“In 781 Charlemagne invited to his court a famous English scholar from York named Alcuin. . . . In 796 Alcuin, encouraged by Charlemagne, started a school at the Abbey of Saint Martin’s at Tours. . .
First of all, Charlemagne gave Alcuin the job of managing the revision and rewriting of all Church literature. . . .
Alcuin set our first to teach his scribes to write as fine and readable a hand as possible. Fortunately he had leared to write the northern type of Angle-Saxon script, which ws the most beautiful then being written in England. It was a modification and further development of the semi-uncials of the Irish monks. Based on this form, a new style of writing which Alcuin developed at Tours was spread throughout Europe. . . .
The ‘Caroline’ alphabet (named for Charlemagne) which Alcuin designed, was a true ‘small-letter’ alphabet. . . . [T]he Caroline letters arrived at forms so closely akin to the letters we use every day . . . that the resemblance is immediately apparent. . . .
The sentence now started with a capital and continued with a true miniscule, not just a small capital.”

—Oscar Ogg, The 26 Letters, 1961.