L’insegnamento della Logica vetus nel XII secolo: codici di studio tra littera antiqua e littera textualis

This article investigates some material and graphic features of twelfth-century logical commentaries composed in the schools of central and northern France. These works, derived from the teaching of masters such as Peter Abelard and William of Champeaux and transmitted in independent manuscripts, have traditionally been studied from a philosophical perspective. This study, instead, represents a first step in the analysis of such hitherto overlooked scripts. The survey is based on a sample of eight codicological units containing anonymous, extensive commentaries on the so-called Boethian logic. The analysis is carried out through a quantitative examination of selected graphic and perigrapic features, including measurements of format, ruling, letter size, internal proportions, syntactic strategies, and abbreviation practices. The hands employ minute, heavily abbreviated scripts characteristic of a transitional phase between the Caroline minuscule and the emerging Gothic system. Despite the extreme density of the written page, scribes employed diverse yet consistent strategies – such as dimensional ratios, graphic syntax, and abbreviation systems – to preserve the legibility of these books. These features are interpreted as functional responses to the study use for which such manuscripts were intended.