alcuin’s motto
prof albert c. clark [fellow & tutor of queen’s college, oxford, late-19c–early-20c] tells us in «The Reappearence of the Texts of the Classics» [The Library, ser iv, vol ii, 1922, p15]: «In 782 Charlemagne, wishing to restore learning in his kingdom, summoned an Englishman, Alcuin of York, to act as his Minister of Education. Alcuin became Abbot of St. Martin at Tours, where he founded a scriptorium, in which the famous Caroline minuscule came into being. He taught his monks to write, instead of devoting themselves to the cultivation of the vine. His motto was: ‘Fodere quam vites, melius est scribere libros.’ His own studies lay chiefly in the direction of grammar and orthography. He succeeded in arresting the process of natural decay, and reintroduced classical Latin. Barbarous spellings disappeared as if by magic, and manuscripts were written by competent scribes.» to which prof b. l. ullman adds: «There are those who deny that any existing manuscripts written in the ‘regular’ style of Tours, i.e. the characteristic Tours style with cursive elements all but eliminated, date from the time of Alcuin, and that Alcuin had any part in its development. Others believe that several manuscripts written in this style date from Alcuin’s time and that he was responsible at least for the encouragement of this script, although they admit that most of the examples, as well as those of the still better, ‘perfected’ style, were written after Alcuin’s death.» [Ancient Writing and its Influence, longmans, green & co, new york, 1932, p110].
humainist scholars (salutati, niccoli, poggio) evolved scripts for editorial & scribal work adapted from the carolingian script that they appraised highly for calrity & legibility—the only suitable script for copying latin literature. these ‘humanistic scripts’ were adapted, a mere half century later, by the proto-typographers for the types they evolved into the typefaces printers classify as roman & italic.
1st illustration: alcuin’s motto written emulating the neo-caroline, humanistic script. at one time poggio favored rustic «F» [stanley morison, «Early Humanistic Script and the First Roman Type», The Library, 4th series, vol xxiv, 1943, p15]; «ſ» [long-s] at the end of a word is humanist [b.l. ullman, The Origin and Development of Humanistic Script, edizioni di storia e letteratura, roma, 1960, p17]; «v» [minuscule] was introduced by poggio in 1425 [ibid, p53].
2nd illustration: poggio’s littera formata [florence, laur.49, col.125r, 1425; ibid, plate 23].