History of writing: fifteenth century and beyond

15th century AD C.: standardized roman and cursive writing

In the 14th and 15th centuries, Italian scholars, following Petrarch’s admiration for classical culture, adopt what they believe to be a Roman style for their new and original writing. Searching ancient texts, they discover the elegant Carolingian manuscripts, from the monastic workshops of Charlemagne, and adapt this model to their texts. Rome’s papal court clerk, Poggio Bracciolini, uses obvious lowercase letters in Carolingian script and adds capital letters in a straight edge design, imitating the Roman script used on monuments. Niccolò Niccoli speeds up the writing process by tilting the pen at a more relaxed angle, thus tilting the letters and allowing them to come together. Letter binding, also called ‘cursive’ handwriting, 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 Venetian printers imitated the scripts of Niccoli and Bracciolini. French printer Nicolas Jenson uses Bracciolini’s upright, rounded writing style, calling it a “Roman” type to indicate its origin. The ‘cursive’ print was named after Aldus Manitius, the great Venetian printer, when he created a paperback volume of Virgil’s works, writing it in the fashionable style of Niccoli in 1501, which led to the roman and italic script became standard printing typefaces. .

From the 16th century – Copperplate leads to the 18th century

Western societies adopt cursive script as the norm for handwriting. This is due in part to the ease and natural movement of a graver on a plate, which is used in engraving. A metal nib filled with paper marking ink mimics elegant chisel marks on metal. The master of writing as a profession is created as the middle classes become wordsmiths.

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