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Origins of Uppercase
By jamie
Origins of uppercase letters trace back to the Roman Empire, where all writing was in majuscule—capital letters.
The earliest form, Roman Square Capitals, was used in inscriptions on stone, such as the Trajan Column.
This script was designed for clarity and durability in stone, using straight lines and even spacing.
Around the 3rd to 6th centuries, Rustic Capitals and Uncial scripts emerged for manuscript use.
These were still majuscule forms but more curved and fluid to suit pen and ink writing.
Uncial was widely used by Christian scribes for copying religious texts.
The development of lowercase letters began in the 7th to 9th centuries in monastic scriptoria.
Charlemagne’s scholars created Carolingian Minuscule as part of a reform to standardize Latin texts.
Carolingian Minuscule featured clear, rounded, and legible letterforms—true lowercase letters.
This script spread across Europe and became the basis for later medieval writing styles.
By the 12th century, scribes regularly used both uppercase and lowercase letters together.
Capitals were used for emphasis—at the start of sentences, names, or important words.
This combination formed the dual-case writing system still used today.
In the Gothic period, blackletter scripts dominated northern Europe with dense, angular styles.
Meanwhile, the Italian Renaissance revived Carolingian Minuscule as Humanist Minuscule.
Humanist scripts became the foundation for modern Roman typefaces used in printing.
The invention of the printing press in the 15th century accelerated typographic standardization.
Printers in Italy favored Roman type with clear uppercase and lowercase distinctions.
Aldus Manutius introduced smaller Roman and italic types, promoting readability and economy.
By this time, the use of dual case was fully established in printed books.
The terms “uppercase” and “lowercase” come from physical type cases used by printers.
Capital letters were stored in the upper case drawer, and small letters in the lower case.
This mechanical origin gave us the modern terminology for letter case.
Today’s Roman script preserves this historical evolution in every page of text we read.
Given all that, I wonder if WeWrite should try to standardize even further? By only allowing certain types? I don’t want anybody screaming on here, with all uppercase. (Trump loves to USE ALL CAPS, which makes his Reality TV Derangement Syndrome stand out amongst us normal-capitalization users)