternach Gospels]], the [[Lindisfarne Gospels]], the [[Lichfield Gospels]], the [[St. Gall Gospel Book]], and the [[Book of Armagh]].

Insular script was influential in the development of [[Carolingian minuscule]] in the [[scriptoria]] of the Carolingian empire.{{cn|date=March 2024}}

In Ireland, Insular script was superseded in {{circa|850}} by Late Insular script; in England, it was followed by a form of [[Caroline minuscule]].{{cn|date=March 2024}}

The [[Tironian notes|Tironian]] {{lang|la|et}}, {{angbr|⁊}}{{snd}} equivalent of [[ampersand]] {{angbr|&}}{{snd}} was in widespread use in the script (meaning {{lang|sga|agus}} 'and' in Irish, and {{lang|ang|ond}} 'and' in [[Old English]]) and is occasionally continued in modern [[Gaelic type]]faces derived from Insular script.

==Unicode==

{{Special characters|Unicode}}
Unicode treats representation of letters of the [[Latin alphabet]] written in insular script as a typeface choice that needs no separate coding.<ref name="Everson" /> Only a few Insular letters have specific code-points because they are used by phonetic specialists. To render the full alphabet correctly, a suitable [[display font]] should be chosen. To display the specialist characters, there are several fonts that may be used; three free ones that support these characters are [[Junicode]], Montagel, and Quivira. [[Gentium]] and [[Charis SIL]] support ⁊ and the alphabetic letters U+1ACx, U+A77x, U+A78x and	U+1D7x.

According to [[Michael Everson]], in the 2006 Unicode proposal for these characters:<ref name="Everson">{{cite web |last=Everson |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Everson |title=N3122: Proposal to add Latin letters and a Greek symbol to the UCS |url= https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06266-n3122-insular.pdf |publisher=ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 |date=6 August 2006 |access-date=22 November 2016}}</ref> {{blockquote |text=To write text in an ordinary [[Gaelic type|Gaelic font]], only [[ASCII]] letters should be used, the font making all the relevant substitutions; the insular letters [proposed here] are for use only by specialists who require them for particular purposes.}}

{{Unicode chart Insular}}

==See also==
* [[Gaelic type]]
* [[Hiberno-Saxon art]]
* [[Insular G]]
* [[Irish orthography]]
* [[Latin delta]]
* [[List of Hiberno-Saxon illustrated manuscripts]]
* [[Medieval Unicode Font Initiative]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* Early medieval insular Gospel Books as part of the [https://www.tcd.ie/library/research-collections/projects/early-irish-mss/ Early Irish Manuscripts Project] at [[Library of Trinity College Dublin|Trinity College Dublin Library]]. 

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Bischoff |first=Bernhard  |title=Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages |translator-first1=transl. by Dáibhí |translator-last1=Ó Cróinín |translator-first2=David |translator-last2=Ganz |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1990 |oclc=18908629 |isbn=9780521364737}} English translation of {{Cite book |last=Bischoff |first=Bernhard  |title=Paléographie de l'antiquité Romaine et du Moyen Âge occidental |publisher=Picard |location=Paris |date=1985 |language=fr
|series=Grands manuels Picard |isbn=9782708401136 |oclc=13239180}}
* {{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Michelle P. |title=A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 |location=London |publisher=British Library |date=1990 |oclc=781980312 |isbn=9780712301770}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Gameson |editor-first=Richard |title=The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Vol. I (c. 400-1100) |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2012 |oclc=854795008 |isbn=9780521583459}} 
* {{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Jane |title=A Guide to Scripts used in English Writings up to 1500 |location=Liverpool |publisher=Liverpool University Press |date=2015 |oclc=920868517 |isbn=9781781382660}}

{{European calligraphy}}
{{Gaels}}
{{Typography terms}}
{{list of writing systems}}

[[Category:Culture of medieval Scotland]]
[[Category:Early medieval literature]]
[[Category:Latin-script calligraphy]]
[[Category:Medieval scripts]]
[[Category:Western calligraphy]]