A Persona Hand
I have started to learn calligraphy. Why? Mostly so that I can learn to write as a lady from York, England in the mid late 15th Century. I can fake the wording fairly well, but for it to have the look, that is the challenge. And don't even get me started on period spelling. I have a hard enough time with modern english, I am not adding any time soon late middle english.
I tried to find out what the letters looked like in the time of my persona. That was kinda hard cause most of the stuff I was finding was about illumination or "professional" work done by a scribe. The gothic "hand", the really blocky, heavy black, old lettering most people have a hard time reading I didn't really like and felt to formal. It looked more like something from a book, not something from an everyday person balancing the check book.
The great thing about being a herald is that it is pretty easy to find a scribe. Just ask the person who handed you the very pretty scroll that you had to read durning court. Of course, wait until after court. If they have no idea, they know who does. And that is what I did and what happened. I was recommended to look at the book Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique by Marc Drogin. I do plan on buying the book, but I was able to get someone to send me a scanned copy of the hand I want to learn. The book calls it gothic littera bastarda, and I plan on using the more cursive of the letters. The scribe also sent me a page of capital letters to work also that she felt went well since the page only had lower case. And if you are wondering, it is french so it isn't said completely like how it looks.
Here is why I didn't want to just use the calligraphy book my mom had and I was using. My goal is that I can sign my persona name so that it looks like it came from a period letter or like item. Most calligraphy books. like my mom's, is designed for the modern reader. The way we shape latter today, is different from even 200 years ago. There is more common ground because of the printing press, but did you know that at least in medieval england, there were two ways to write an S? There is the one that we use to day, but there was also one that looks more like an F for a "long S", I guess like in the name Sam. This is also why it is great to talk to scribes. They know this kind of stuff. I thought that the S had just shortened. I needed to know this cause my persona has an S in her name as most of you know: conStance. I am pretty sure that it isn't a long S so I am not too worried.
Now, if you saw how I wrote when I was a kid, you would laugh at the thought of me trying to do calligraphy. With age and practice, my penmanship is better. You still have to wondering what that spelling is suppose to be, but you can tell what letter is what.
You may ask, but were woman taught to read back then? Well, according to the scribe I talked to, very much so. She said that because women ran the house, which meant buying the food and other supplies, they had to be able to read an invoice. Men were to busy hunting, or other manly stuff that unless they were merchants, women were able to read and write better then men. It makes sense to me. So unless you are queen, and even then I may question it, I would have known how to read and write fairly well.
I will try to post here soon the little bit I have started. If you are wanting to learn a medieval hand, I highly recommend this book. It ranges quite a bit in time and gives a lot of information on when and other such info. If you would like to see what I am aiming for, you can see an example here.
I tried to find out what the letters looked like in the time of my persona. That was kinda hard cause most of the stuff I was finding was about illumination or "professional" work done by a scribe. The gothic "hand", the really blocky, heavy black, old lettering most people have a hard time reading I didn't really like and felt to formal. It looked more like something from a book, not something from an everyday person balancing the check book.
The great thing about being a herald is that it is pretty easy to find a scribe. Just ask the person who handed you the very pretty scroll that you had to read durning court. Of course, wait until after court. If they have no idea, they know who does. And that is what I did and what happened. I was recommended to look at the book Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique by Marc Drogin. I do plan on buying the book, but I was able to get someone to send me a scanned copy of the hand I want to learn. The book calls it gothic littera bastarda, and I plan on using the more cursive of the letters. The scribe also sent me a page of capital letters to work also that she felt went well since the page only had lower case. And if you are wondering, it is french so it isn't said completely like how it looks.
Here is why I didn't want to just use the calligraphy book my mom had and I was using. My goal is that I can sign my persona name so that it looks like it came from a period letter or like item. Most calligraphy books. like my mom's, is designed for the modern reader. The way we shape latter today, is different from even 200 years ago. There is more common ground because of the printing press, but did you know that at least in medieval england, there were two ways to write an S? There is the one that we use to day, but there was also one that looks more like an F for a "long S", I guess like in the name Sam. This is also why it is great to talk to scribes. They know this kind of stuff. I thought that the S had just shortened. I needed to know this cause my persona has an S in her name as most of you know: conStance. I am pretty sure that it isn't a long S so I am not too worried.
Now, if you saw how I wrote when I was a kid, you would laugh at the thought of me trying to do calligraphy. With age and practice, my penmanship is better. You still have to wondering what that spelling is suppose to be, but you can tell what letter is what.
You may ask, but were woman taught to read back then? Well, according to the scribe I talked to, very much so. She said that because women ran the house, which meant buying the food and other supplies, they had to be able to read an invoice. Men were to busy hunting, or other manly stuff that unless they were merchants, women were able to read and write better then men. It makes sense to me. So unless you are queen, and even then I may question it, I would have known how to read and write fairly well.
I will try to post here soon the little bit I have started. If you are wanting to learn a medieval hand, I highly recommend this book. It ranges quite a bit in time and gives a lot of information on when and other such info. If you would like to see what I am aiming for, you can see an example here.
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