Calligraphy

Medieval writing was shaped largely by the type of pen it was written with. This writing changed much over the course of the middle ages by place, time and the formality of what was written and became an art form in and of itself.

In the SCA many scribes practice calligraphy in the production of award scrolls.

Calligraphic hands by time

Time	Hand
	Carolingian Majiscule
	Insular Miniscule

Terms

• Majiscule
  • All caps, there are no lower case letters in this font
• Miniscule
• Nib
  • The point of the pen used to write with, in modern calligraphy pens the nib is usually a separate piece from the pen holder
• Serif
  • accents added to the end of stroke lines, for example a lower case letter "L" without serifs is just a line, with serifs there are small accent lines added to the top and bottom of the l (for example in the Times New Roman font)

External Links

• Scribbler's on-line guideline generator: http://www.scribblers.co.uk/cgi/gridlines.pl

References

Marc Drogin Medieval Calligraphy

see also Calligraphy & Illumination