lettera bollatica
page [block] from ugo da carpi, Thesauro de Scrittori, rome, 1535, f. A[36], printed by antonio blado [stanley morison, Early Italian Writing-Books, david r. godine, boston, 1990, plate 5]. the deisign is signed by arrighi although it does not appear in any writing-book published by arrighi [cf. esther potter’s intro. to the facsimile edition, nattali & maurice, london, 1968]. «Ugo da Carpi may not have been an original calligrapher—or for that matter, a calligrapher at all» [morison, op. cit., p67].
the lower section of the illustration displays lettera bollatica. bollatica is a gothic bastarda (cursive) evolved in the vatican scriptoria for express purpose of inditing papal bulls—the most formal class of ecclesiastical communication, authenticated by an attached leaden seal (bulla). «As late as the pontificate of Leo X, it was thought a graceful compliment to him, when the exquisite neo-classical poet, Marcantonio Casanova, lost in the sack of Rome, presented to the Pope the manuscript of his ‘Heroica’ now in Naples, written in bollatica;» [james wardrop, The Script of Humanism, at the clarendon press, oxford, 1963, p5].