A history of alphabets from around the world
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A history of alphabets from around the world | |
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The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering by Frederic W. Goudy Chapter 3: Letters in General, page 3 In early Greek writing the ordinary character used was the uncial, and it sometimes retained more or less of the lapidary capital form. But at no period did the Greek uncial develop so fully as the Latin form. Majuscule writing, both capital and uncial, represents the literary script of its period and was comparatively limited in range. Running by its side was the ordinary cursive hand in general use; under certain conditions, characters from the cursive writing occasionally would invade the majuscule writing, which would then exhibit minuscule forms proper only to the cursive hand. In the writing done on waxed tablets in nonliterary scripts, a mingling of capitals and minuscules prevailed from the first, and there are indications that later the same mingling was allowed in literary writings. In the text of the Epitome of Livy [third century] minuscule letters are interspersed with the uncial forms, their regularity and apparent ease of writing clearly suggesting that this mixed hand was even then an ordinary practice. The writing shows distinct minuscule forms of the letters b, a, m, r, and f, sometimes uncial, occasionally minuscule. Reference to various manuscripts shows that the number of minuscule forms included with uncials in the early examples of mixed writing depended somewhat on the taste of the writer. The mixed hand passed through various phases, reaching soon a fully developed condition in which the minuscule element asserted itself so strongly that few purely uncial forms remained; at this stage it acquires a recognized position, it becomes the half-uncial hand, and marks clearly the change from capitals to minuscules or small letters. The half-uncial literary hand was the basis for the beautiful national book hands of Ireland and Britain. In its full development, half-uncial writing might almost pass for a large minuscule hand, owing to the large proportion of the forms afterward found in the minuscule hand of the Carolingian period, and, indeed, it has sometimes been termed the pre-Carolingian [or, pre--Caroline] minuscule. The chief difference between inscriptional characters and MS. letters lies in the fact that the stone-cut forms are compound, that is, they are built up, a part at a time, and not made by single sweeping strokes of a pen or brush. They were probably designed in situ by a master writer, "who was able, by incessant practice with a flat stiff brush, to draw or write rapidly, the actual cutting or fixing of the letters probably being left to one accustomed to work in stone. Minor refinements, and more careful cutting of the curves and serifs, gave a quality that was later carried naturally into written forms - the square capitals of the fourth--century MSS., which are merely a pen-drawn variety of the lapidary capitals and retain a strong resemblance to them. Manuscript letters, however, were simple written shapes in which the varying widths of the lines composing them were in strict relation to the breadth and angle of the pen used, the mere changing of its direction producing striking results in the character and development of the letters. When letters were written with a broad pen or formed by strokes of a brush, the relation of the thick and thin lines "was not a result of deliberate thought, but rather of a natural handling of the tool employed. No pencil-outlined forms, later filled in with ink or color, can give so vivid a quality of life, variety, and harmony as those produced directly and spontaneously. Continue to The Development of the Roman Capital |
The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering by Frederic W. Goudy Introduction What Letters Are Letters in General The Development of the Roman Capital Letters Before Printing The National Hands The Development of Gothic The Beginnings of Types The Qualities of Lettering Some Practical Considerations Notes on the Plates |