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an essay by Jerri-Jo Idarius Handwriting is a craft in which everyone participates, yet few people know much about its tradition or evolution. From the view of a calligrapher* who has studied and mastered traditional forms of handwriting, this lack of education is a sign of cultural loss. Most elementary school teachers feel inadequate to teach penmanship, and cannot explain the relationship between the cursive handwriting they have to teach and the printed letters they see in books. Since handwriting is so intimately connected to self-image, and since most people are unhappy with the results of their learning, it is common to hear, “I hate my writing!” or “I never learned to write.” They don’t know what to do about it. Not having the “idea” of well-designed letters, many people try to dress up poor forms with flourishes. This is especially true of adolescents looking for ways to express their growing sense of individuality. The remedy begins through a process of education and being given proper models and instruction. The Western European alphabet was invented by the Greeks and beautified by the Romans. The Romans applied their understanding of ideal proportions and the psychology of how we “see” to create an “architectural” alphabet that set the standard to which we have returned for the past 2,000 years. Inscriptional caps give us the finest example of Roman letters, exemplified by the Trajan column inscribed in the second century AD. The letters were painted on stone with the pointed brush (the serifs, or finishing strokes, were brushdesigned), then chiseled in stone and repainted. In the early 1930s, a Roman Catholic priest named Father Catich conducted a detailed study of these original letters from a scaffold. His rubbings, photos, measurements and analysis were self-published in1951. This provided artisans, scholars and educators a greater understanding of the letter shapes we inherited from the Romans, as well as the stroke directions and sequences they used. GREEK ALPHABET & TRAJAN Caps * Greek kali means ”beautiful” and graphia means ”writing.” There is much to say about the history of writing. To encapsulate the highlights in this short essay, it is important to note that the dialectic between formal and informal styles of writing led to periods of degeneration and periods of reform and also to the differentiation between what we refer to as caps and small letters, known technically as majuscules and minuscules. The Roman formal majuscule scripts follow: Although the ascenders and descenders of the half-uncial represent the movement toward a minuscule alphabet, it is written upright and is considered a majuscule form. After the fall of Rome, various regional styles developed in Europe but in the 8th century King Charlemagne instituted one script throughout the monasteries of Europe to help unite his empire. This style, known as Carolingian, related to the Roman half uncial and Roman cursive, is the first truly minuscule alphabet. Its beautiful letters can be written straight or at an angle. A simply drawn form of caps called versals appeared in manuscripts of this era. Roman Square Caps (Capitalis Quadrata) Rustic Uncial (used for Bibles and sacred texts) Carolingian minuscule & versals Medieval scripts are popularly described as blackletter, due to the predominantly black appearance of the page. The demand for written books was increasing due to the appearance of secular learning centers known as universities. Blackletter, also known as textura quadrata (squared-off text) was an outgrowth of the desire to conserve skins and paper and get more words on the page. Thus the ascending and descending parts of the letters became shorter and lines of text were squeezed together. Scribes attempted to justify the right margin by using abbreviations, letter endings and fillers. The German blackletter was called Fraktur, the English version was Textus Prescissus, and the rounder form that appeared to the south in Italy and Spain was called Gothica Rotunda. The medieval illuminated manuscripts contained elaborate versals (drawn and often decorated letters) based on the uncial. They were filled in with paint or gold leaf. These and other miniature illustrations were generally added by artists other than the scribe. The cursive black letter script called Bâtarde (bastard) compromised formal and informal elements. It was also known as Court Hand and English Secretary (the style of Shakespeare). The first mass-produced books created on a printing press used blackletter (the Gutenberg Bible in 1455). Examples of Blac kletter Type Styles Blackletter Commonly Used on Diplomas, Certificates & Christmas Cards Lombardic versals During the Renaissance, a renewed interest in the ideals and classical design of the Romans led to a revival of Roman letter forms. Since the bibles and sacred literature in the monasteries had been rewritten during Charlemagne’s reign, the 16th-century scholars mistook Carolingian for the writing of the Romans. Therefore, the new Humanist bookhand and the chancery cursive (cancelleresca) of Rome were based on 8th-century Carolingian. Both styles were used with the Roman capitals. A later evolution of the chancery script is known as italic (from Italy). This elegant and simple form can be used with the Roman caps or a sloped adaptation known as italic caps. The Arrighi cursive font (shown on the next page) is based on the 16 c. italic handwriting copy book by Ludovico Vicentino (the first manual of chancery). The Humanist bookhand which is the formal Renaissance hand, has become the basis for virtually all modern Roman serif type faces, as this font called Centaur exemplified by and the informal corsiva for our italic fonts. So how did we get where we are today? This is a story of mass production and competition. In order to sell handwriting manuals, the 17th- and 18th-century “Writing Masters” tried to outdo each other by adding loops and flourishes to their letters and pages. Writing manuals were reproduced from engraved copperplate. Since the engraved letters were cut with a sharp burin, pointed pens were needed to copy them - quills and flexible steel pens that rendered broad strokes and hairlines by the degree of pressure applied to the tip. Eventually, the new “roundhand” or “commercial cursive” styles were written with few pen lifts. To expedite joins and gain speed, eventually the hand took over and the old letter forms were lost. The degree of slope had increased. Cursive italic is a rhythmic style that follows rules for stroke order and joins. These ensure integrity of form as speed increases. Using a broad-edged pen, thick and thin parts of italic letters were a function of pen angle, not pressure. Arrighi Italic Italian Chancery Cursive & the Italic style in formal & Cursive forms Flourished & Stylized Italic Roundhand Script The 19th- and 20th-century handwriting styles taught in America can be traced back to copperplate and roundhand ancestry. The Spencerian and Palmer methods of penmanship were less elegant than their predecessors; they were painstaking to learn and did not adapt well to the ballpoint pen. Italic and Roman book fonts (lower case) are based on two Italian Renaissance styles of handwriting, and the Roman caps are still based on the classic Roman style exemplified by the Trajan column. Studies indicate that as a handwriting style, italic is easier to read and write than styles based on roundhand. It is also less stressful on the hand (due to the rhythm and pen lifts). Its elegance and beauty provide the writer a more positive experience and better self-image (especially through the transition period in the 4th grade, when cursive is introduced). Although the argument for the revival of italic handwriting is obvious, it has not become widespread due to lack of those competent to teach it. Proper teaching and welldesigned instructional materials are gradually becoming available for educators nationwide. FORMAL & INFORMAL HANDWRITING FORMAL Letters straight Rounded forms Letters not joined Slowly and carefully written Book hand Eye dominates INFORMAL (cursive) Letters are sloped Oval forms Some letters joined Rapid writing Letters, notes and business hand Hand dominates CLEARING UP MISCONCEPTIONS · All cursive writing and hand lettering is referred to as “handwriting.” · The term “printing” refers only to letters produced with the printing press or other mechanical means. · Upper and lower case are printers’ terms. For convenience, printers kept majuscules (large letters) in an upper box or case and the minuscules (small letters) in a case below. AMPERSAND The ampersand (&) is the joined symbol or ligature for the Latin “et” meaning “and.” This symbol was used so often that it took on the status of a letter in the alphabet and was placed after “Z” Today we call “&” ampersand, which is a corruption of “and-per-se-and” which means: the symbol ‘&’ by itself stands for ‘and’. In context, when repeated outloud, the alphabet would end with: “. . w, x, y, z, and per se (by itself) ‘and’.” Personal Note I have practiced and taught calligraphy for over twenty-five years. My mentor, professor Lloyd Reynolds, whom I met at Reed College in the 1960s, not only taught his students many historical styles of handwriting, but focused on the integration of spirit and matter in the Eastern & Western artistic traditions. He talked about the ideal of conveying spirit breath (chi) through the art of handwriting, which occurs after disciplined practice and mastery of form, culminating in letting go and becoming a participant in the creative activity of non-doing. I have kept my love of letters alive through a small business and the teaching of italic handwriting to school-children and adults. A poem may be typed and duplicated. . . Good. But it would have more life if we heard it read aloud by the poet, hearing it as vibrant speech. But can a poem when seen, be alive as it was when heard? The scribe is no beautician of the alphabet. He is no taxidermist making dead letters look almost alive. The letters should be alive. Through the vital touch and movement of his pen, he would have all of the words jump up alive and kicking. Lloyd Reynolds &