Dating and placing Visigothic script codices: A quick guide for beginners

Abstract

This essay summarises the current state of the art regarding the dating and placing of codices copied in Visigothic minuscule script, one of the two basic typological variants of the main graphic system used in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages (eighth to thirteenth century). As a brief overview of the palaeographical method designed to graphically contextualise these sources, this work is intended to be a quick guide for Manuscript Studies scholars who are not specialists on the topic but nevertheless work with Visigothic script material in their research, as well as for readers interested in knowing more about medieval written sources. The pages that follow are also intended to stimulate debate on Visigothic script, the study of its variants, evolution and contextualisation, likewise introducing a new software build to help with the detailed analysis of the extant manuscript material.