History Of Script - 15th Century and Beyond

15th century AD- Roman and Italic Scripts Standardized

In the 14th and 15th century, Italian scholars following Petrarch’s admiration for classical culture, adopt what they believe is a Roman style for their new, original script. In searching through ancient texts they discover the elegant Carolingian manuscripts, from Charlemagne’s monastic workshops and adapt this paragon for their texts. The secretary of the papal court of Rome, Poggio Bracciolini, uses lowercase letters evident in Carolingian script and adds capital letters in straight-edged design, imitating Roman script used on monuments. Niccolò Niccoli speeds up the writing process by angling the pen at a more relaxed angle, thereby sloping the letters and permitting them to join together. Joining together of letters, also called ‘cursive’ hand-writing, is a medieval invention, as seen in manuscripts from the Middle Ages.

Later in the 15th century, the influence of humanism was seen again when printers in Venice imitate the scripts of Niccoli and Bracciolini. French printer Nicolas Jenson uses Bracciolini’s upright, rounded style of script, naming it ‘roman’ type to indicate its origination. ‘Italic’ print was named by Aldus Manitius, the great Venetian printer, when he created a pocket-sized volume of the works of Virgil, scripting it in the fashionable style of Niccoli in 1501, leading to roman and italic print becoming standard printing typefaces.

From the 16th century- Copperplate leads into the 18th century

Western societies adopt italic script as the norm for handwriting. This is partly due to the ease and natural movement of a burin on a plate, used in engraving. A metal nib being filled with ink to mark on paper imitates the burin’s elegant marks on metal. The writing master as profession is created as the middle classes become wordsmiths.

Standardized handwriting comes from copper plates, which are used by an engraver to create printed material. The pupils of the writing master copy the engraver’s sheets or plates and traditional ‘copperplate’ script is born. The most famous of these manuals are ‘Essemplare’ (Examples) by the Vatican writer Gianfrancesco Cresci in 1560 and ‘Universal Penman’ by George Bickham, published in 1733. Bickham’s copperplates were used in Britain until the early 20th century for teaching.

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