Chant Scripts

Mary Kay Duggan, UC Berkeley Just as the alphabetic scripts of manuscripts change from geographical region to region, so too do the bookhands of plainchant. In Italy the square notation of roman script was common in the Middle Ages. It is from that notation that today's plainchant typefonts derive.
Illustration: Columbia University, Plimpton 040H. [Venice, XVe] 568 x 420mm.

In German-speaking lands the gothic or Hufnagelschrift (horseshoe nail) notation prevailed.
Illustration: Music Library MS 748, University of California, Berkeley. 206 x 145. 369 ff. Diocese of Utrecht, c. 1450. Dutch rubrics. Paper, with parchment inserted for pasted-on decorative squares.