From: owner-scribes@castle.org (scribes digest) To: scribes-digest@castle.org Subject: scribes digest V5 #12 Reply-To: Sender: owner-scribes@castle.org Errors-To: owner-scribes@castle.org Precedence: bulk scribes digest Tuesday, February 13 2001 Volume 05 : Number 012 ======================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with unsubscribe scribes-digets in the body of the message. Leave the subject line blank. Do not include any additional text. [scribes]: Re:Info on Script Re: [scribes]: Calligraphy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 11:27:29 EST From: RenScribe@aol.com Subject: [scribes]: Re:Info on Script In a message dated 2/12/01 11:42:42 PM, sburnell@raex.com writes: >> Could I asked that those with Backhouse's "Illuminated Page" take a look >> at page 135 and give me an opinion as to the hand used on the page shown >> on the right. I'm not so good at deciphering scripts and my eyes aren't >> too good either! I tried enlarging, but it got too blurry and I can't >> seem to find any info on the source. Alienor Are you looking at the Italian pieces on page 135 (plates 115) or the overleaf on the next page? If you are looking at the Italian exemplar: I can't see the page clearly either. I can see enough to tell it's not Italic Formata, Humanistic or Rotunda but contains elements from all of those hands. There are a lot of variants and combinations of the humanistic and italic hands that were used in Italy around that time. Hands that grew out of the earlier Rotunda hand ... really unique hands like Gothic Cursive, Humanistic Rotunda and Humanistic Cursive to name a few. If you want to get a clearer look at some really precise Italian Renaissance hands try _Biliotheca Corviniana: The Library of King Mathius Corvinus of Hungary_ LCCN #69-11963 Hope this helps Eibhlin =================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with a blank Subject: line and unsubscribe scribes in the body of the message. Do not include any additional text in the body. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 10:22:48 -0800 From: Carolyn_Richardson@cch.com Subject: Re: [scribes]: Calligraphy >>Well-formed letters will be far more pleasing to the eye than poorly formed letters, but this doesn't guarentee legibility to the modern reader. Particularly with gothic hands, writing in the period manner--perfect period letter forms, period spellings and abbreviations, using u/v or i/j as was done in period rather than as is done modernly, et cetera--is difficult for a modern reader to master without practice.<< Excellent point, Merouda. I don't know how many manuscripts I've looked at that were done in gothic hands of one type or another, and they all looked like a bunch of vertical lines joined together at the top and bottom. Nearly impossible to tell your i's from your m's or n's or h's..... And of course, without seeing what someone is using as a model, it's impossible to tell with a pseudo-script what was intended in the first place. While it might be easier with psuedo-cyrillic since the letter forms are very similar to the Roman to tell if it's done well or badly, it's a lot harder to tell with some of the arabic/hindu scripts. India has approximately 7 different major languages used within the subcontinent - and the scripts all look a little different, or a lot different. One looks almost like hebrew to my eyes. So if I see just script, do I know if it's in Hebrew or Urdu or Farsi or Arabic? Unless I'm very familiar with those languages and how the letter forms should look, I wouldn't be able to tell if it was good, bad, or indifferent. While I'm all for encouraging people in the right direction, I'd be reluctant to tell someone their work was inadequate unless I had a lot more information. Tetchubah =================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with a blank Subject: line and unsubscribe scribes in the body of the message. Do not include any additional text in the body. ------------------------------ End of scribes digest V5 #12 ****************************