In the early Renaissance, humanist scholars discovered Carolingian and Romanesquemanuscripts, which they interpreted as classical in content and lettering style. These discoveries
subsequently influenced Florentine artists, who created a new script known today as Sanserif.
The Tomb of Leonardo Bruni by Bernardo Rossellino has a dedicatory inscription carved with
these capitals situated under the deceased effigy. Bruni’s effigy also holds a marble depiction of
the History of the Florentine People, his most famous manuscript that provided contemporary
Florentines with the notion that they were the heirs to the Roman Republic. This thesis argues
that the letters used for the inscription came from humanist manuscripts. The type of monument
Bruni received and its honorific location in Santa Croce were meant to honor him as a classical
scholar and visually support the promotion of the History by the Florentine populace as
influential for granting them parity with the Republican Romans.
