Sentence:  Later Merovingian hands, however, often from Italy and drawing heavily from half uncials, prefigured the later <WSD>Carolingian minuscule</WSD> and achieved a certain graceful legibility. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A script developed to standardise writing in the Latin alphabet throughout the Holy Roman Empire, used between approximately 800 and 1200 CE.