Postfazione

The postface frames Paola Supino Martini’s Roma e l’area grafica romanesca as a foundational and exemplary work in Latin palaeography, reaffirming its methodological rigor and enduring relevance. Conceived against prevailing scholarly trends, the study combined traditional palaeographical analysis with a broad historical and cultural perspective, inspired by Elias Avery Lowe’s model and prompted by Wallace M. Lindsay’s call for a systematic investigation of a distinct “Roman” script tradition. The postface reconstructs the long-term research process behind the volume, emphasizing the exhaustive census of manuscripts, the careful definition of graphic criteria, and the integration of codicological, textual, and institutional evidence. Particular attention is given to the challenges posed by limited access to resources at the time and to the scale of the achievement, which resulted in the identification of hundreds of manuscripts in Romanesque minuscule. Beyond its scholarly contribution, the postface also highlights Supino Martini’s intellectual ethos—marked by rigor, modesty, and critical independence—and situates the book as both a model of method and a lasting point of reference for future studies on medieval written culture.