Calligraphy

I

Introduction

Calligraphy, the art of fine handwriting, in which the form of the letters is decorative or elaborate. The term “calligraphy”, derived from the Greek kalligraphia (“beautiful writing”), is usually applied to writing done in ink, but can also refer to inscriptions in a cursive script on stone or engraved in metal.

II

Ancient Calligraphy

The oldest surviving form of calligraphy is the hieroglyphic script developed by the Egyptians in the 3rd millennium bc. This script, based on picture-writing, is often said to be the most attractive form of writing ever devised. Phonetic symbols (representing sounds) and ideographic symbols (representing concepts) take the form of objects, animals, and people. Hieroglyphics were carved on monuments and inside tombs, usually in association with figurative relief sculpture. On papyrus manuscripts, hieroglyphic script, executed with a broad-edge reed pen, was often pleasingly incorporated into the scenes to which it related. Hieratic and demotic scripts, devised for everyday use, were simpler forms of hieroglyphic writing.

By the 5th century bc, a less complicated method of writing had been developed by the Phoenicians; the Greeks with whom the Phoenicians traded used this system as a basis for the first alphabet. The expanding Roman Empire adopted Greek handwriting, eventually adapting it to form the alphabet of roman capitals that is used today throughout most of the Western world. Many styles of the alphabet evolved to fulfil the needs of every aspect of Roman life. Roman cursive, a form that could be quickly written with a pointed pen, became common for everyday use. The letterforms of capital monumentalis and the narrower, more condensed form of capital rustica were essentially designed to be painted on stone as a guide for the carver. Fine-point serifs (the cross-line finish of each stroke) were characteristic of these forms, and show the connection with the physical process of carving with a chisel. Writing with a square-cut reed pen and painting with a chisel-shaped brush gave the letters their thick and thin strokes. Large-scale inscriptions needed careful planning: schemes were drafted on large sheets of papyrus, using geometrically designed capitals, and were transferred to the stone in chalk or charcoal, then painted before being carved. The majestic inscription on Trajan’s Column is a prime example of the result of this process.

During the 1st century bc, papyrus was replaced by parchment and vellum, made from animal skins. Because they were flexible, parchment and vellum could be folded and sewn together, forming the codex, the forerunner of the book. These materials are also smoother than papyrus, so that the reed pen was replaced with the quill pen as a writing implement.

In ad 313, Rome adopted Christianity, and it was through the Church that the art of calligraphy was preserved. The Codex Sinaiticus, a Bible of the 4th century ad and the earliest known book, was produced, hand-copied in an uncial hand using the Greek alphabet. Uncial script was a rounded script using capital letters; by the time of the fall of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century ad, using this script and the newly adopted Latin language, scribes copied and re-copied the Bible and the teachings of the Church, producing decorated books known as illuminated manuscripts. Monasteries sprung up throughout Europe. In the Celtic areas of northern England and in the monasteries of Ireland in particular, scribes’ use of colour and decoration flourished; complicated knotwork designs adorned single capital letters and embellished the page. The uncial capitals had developed into the half-uncial script, where some letters are formed above and below the line, thus beginning the development of the minuscule (lower-case letter). The Lindisfarne Gospels (ad 698-721) and the Book of Kells (ad 700), both written in half-uncial Anglo-Saxon, are excellent examples.

The survival of the Eastern Roman Empire led to the establishment of the Byzantine Empire, the only part of Europe where Greek, rather than Latin, was adopted as the lingua franca. A new Greek alphabet called Cyrillic, in which majuscules and minuscules were used, developed. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe adopted the half-uncial script. As the population grew, more books were produced but, without the unifying control of the Roman Empire, standards began to fall. Texts in which mistakes were rife and an enormous variety of new minuscule scripts (some illegible) were now common throughout Europe. In the late 8th century Charlemagne unified a fragmented Europe. He brought together learned people from all parts of Europe to rewrite Classical, legal, and religious works. The intellectual Alcuin of York was summoned to France, where he was instructed to set up a scriptorium to develop a new script. An uncomplicated rounded letterform known as Carolingian minuscule emerged, soon dominating the new manuscript books. Classical roman capital letterforms and uncials were used for important parts of the text and for capital letters. Some capitals became highly decorative. The Grandval Bible, written in Tours around 840, is a prime example.

III

The Middle Ages Onward

By the 12th century, schools and universities were increasing in number and had severed their links with the Church. With new learning the demand for books grew. To allow more words to the page, thus making books more economical to produce, letterforms became compressed, taking the form of harsher, pointed Gothic (known as black letter) scripts, which first developed in Germany and later spread to most of Europe. Italy was the only area where a rounder form, rotunda Gothic, was adopted. In the Middle Ages, book production, which was now prolific, was a team effort; the calligrapher wrote the text, the illuminator decorated capital letters, and the artist painted the miniatures (colour and gold being used throughout the book). Italian artists and scholars were to rebel against the roughness of German Gothic culture. With the Renaissance came the need to write new books and rewrite the old; scribes looked back to Roman and Carolingian scripts, so that, in the age of humanism, calligraphy is characterized by softer, rounder letterforms. Book production escalated. The need for faster written script resulted in the cursive sloping script of italic, in which the letters are cojoined.

The development of calligraphy and its place within society changed with the invention of the printing press. In Germany, Johann Gutenberg created a method of making movable letters cast from metal, each letter made individually and modelled on the prevailing scripts of the time. The Gutenberg Bible (1452-1455), the first printed book, was printed on paper in a Gothic letterform. In England in 1476, William Caxton started his press, using his own cursive French Gothic hand (the popular script in England, which had spread there from France) on which to model his type. However, handmade manuscripts continued to be produced. The penmanship of the 15th-century Italian scribe Bartholomeo Sanvito exhibits italic and roman capitals of the highest quality. Meanwhile, German-speaking areas concentrated on Gothic; Johann Neudorffer, a German writing master, created the broken Gothic capital, wildly decorated, using repeated flourished strokes of the pen and often used alongside italic as well as Gothic scripts.

In Italy, with the new interest initiated by the more accessible printed book, reading and writing spread to a wider audience, resulting in the Italian writing masters becoming popular teachers. The first copybooks were produced. The calligraphic styles of Lodovico degli Arrighi and later Giovanni Tagliente and Giovanbattista Palantino (all highly skilled writing masters) were used as the models for typefaces used in printing. Simultaneously, a technique of etching lettering on to copper printing plate was invented. In contrast to the marks made by a broad-edge quill, copperplate italic is written with a pointed tool, allowing pressure by the scribe’s hand to create thick and thin looping strokes. The work of the 17th-century English calligrapher Edward Cocker shows highly flourished copperplate. Writing manuals became popular; English copperplate eventually became widely used in commerce and spread to France (as anglaise), Spain (as letra inglesa), and Italy (as lettere inglise), and across the Atlantic to America. Alongside the handwritten forms, movable type spread quickly. France and Holland became leaders in the field of bringing new calligraphic forms to typography during the 17th and 18th centuries. At the same time the writing masters were in great demand, using their skills in conjunction with the engraver to produce copybooks which were growing in popularity. Gothic, italic, copperplate and flourished capitals appeared side by side. During this time, however, calligraphy began to decline, because the union between calligrapher and engraver revolved around the pointed pen and the engraver’s burin rather than the broad-edge pen.

By the 19th century, calligraphy had become restricted to handwriting and was a skill that most literate people could acquire. Metal nibs replaced the quill. Copperplate was the basis of the plainer Civil Service hand which became commonplace throughout the commercial world and in the legal profession. Books had very few illustrations but as colour printing developed, decorative pages for gift volumes increased in popularity. This initiated a new interest in medieval manuscripts. Books on lettering and illumination were produced and the Victorians became immersed in the idea of copying. Towards the end of the 19th century John Ruskin and William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, concerned themselves with the preservation of craftsmanship in handmade artefacts. Morris developed a fascination for the lettering and illumination of manuscripts, copying their style to produce his own handmade books.

IV

Calligraphy in the 20th Century

Morris started a new interest in calligraphy; he was responsible for inspiring Edward Johnston to make his own studies in the manuscript department of the British Library, which led to the publication of Writing and Illuminating and Lettering (1906). He looked at early Carolingian scripts to develop foundation hand, a model script from which he taught the principles of lettering made by the broad-edge pen. Johnston was a highly skilled letter-designer as well as a calligrapher. In 1916 he combined the Classical proportions of Roman carved letters with the simple forms of early Greek inscriptions to form an alphabet of classic simplicity, with no serifs or feet. This sans-serif letterform, originally designed for London Underground and still in use today, became extremely fashionable and could be seen in a wide range of situations, from magazines to road signs. From his teaching at the Central School of Art and Design, in London, he instigated a calligraphic revival which ran alongside the typewriter and computer. In Germany, the calligrapher and designer Rudolf Koch inspired new interest based on the Gothic tradition. Later Hermann Zapf (an acknowledged leader in 20th-century letter design) taught himself from Johnston’s book and Koch’s work. In the 1920s, Alfred Fairbank, a British calligrapher, began an italic handwriting revival using copybooks which eventually spread throughout Europe. Eric Gill took up lettering with Johnston and as a letter-cutter Gill set a modern standard for excellence. Donald Jackson, a student of Irene Wellington who was taught by Johnston, is now one of the world’s most prominent calligraphers, stimulating a revival in America. Present-day calligraphers, lettering artists, and type-designers have developed a contemporary way of working based on the scripts, skills, and traditions evolved over thousands of years.