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Issue 34 September 2008 ISSN 1468-9537

Edited by Nicholas Caulkin203 Dyas Avenue, Great Barr, Birmingham B42 lHN, England

Contributors

TheJollowing people have contributed to this edition: -

Wilfrid Blunt, Richard Bradley, Ken Brookfield, FredEager, Betty Eskenazi, Alfred Fairbank. Holly Kirkwood,Kathy Lacy, Foster Neville, nickthenibs, Reg Nutting, PaulStandard & Martin and Lola Taylor.

Square by Thomas Clowes

()'I'he SocictyJor Italic Handwritir,g 2008

CopS,rioht r: hcl,! h,y the Sll! rirh thc riylhts assigned to the original authors.

The riexs antl oytnions cxprcsscrl urc thosc 1l thc outhors and not necessorily oJ'the SIH

I'ront t,tvcnlcrt<1tvrl hS, nichtltcnibs

'fhe Sll! t: a rcet.stcrc,l tltortty nunhu lli7889R Revcnue numher X99153A

24

A Word from the New Chair:Foster Neville

Many of you will know Wilfrid Blunt's book Sueet RomanHand, its title taken from Tuelfih Night. I saw aproduction of Shakespeare's play this summer. On theline "I think we do know the sweet Roman hand", theactor - with a suitably theatrical flourish - produced apage, not of Italic but of...Copperplate!

Over the past few weeks, together with our SecretaryNick, I have been selecting material which might appearon the Society's new website. Old SIH Bulletins andJournals are a rich source of information not availableelsewhere. In particular there are a number of historicalarticles we hope to make accessible to members online.

The substitution of Copperplate for Italic in Ttelfih Nightis perhaps inevitable in an age when communication isalmost exclusively by mobile 'phone, text message oremail. I imagine most twenty-first century theatreaudiences would regard fine writing as something eitherunattainable or unsuitable for everyday use. Thedifference between the Roman hand (as Italic was knownin England in this period) and Copperplate now regardedas specialist knowledge.

In 1987 the piece set for the Society's HandwritingCompetition was a paragraph from Alec Guinness'Blessings in Disguise, where he describes hiscorrespondence with Sir Sydney Cockerell, and makesreferece to Cockerell's Italic hand and his encouragement(via a gift of Patrick Barry's Handutriting Sheets) thatGuinness sl^culd improve his hand. (Incidentally, if you'rewondering, the winning entry that year was penned byone Nicholas Caulkin).

The Editor of the old Butletin published Viett'ts ofHandwiting These took the form of short extracts frombooks {both fiction and non-fiction), which mentionedhandwriting. A contemporary example from 1959 was

John Updike's novel The Poorhouse Fair. This featured acharacter with a "somewhat studied Italic hand"' (Studiedor not he managed to 'scribble'in it, which seems quite anachievement to me). The narrator of The Poorhouse Fairseems to hold the same opinion as found in the followinglines from Hamlet (ActV, ii):

I once did hold it, as our statists do,A baseness to write fair...

In 1959 of course, ltalic handwriting was news' TheSociety was reviving a tradition of fine writing in England'Many writers have favoured the 'sweet Roman hand' foruse themselves. To readers of the old Journals, the namesof antiquary John Leland (1506 - 1552) and the dramatistand scholai Nicolas Udall (1505 = 1556) might be familiar'John Cheke (1514 - 1557) and Roger Ascham (1515 -1568) are other notable sixteenth century exponents ofItalic. What these people had in common was that theylived in a letter-writing age, when the Italic hand was

used, for example, for diplomatic correspondence'Ascham was letter-writer to Cambridge University'

I wonder if members have discovered their own examplesof the Italic hand figuring in other works' Perhaps Views

of Handtaiting could appear in Witing Matlers'

Someone who corresponded with Alec Guinness wasDodie Smith, the author of I Capture the Castle and 701

Dalmations. In Valerie Grove's 1996 biography of thewriter, Dear Dodie, adopting the Italic hand is shown as a

pleasant pastime, like taking up the piano or painting, in1950s England.

Instead Dodie opted for italic calligraphy.Hours each day were spent on improving her

HeNn FoxrsHere are the hand fonts that I have produced to datewith David Kettlewell. I draw them, he digitises them fortype!

This shows that good handwriting can be made intocomputer fonts if you know how! Perhaps readers of WrittngMatiers will be better just enjoying writing with pen andpaper; it is far less stressful!

I appreciate all you do for the Society and your excellentwork for Writing Mqtters.

Richard Bradley, Gosport, Honts., England

Fon Snt-sWe have some old Journalsnamely:

The Bulletin of the SIH, Nos. 41989

The Journal of the SIH, Nos. 99 - 122 (excluding i10),Summer 1979 - 1998The Netusletter of the S/H, .l{o. -7, Spring 1991

All Journals and Bultetins are in good condition and in need

of a good home.

These are our contact details:1 Towneley Road West, Longridge, Lancashire PR3 3AB

Phone: O1772-784444Email; pqnrnandirect@supanet. com

Lola LMartin Taylor, Longridgc, Lancashire, England

and Bultelins to disPose of,

- 16 (excluding No. 9), 1983 -

Sign of the Tines:\r ,ndencer our uorresPc

Srrpure PENs - AcRINI recently visited Florence where I saw a pen and stationeryshop with a couple of Stipula pens in the window! No, itwasn't, "Hurrah! IVe found one!" The price was €268. EvenI didn't have the nerve to go in and ask if a) they had anyleft handed italic versions and b) could I try them out. MyItalian was not really up to a discussion on the subjectwhen I had no intention of buying one at that price. Pity, Irather wish I had.

When I visited Art in Action in July, there was a pen standwith Piero of Reading, the Artisan pen makers, who makepens in all sorts of beautiful wooden barrels. I indulged ina Cocobolo wooden one with an Italic nib. It was supposedto be a fine nib but'was more of a medium. The nib is quitefirm but the ink flow is good and writes smoothly.

hand and she kept detailed notebooks of herprogress for the next four years: .I thought Ihad set my way of making ascenders with akick to the right, so - h" k, I, b - but on thispage I seem to be making the tops deadstraight.'

(The author is let down by her typesetter, whopresumably had no italic type with that characteristickick to the right. So, ironically, the 'tops'or ascenders onthe printed page become straight too.)

In fact her handwriting, already neat andlegible, became 'astonishingly'fine, and theSwan calligraphic pen became her favourite.Sir Ambrose (Heal), a collector of italicmanuscripts, gave advice.

Oddly Smith seems to have drafted her letters in Italicand then had them typed up by her husband, Alec.

Kathy Lacy, Farningham, Kent, England

SN d6 q ry4asdtn & ta,nilq nr.n,1 Nfi Dif: fla i,,a*h ;N r,r( E lttu.a 1t w ii,^i. k ilr ttuIh4 U.I,Uq1;.u tua tua -tmr.,l tu tu 7. lu cU fite?. ,4 dis^n a 4ry + tk tbd.t tita.htud ft ^ b.atel'e't r Na^6t.-t1 tulql.L.a d. Fryl.lq,a &!,rlrirtdM@tbrdhtul6i firL.r6l.,F,-aUi * cai: n'

This is a five times reduction ofthe letter to the readers'storiespage of a Scandinavianmagazine, as printed earlierthis year. The fact that it isstill readable says somethingabout the clarity of the Italicscript and also of the printing,of course.

Ken Brookfield, Vancouver, Canada

Notes from nickthenibs

THE LoNooN WnruNc EqurrrvrENr SsowThis is being held on Sunday 12 October at KensingtonTown Hall, Hornton Street, london W8 7NX from 10.30 - 5.Entry to the show is S5 for adults, free for children under12. You can find out more at:vrww. londonwritinge quipme ntshow. org.uk

SquenEsI need more squares for future issues! When submitting,please make sure that your artwork is in black ink on whitepaper otherwise it will not reproduce successfully. Thesquare should measure no larger than 3/z inches by 3%inches.

NExr IssuEIssue 35 will be published in December so let me have allmaterial by i5 November 2OO8, please. Remember that youcan send contributions via post or email. Material of afestive nature is especially required. Have you designed acalligraphic Christmas card in the past? Or written out aChristmas greeting? If so, why not send it in for inclusionin the December issue? As with the squares, it should beideally written in black on white paper.

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Dcsigncd by Betty Eskenazias a tributc to our latcPrcsident, Humphrcy Lyttclton

myself; but the passing yearsevidence that such a response isbe so, we owe to Italic a cultural

have brought me amplewell-nigh universal. If thisdebt beyond calculation.

Paul StandardFromJournal 56 Autumn 1968

SIH Line Up 2008

PRESToENT: Vacant positionvrcE-PREstDENrs: Dom Patrick Barry, OSB, The Rt. Hon. SirPatrick Nairne, GCB, MC, David Nicholls, CB, CMGCHerRmeN: Foster Neville*Depury CserRnlN: Vacant positionSEcRrreny & EnrroR: Nicholas Caulkin, 203 Dyas Avenue,Great Barr, Birmingham 842 lHN. Tel: 012I-244 8006(euening s and tueekends)Email: nickthenibs@Jrotmail. co.ukWebsite: www. nickthenibs.co.ukTREAsURER: Gordon Wratten, 3 Orchard Lane, EastMolesey, Surrey KTB OBN. Tel: 020-8224 0632.E-mail: wrattens@ntlworld.comExrcurrvE Co,nrrurrree: Clifford Bryant, Nicholas Caulkin,Joy Daniels, Kathy Lacy, Graham Last, Paul Lines, JohnNash, David Nicholls*, Mark Russell*, Ludwig Tan,Martin Taylor & Gordon Wratten* *(Trusrcc.l

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Local Groups News

SIH WEST SUSSEXChairman: David Tregear, 36 Henty Gardens, Chichester,West Srissex PO19 3DL. Tel: 01243-532231 email:tregeardavirt@hotmail. comSecretary: Sandra Stansfield, 53, Ranelagh Crescent,Ascot, Berks. SL5 8LQ. 01344 8883962Treasurer: Jane Gribbon, 34 Worcester Road, Chichester,West Sussex PO19 8AP. Tel: 01242-788861

SIH HAMPSHIREChairman: Rod Hoyle, 16 Mill Lane, Romsey SO51 8EU.Tel: OI794-515677Secretary: Reg Nutting, Aldwin Cottage, 7 Patrick's CopseRoad, Liss, Hants. GU33 7EN. Tel: 01730-300779 E-rnall:aldwinj r@ntlworld. co mTreasurer: Diana Holdsworth, 2 Western Road, West End,Southampton SO30 3EL. Tel: 02380-326852

The group met on 14 June and also attended an open dayat Badger Farm Community Centre on 22 June, givingcalligraphy demonstrations.

SIH SOMERSETOrganiser: Rod Dixon, Moorsedge, Chedzoy, Bridgwater,Somerset, TA7 8RB. Tel: 01278-451647.

No recent news received about the groups.

scribe - will by degrees come to prefer some masters toothers, and will thereby learn to discriminate between merevirtuosi (quickly recognising their present-day counterparts)and the solid, tactful and legible scribes whose letterscontinue to reproach all pretentious excess.

The quondam user of a pointed pen or ballpoint stylus whotakes up an edged pen becomes at once a special person -special not only to those destined to read his improvedscript, but special even to himself.

He seems to be witnessing a recurrent miracle as each italiccharacter in every line of his writing obeys a law datingback some two thousand years when the tool was firstdeveloped. By contrast, all hairline writing, so anaemic inits colour as to be a simulacrum, a mere pretence of flesh-and-blood script - all hairline writing suddenly becom:s areproach. Its period of widest acceptance came just beforethe emergence of the typewriter; but now that the typewriterand the business machine have taken over the drudgery ofindustrial correspondence and accounting, the hand canrecapture the graces of writing tool long sacrificed.

The experience of such a recapture by the use of the edgedpen is no routine matter. It is an event, though in differentdegree, for children and for adults. For children it is liketheir first response to the miracle of a snowfall. For adultsit assumes rather the nature of Balboa's first sight of thePacific. If I call each of these an understatement, it rsbecause every scribe discovers in his own way the promiseof the edged way, a promise that began as a truisrn, thenlapsed into something long forgotten, then denied and nowis newly revealed.

As practice continues, the writer's sense of re-discoverydeepens; the sight of grace returning to his letter formsbrings a continued wonder and delight. As the charactersimprove, the scribe feels a fresh obligation to make hisworkaday prose worthy of its medium, the exemplar script.I began by thinking this curious response peculiar to

t9

not metrical; the eye is pleased so long as the intervals arenot grossly irregular.

Indeed, if a scribe was cursed with the dubious boon ofultra-precision, his informal italic shapes would becomedisaffecting, as looking too measured, too mechanical, over-precise. It is worth remembering the late James Wardrop,sacute observation that Italic is the only script which thrivesupon informality. Every scribe will have noticed whatadded, unexpected grace a slightly wayward stroke maybring - though here, as elsewhere, the problem is how toremain only slightly wayward.

Italic's very modesty of form seems to contain within itself aself destructive danger, which has been noted by historiansof aesthetics. Its quiet patrician grace and its generalavoidance of prettification have occasionally brought uponitself the crudest efforts at decoration - mostly by eagerbeavers who have still to discern how much decoration isalready built into this script, or by the tasteless, who willnot scruple to impose alien traits from the gothic or thebaroque. And since the edged pen enables a scribe (evenwhen wearing a blindfold) to produce arabesques andflourishes at will, every page may become infested withthem, their 'creator' alone unaware of the blight they bringto the scribal landscape. Even professional folk, whoshould know better, sometimes show this pathetic relianceupon a questionable asset that is certain, in the end, todisplease creator and victim alike.

The simple way to avoid such temptations is to look atexamples of Italic at its best; and, like so many another artand craft, Italic was at its very best when it was born; bythe middle of the 1500's its decay was well begun - in Italicitself and in the rest of Europe as well. Perhaps the bestsingle source of spirited italic scripts is the Fairbank-Wolpequarto already mentioned. A more modest working volumeis Fairbank's earlier handy King Penguin title, A Book ofScnpts now being expanded to 80 plates from the present60. Studying these the beginner - or even the practised

The Writing's on the Wall - but Will webe Able to Read it? Holly Kirkwood

It's hardly the world's deadliest killer, but bad handwritinghas, nonetheless, been found to be the caus€ of as manv as7,000 deaths worldwide due, according to a recent study, tohurried doctors' illegible scribbles being misinterpreted withfatal results. Unfortunately, physicians of the future aren,tlikely to improve the statistics - another report found thattwo-thirds of teachers hadn't received any training at all onhow to teach handwriting skills.

As this is the time of year when formal invitations are beingissued and responded to, it seems worth reflecting that theproper art of handwriting is unquestionably dying.Traditionally, an enjoyable weekend house party or weddingwould be an occasion to merit a formal, handwritten thank_you letter, but, instead, the exhausted host more commonlyreceives a casual email or -heaven forbid - a text messageas thanks for their efforts. Manners in general may not bequite on their last legs, but many of us are guilty ofneglecting our own handwriting as we embrace the quick_fixsolutions of the laptop and the Blackberry. The less wemake the effort to pick up a pen, especially a traditionalink-filled fountain pen, the more difficult it becomes to doso.

THr acB oF TXTWhat's worse is that some people may even be saved theIuxury of forgetting how to write: primary school childrenalready familiar with texting are moving quickly ontocomputers, where they learn touch-typing and use of email.Although useful for their future careers, this may prove lessso when it comes to more personal expression in their lives.The invention of a new language composed almost entirelyof consonants, numbers and capital letters (RU gna B Lg?)may serve well for a casual rendezvous, but is not soeffective in more complex social situations.

r8

Handwriting isn't just about decorum; the skill can lead totalent in other departments. Children who are proficient atcursive writing have also been shown to be more adept atarticulating complex thoughts and ideas, which in turnleads to better exam results.

And as thousands of pupils currently await those veryresults, one has to ask whether this will be the last realchance in life for them to practise putting pen to paper.Increasingly, university courses are conducted usinglaptops and Dictaphones, making impromptu studentshorthand a thing of the past and copying lecture notes amatter of cutting and pasting emails. If touch-typingreplaces the written word as a legitimate mode ofcommunication, there will be a considerable loss to thecultural and biographical canon; surely there would havebeen little valuable analysis of the annotations and lettersof F. R. Leavis or Samuel Johnson had everything been lefton the hard drive.

HALTING THE MAIAISEThere is hope, however. People such as Nick Caulkin standin defiance of handwriting's malaise. As a member of theSociety for Italic Handwriting, which was formed in 1952,he and his colleagues aim to reinvigorate the art of italicwriting, which, as Mr Caulkin says, is 'a fast, attractivehand that has many possibilities.' Elizabeth I and WilliamMorris were devotees of this style, and Mr Caulkin is keento see it revived. as an art form in an effort to prevent the'skill from being lost altogether. The Society has about 300members and is growing fast.

Handwriting's other big plus is that it can reveal muchabout a personality. Missives that arrive scribed in capitalletters written in green ink are traditionally given a wideberth in most sensible households, and inevitably reveal afascinating,.if unusual, mind. Grapholog' - the study ofpersonality through handwriting - is a rapidly expandingacademic practice, and can be useful in all sorts ofsituations, such.as when interviewing potential staff.

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Roman letters - the classical lapidary capitals still visible inRome, notably those of the Trajan inscription dating from114 AD. Carved into their 9' x 4'oblong stone panel at thebase of an B0' column, these letters were first written withan edged tool (this time an edged brush about L/2" wide,dipped in whitewash) and then cut in V-incision, usually bythe man who had done the writing. The Trajan charactersshow the brush-edge position at some 15o to the horizontalfor all letters save the O and Q, where the angle drops to 8".

These lettershapes became the norms whence the ensuingvariants were to develop in the centuries to come. An O forexample, is made of a backward crescent joined withoutseam to an answering forward crescent: the axis-linethrough the two thins running slightly northwest-southeast- that is, at right angles to the brush-edge's sidling motionto northeast-southwest of the O's equator.

In ltalic, with the pen's edge riding a diagonal in the square,we get more than a mere variance in bulk of strokes. Witheach upward rebound from base-line, the hand is propelledforward by the angular spring as we write, and since theangle remains constant, the interval between downstrokeand downstroke remains constant too, as if to assure thescribe of the very regularity he seeks in letter-spaces withineach word. These are intervals the pens seems to measurefor us, once we learn the general shapes of the italic letters.

And what spacing should we aim for? Arrighi's Operinatells us that the average small letter at x-height will fill aparallelogram whose height is double its breadth, and thisgoes for all letters except i j m w. Our task, then, is tocontrive in every line a slight-sloping picket fence withoptically equal spaces between paling and paling. Eachsuch space is to be as wide as that enclosed between thelegs of the n, which means that each word's letters attainan optical equilibrium between their interior and exteriorspaces. The eye, the mind, the hand - all these conspire toproduce the regularity we seek. It is a regularity optical,

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1t's a way of knowing people better, from completestrangers to your own family, through looking at the waythey form their words, points out Sarah Mooney from TheLondon College of Graphologr. You also come to knowyourself lots better,' presumably for better or for worse.

There is surely merit in fighting to ensure that the art ofhandwriting stays alive, both for interpreting our past andfor securing our future. It shouldn't be just for a smallgroup of aficionados, but should be revived as commonpractice: let the laptop/Blackberry backlash begin.

Meanwhile, it seems that the majority of us out there coulddo worse than bearing in mind the impression a hurriedscrawl can have on others, and spending more than a fewseconds dotting those i's and crossing the t's.

This articlc first appcared in thc 23 july 2008 issue of Country Lfe rrragazine.Reproduccd by kind pcrmission.

maintain the pen's edge at some agreed angle to theestablished writing line. So maintained, the pen'remembers' to yield the requisite variations of thickness,the scribe's heart skipping a beat as he delightedly watchesthe 'remembering' powers of this co-operative tool - anexperience he shares with so many departed scribes ofRenaissance Italy, and with the many Britons who earlyacquired the italic hand.

In the noble quarto of Fairbank and Wolpe entitledRenaissarrce Handtaiting appears a virtual gallery ofscholars a-nd sovereigns whom posterity can call ltalic'sBritish pioneers, among whom are, with date affixed:Thomas Linacre 1517; seven year old. Henry Fitzroy, Dukeof Richmond 1526; John Cheke 1543; Katherine Parr 1544;Lady Jane Grey 1552; Bartholomew Dodington 1561; RogerAscham l5+2, and his Princess pupil of 1552 who was tobecome Queen Elizabeth. Among the Magflouter'spassengers arriving at Plymouth in 1620, only two or threewrote an italic hand, and those were the only college menon board.

The remernbering quality above mentioned was what madethe edged pen famous and universal in the western worldfrom the earliest antiquity, famous, in the late EdwardJohnston's phrase, as the supreme letter shaping tool.

The tool it is that shaped not only the Latin alphabet butthe Hebrew, Greek and Arabic as well, along with thevariant scripts these languages were to develop throughtheir histories. My Cooper Union students, for instance,spent virtually the whole spring term of their second yearplanning, writing and illustrating quarto (in vertical oroblong format) titled Ten Historic Scnpfs Written utith theEdged Pen, successive pages being devoted to each,arranged in chronological order. Each script of course hasits own optimum pen angle to the horizontal writing line.For Italic and Arabic it is some 45"; for Hebrew and forRustic caps, 75"; for the humanistic Roman forms, some25". But the greatest surprise comes with the earliest

Forty Years Ago

The Autumn 1958 issue of the Journal was dcvotcd.to thc SIH's Americanmembers. It was called the US issue, Number 56, Fall 1968. This is one of thcarticlcs that appearcd in it.

HoPEAND I'EARs FoRTHE ITALTc Henn

Most laymen who 'discover'the italic hand like to talk abutits special qualities - its slimness, its grace, its suddenopening of a vast, unsuspected horizon in aesthetics. Butwhat they are generally silent about is the modest tool thatmakes the achievement at all possible - the edged pen.

This simple, unregarded instrument is in fact among themost ingenious inventions known to man and yet its specialpowers remain largely unrecognised and its benefits arelargely ignored.

Edged pens were first cut from reeds or quills, but by theearly 18th century they were stamped out of metal, andthese latter are in general use today, except where a scribeneeds hairlines extremely fine - a task for which the quill'ssharply cut bevel is supremely suited. The pens we knowbest are those with tips pointed or blunted. The Palmer orZanerian business handwriting is done with a stiff, pointedsteel nib; it can also be written with a ballpoint, since boththese scripts are mono-weight, all strokes in whateverdirection having a common thickness. The pointed penworks in principle like an ice-pick dipped in ink; the edgedpen works more like a jeweller's screw-driver dipped in ink.The stroking of a pointed pen or ballpoint is, alas! only toounvarying and produces a mere monotone of tolour'on thepage.

In contrast, the edged pen records an undulating ribbon ofthicks and thins, regularly alternating from one to the otherwithout manual pressure; the scribe's only task is to

Digitiscd lirnts b_y Richard Bradley

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Forty Years Ago

The Autumn 1958 issue of the Journal was dcvotcd.to thc SIH's Americanmembers. It was called the US issue, Number 56, Fall 1968. This is one of thcarticlcs that appearcd in it.

HoPEAND I'EARs FoRTHE ITALTc Henn

Most laymen who 'discover'the italic hand like to talk abutits special qualities - its slimness, its grace, its suddenopening of a vast, unsuspected horizon in aesthetics. Butwhat they are generally silent about is the modest tool thatmakes the achievement at all possible - the edged pen.

This simple, unregarded instrument is in fact among themost ingenious inventions known to man and yet its specialpowers remain largely unrecognised and its benefits arelargely ignored.

Edged pens were first cut from reeds or quills, but by theearly 18th century they were stamped out of metal, andthese latter are in general use today, except where a scribeneeds hairlines extremely fine - a task for which the quill'ssharply cut bevel is supremely suited. The pens we knowbest are those with tips pointed or blunted. The Palmer orZanerian business handwriting is done with a stiff, pointedsteel nib; it can also be written with a ballpoint, since boththese scripts are mono-weight, all strokes in whateverdirection having a common thickness. The pointed penworks in principle like an ice-pick dipped in ink; the edgedpen works more like a jeweller's screw-driver dipped in ink.The stroking of a pointed pen or ballpoint is, alas! only toounvarying and produces a mere monotone of tolour'on thepage.

In contrast, the edged pen records an undulating ribbon ofthicks and thins, regularly alternating from one to the otherwithout manual pressure; the scribe's only task is to

Digitiscd lirnts b_y Richard Bradley

1t's a way of knowing people better, from completestrangers to your own family, through looking at the waythey form their words, points out Sarah Mooney from TheLondon College of Graphologr. You also come to knowyourself lots better,' presumably for better or for worse.

There is surely merit in fighting to ensure that the art ofhandwriting stays alive, both for interpreting our past andfor securing our future. It shouldn't be just for a smallgroup of aficionados, but should be revived as commonpractice: let the laptop/Blackberry backlash begin.

Meanwhile, it seems that the majority of us out there coulddo worse than bearing in mind the impression a hurriedscrawl can have on others, and spending more than a fewseconds dotting those i's and crossing the t's.

This articlc first appcared in thc 23 july 2008 issue of Country Lfe rrragazine.Reproduccd by kind pcrmission.

maintain the pen's edge at some agreed angle to theestablished writing line. So maintained, the pen'remembers' to yield the requisite variations of thickness,the scribe's heart skipping a beat as he delightedly watchesthe 'remembering' powers of this co-operative tool - anexperience he shares with so many departed scribes ofRenaissance Italy, and with the many Britons who earlyacquired the italic hand.

In the noble quarto of Fairbank and Wolpe entitledRenaissarrce Handtaiting appears a virtual gallery ofscholars a-nd sovereigns whom posterity can call ltalic'sBritish pioneers, among whom are, with date affixed:Thomas Linacre 1517; seven year old. Henry Fitzroy, Dukeof Richmond 1526; John Cheke 1543; Katherine Parr 1544;Lady Jane Grey 1552; Bartholomew Dodington 1561; RogerAscham l5+2, and his Princess pupil of 1552 who was tobecome Queen Elizabeth. Among the Magflouter'spassengers arriving at Plymouth in 1620, only two or threewrote an italic hand, and those were the only college menon board.

The remernbering quality above mentioned was what madethe edged pen famous and universal in the western worldfrom the earliest antiquity, famous, in the late EdwardJohnston's phrase, as the supreme letter shaping tool.

The tool it is that shaped not only the Latin alphabet butthe Hebrew, Greek and Arabic as well, along with thevariant scripts these languages were to develop throughtheir histories. My Cooper Union students, for instance,spent virtually the whole spring term of their second yearplanning, writing and illustrating quarto (in vertical oroblong format) titled Ten Historic Scnpfs Written utith theEdged Pen, successive pages being devoted to each,arranged in chronological order. Each script of course hasits own optimum pen angle to the horizontal writing line.For Italic and Arabic it is some 45"; for Hebrew and forRustic caps, 75"; for the humanistic Roman forms, some25". But the greatest surprise comes with the earliest

Roman letters - the classical lapidary capitals still visible inRome, notably those of the Trajan inscription dating from114 AD. Carved into their 9' x 4'oblong stone panel at thebase of an B0' column, these letters were first written withan edged tool (this time an edged brush about L/2" wide,dipped in whitewash) and then cut in V-incision, usually bythe man who had done the writing. The Trajan charactersshow the brush-edge position at some 15o to the horizontalfor all letters save the O and Q, where the angle drops to 8".

These lettershapes became the norms whence the ensuingvariants were to develop in the centuries to come. An O forexample, is made of a backward crescent joined withoutseam to an answering forward crescent: the axis-linethrough the two thins running slightly northwest-southeast- that is, at right angles to the brush-edge's sidling motionto northeast-southwest of the O's equator.

In ltalic, with the pen's edge riding a diagonal in the square,we get more than a mere variance in bulk of strokes. Witheach upward rebound from base-line, the hand is propelledforward by the angular spring as we write, and since theangle remains constant, the interval between downstrokeand downstroke remains constant too, as if to assure thescribe of the very regularity he seeks in letter-spaces withineach word. These are intervals the pens seems to measurefor us, once we learn the general shapes of the italic letters.

And what spacing should we aim for? Arrighi's Operinatells us that the average small letter at x-height will fill aparallelogram whose height is double its breadth, and thisgoes for all letters except i j m w. Our task, then, is tocontrive in every line a slight-sloping picket fence withoptically equal spaces between paling and paling. Eachsuch space is to be as wide as that enclosed between thelegs of the n, which means that each word's letters attainan optical equilibrium between their interior and exteriorspaces. The eye, the mind, the hand - all these conspire toproduce the regularity we seek. It is a regularity optical,

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Handwriting isn't just about decorum; the skill can lead totalent in other departments. Children who are proficient atcursive writing have also been shown to be more adept atarticulating complex thoughts and ideas, which in turnleads to better exam results.

And as thousands of pupils currently await those veryresults, one has to ask whether this will be the last realchance in life for them to practise putting pen to paper.Increasingly, university courses are conducted usinglaptops and Dictaphones, making impromptu studentshorthand a thing of the past and copying lecture notes amatter of cutting and pasting emails. If touch-typingreplaces the written word as a legitimate mode ofcommunication, there will be a considerable loss to thecultural and biographical canon; surely there would havebeen little valuable analysis of the annotations and lettersof F. R. Leavis or Samuel Johnson had everything been lefton the hard drive.

HALTING THE MAIAISEThere is hope, however. People such as Nick Caulkin standin defiance of handwriting's malaise. As a member of theSociety for Italic Handwriting, which was formed in 1952,he and his colleagues aim to reinvigorate the art of italicwriting, which, as Mr Caulkin says, is 'a fast, attractivehand that has many possibilities.' Elizabeth I and WilliamMorris were devotees of this style, and Mr Caulkin is keento see it revived. as an art form in an effort to prevent the'skill from being lost altogether. The Society has about 300members and is growing fast.

Handwriting's other big plus is that it can reveal muchabout a personality. Missives that arrive scribed in capitalletters written in green ink are traditionally given a wideberth in most sensible households, and inevitably reveal afascinating,.if unusual, mind. Grapholog' - the study ofpersonality through handwriting - is a rapidly expandingacademic practice, and can be useful in all sorts ofsituations, such.as when interviewing potential staff.

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not metrical; the eye is pleased so long as the intervals arenot grossly irregular.

Indeed, if a scribe was cursed with the dubious boon ofultra-precision, his informal italic shapes would becomedisaffecting, as looking too measured, too mechanical, over-precise. It is worth remembering the late James Wardrop,sacute observation that Italic is the only script which thrivesupon informality. Every scribe will have noticed whatadded, unexpected grace a slightly wayward stroke maybring - though here, as elsewhere, the problem is how toremain only slightly wayward.

Italic's very modesty of form seems to contain within itself aself destructive danger, which has been noted by historiansof aesthetics. Its quiet patrician grace and its generalavoidance of prettification have occasionally brought uponitself the crudest efforts at decoration - mostly by eagerbeavers who have still to discern how much decoration isalready built into this script, or by the tasteless, who willnot scruple to impose alien traits from the gothic or thebaroque. And since the edged pen enables a scribe (evenwhen wearing a blindfold) to produce arabesques andflourishes at will, every page may become infested withthem, their 'creator' alone unaware of the blight they bringto the scribal landscape. Even professional folk, whoshould know better, sometimes show this pathetic relianceupon a questionable asset that is certain, in the end, todisplease creator and victim alike.

The simple way to avoid such temptations is to look atexamples of Italic at its best; and, like so many another artand craft, Italic was at its very best when it was born; bythe middle of the 1500's its decay was well begun - in Italicitself and in the rest of Europe as well. Perhaps the bestsingle source of spirited italic scripts is the Fairbank-Wolpequarto already mentioned. A more modest working volumeis Fairbank's earlier handy King Penguin title, A Book ofScnpts now being expanded to 80 plates from the present60. Studying these the beginner - or even the practised

The Writing's on the Wall - but Will webe Able to Read it? Holly Kirkwood

It's hardly the world's deadliest killer, but bad handwritinghas, nonetheless, been found to be the caus€ of as manv as7,000 deaths worldwide due, according to a recent study, tohurried doctors' illegible scribbles being misinterpreted withfatal results. Unfortunately, physicians of the future aren,tlikely to improve the statistics - another report found thattwo-thirds of teachers hadn't received any training at all onhow to teach handwriting skills.

As this is the time of year when formal invitations are beingissued and responded to, it seems worth reflecting that theproper art of handwriting is unquestionably dying.Traditionally, an enjoyable weekend house party or weddingwould be an occasion to merit a formal, handwritten thank_you letter, but, instead, the exhausted host more commonlyreceives a casual email or -heaven forbid - a text messageas thanks for their efforts. Manners in general may not bequite on their last legs, but many of us are guilty ofneglecting our own handwriting as we embrace the quick_fixsolutions of the laptop and the Blackberry. The less wemake the effort to pick up a pen, especially a traditionalink-filled fountain pen, the more difficult it becomes to doso.

THr acB oF TXTWhat's worse is that some people may even be saved theIuxury of forgetting how to write: primary school childrenalready familiar with texting are moving quickly ontocomputers, where they learn touch-typing and use of email.Although useful for their future careers, this may prove lessso when it comes to more personal expression in their lives.The invention of a new language composed almost entirelyof consonants, numbers and capital letters (RU gna B Lg?)may serve well for a casual rendezvous, but is not soeffective in more complex social situations.

r8

Local Groups News

SIH WEST SUSSEXChairman: David Tregear, 36 Henty Gardens, Chichester,West Srissex PO19 3DL. Tel: 01243-532231 email:tregeardavirt@hotmail. comSecretary: Sandra Stansfield, 53, Ranelagh Crescent,Ascot, Berks. SL5 8LQ. 01344 8883962Treasurer: Jane Gribbon, 34 Worcester Road, Chichester,West Sussex PO19 8AP. Tel: 01242-788861

SIH HAMPSHIREChairman: Rod Hoyle, 16 Mill Lane, Romsey SO51 8EU.Tel: OI794-515677Secretary: Reg Nutting, Aldwin Cottage, 7 Patrick's CopseRoad, Liss, Hants. GU33 7EN. Tel: 01730-300779 E-rnall:aldwinj r@ntlworld. co mTreasurer: Diana Holdsworth, 2 Western Road, West End,Southampton SO30 3EL. Tel: 02380-326852

The group met on 14 June and also attended an open dayat Badger Farm Community Centre on 22 June, givingcalligraphy demonstrations.

SIH SOMERSETOrganiser: Rod Dixon, Moorsedge, Chedzoy, Bridgwater,Somerset, TA7 8RB. Tel: 01278-451647.

No recent news received about the groups.

scribe - will by degrees come to prefer some masters toothers, and will thereby learn to discriminate between merevirtuosi (quickly recognising their present-day counterparts)and the solid, tactful and legible scribes whose letterscontinue to reproach all pretentious excess.

The quondam user of a pointed pen or ballpoint stylus whotakes up an edged pen becomes at once a special person -special not only to those destined to read his improvedscript, but special even to himself.

He seems to be witnessing a recurrent miracle as each italiccharacter in every line of his writing obeys a law datingback some two thousand years when the tool was firstdeveloped. By contrast, all hairline writing, so anaemic inits colour as to be a simulacrum, a mere pretence of flesh-and-blood script - all hairline writing suddenly becom:s areproach. Its period of widest acceptance came just beforethe emergence of the typewriter; but now that the typewriterand the business machine have taken over the drudgery ofindustrial correspondence and accounting, the hand canrecapture the graces of writing tool long sacrificed.

The experience of such a recapture by the use of the edgedpen is no routine matter. It is an event, though in differentdegree, for children and for adults. For children it is liketheir first response to the miracle of a snowfall. For adultsit assumes rather the nature of Balboa's first sight of thePacific. If I call each of these an understatement, it rsbecause every scribe discovers in his own way the promiseof the edged way, a promise that began as a truisrn, thenlapsed into something long forgotten, then denied and nowis newly revealed.

As practice continues, the writer's sense of re-discoverydeepens; the sight of grace returning to his letter formsbrings a continued wonder and delight. As the charactersimprove, the scribe feels a fresh obligation to make hisworkaday prose worthy of its medium, the exemplar script.I began by thinking this curious response peculiar to

t9

myself; but the passing yearsevidence that such a response isbe so, we owe to Italic a cultural

have brought me amplewell-nigh universal. If thisdebt beyond calculation.

Paul StandardFromJournal 56 Autumn 1968

SIH Line Up 2008

PRESToENT: Vacant positionvrcE-PREstDENrs: Dom Patrick Barry, OSB, The Rt. Hon. SirPatrick Nairne, GCB, MC, David Nicholls, CB, CMGCHerRmeN: Foster Neville*Depury CserRnlN: Vacant positionSEcRrreny & EnrroR: Nicholas Caulkin, 203 Dyas Avenue,Great Barr, Birmingham 842 lHN. Tel: 012I-244 8006(euening s and tueekends)Email: nickthenibs@Jrotmail. co.ukWebsite: www. nickthenibs.co.ukTREAsURER: Gordon Wratten, 3 Orchard Lane, EastMolesey, Surrey KTB OBN. Tel: 020-8224 0632.E-mail: wrattens@ntlworld.comExrcurrvE Co,nrrurrree: Clifford Bryant, Nicholas Caulkin,Joy Daniels, Kathy Lacy, Graham Last, Paul Lines, JohnNash, David Nicholls*, Mark Russell*, Ludwig Tan,Martin Taylor & Gordon Wratten* *(Trusrcc.l

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myself; but the passing years have brought me ampleevidence that such a response is well-nigh universal. If thisbe so, we owe to Italic a cultural debt beyond calculation.

Paul StandardFrom Journa/56 Autumn 1968

SIH Line Up 2008

PRESIDENT: Vacant positionVICE-PRESIOENTS: Dom Patrick Barry, OSB, The Rt. Hon. SirPatrick Nairne, GCB, MC, David Nicholls, CB, CMGCHAIRMAN: Foster Neville*DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Vacant positionSECRITARY & EOITOR: Nicholas Caulkin, 203 Dyas Avenue,Great Barr, Birmingham B42 IHN. Tel: 0121-244 8006(evenings and weekends)Email: nickthenibs@hotmail.co.ukWebsi e: www.nickthenibs.co.ukTREASURr:H: Gordon Wratten

E-mail: wrattens@ntlworld.comEXECUTIVE COMMITIH: Clifford Bryant, Nicholas Caulkin,Joy Daniels, Kathy Lacy, Graham Last, Paul Lines, JohnNash, David Nicholls*, Mark Russell*, Ludwig Tan,Martin TayJor & Gordon Wratten* *(Trusln:)

Notes from nickthenibs

THE LoNooN WnruNc EqurrrvrENr SsowThis is being held on Sunday 12 October at KensingtonTown Hall, Hornton Street, london W8 7NX from 10.30 - 5.Entry to the show is S5 for adults, free for children under12. You can find out more at:vrww. londonwritinge quipme ntshow. org.uk

SquenEsI need more squares for future issues! When submitting,please make sure that your artwork is in black ink on whitepaper otherwise it will not reproduce successfully. Thesquare should measure no larger than 3/z inches by 3%inches.

NExr IssuEIssue 35 will be published in December so let me have allmaterial by i5 November 2OO8, please. Remember that youcan send contributions via post or email. Material of afestive nature is especially required. Have you designed acalligraphic Christmas card in the past? Or written out aChristmas greeting? If so, why not send it in for inclusionin the December issue? As with the squares, it should beideally written in black on white paper.

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Srrpure PENs - AcRINI recently visited Florence where I saw a pen and stationeryshop with a couple of Stipula pens in the window! No, itwasn't, "Hurrah! IVe found one!" The price was €268. EvenI didn't have the nerve to go in and ask if a) they had anyleft handed italic versions and b) could I try them out. MyItalian was not really up to a discussion on the subjectwhen I had no intention of buying one at that price. Pity, Irather wish I had.

When I visited Art in Action in July, there was a pen standwith Piero of Reading, the Artisan pen makers, who makepens in all sorts of beautiful wooden barrels. I indulged ina Cocobolo wooden one with an Italic nib. It was supposedto be a fine nib but'was more of a medium. The nib is quitefirm but the ink flow is good and writes smoothly.

hand and she kept detailed notebooks of herprogress for the next four years: .I thought Ihad set my way of making ascenders with akick to the right, so - h" k, I, b - but on thispage I seem to be making the tops deadstraight.'

(The author is let down by her typesetter, whopresumably had no italic type with that characteristickick to the right. So, ironically, the 'tops'or ascenders onthe printed page become straight too.)

In fact her handwriting, already neat andlegible, became 'astonishingly'fine, and theSwan calligraphic pen became her favourite.Sir Ambrose (Heal), a collector of italicmanuscripts, gave advice.

Oddly Smith seems to have drafted her letters in Italicand then had them typed up by her husband, Alec.

Kathy Lacy, Farningham, Kent, England

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This is a five times reduction ofthe letter to the readers'storiespage of a Scandinavianmagazine, as printed earlierthis year. The fact that it isstill readable says somethingabout the clarity of the Italicscript and also of the printing,of course.

Ken Brookfield, Vancouver, Canada

The Editor of the old Butletin published Viett'ts ofHandwiting These took the form of short extracts frombooks {both fiction and non-fiction), which mentionedhandwriting. A contemporary example from 1959 was

John Updike's novel The Poorhouse Fair. This featured acharacter with a "somewhat studied Italic hand"' (Studiedor not he managed to 'scribble'in it, which seems quite anachievement to me). The narrator of The Poorhouse Fairseems to hold the same opinion as found in the followinglines from Hamlet (ActV, ii):

I once did hold it, as our statists do,A baseness to write fair...

In 1959 of course, ltalic handwriting was news' TheSociety was reviving a tradition of fine writing in England'Many writers have favoured the 'sweet Roman hand' foruse themselves. To readers of the old Journals, the namesof antiquary John Leland (1506 - 1552) and the dramatistand scholai Nicolas Udall (1505 = 1556) might be familiar'John Cheke (1514 - 1557) and Roger Ascham (1515 -1568) are other notable sixteenth century exponents ofItalic. What these people had in common was that theylived in a letter-writing age, when the Italic hand was

used, for example, for diplomatic correspondence'Ascham was letter-writer to Cambridge University'

I wonder if members have discovered their own examplesof the Italic hand figuring in other works' Perhaps Views

of Handtaiting could appear in Witing Matlers'

Someone who corresponded with Alec Guinness wasDodie Smith, the author of I Capture the Castle and 701

Dalmations. In Valerie Grove's 1996 biography of thewriter, Dear Dodie, adopting the Italic hand is shown as a

pleasant pastime, like taking up the piano or painting, in1950s England.

Instead Dodie opted for italic calligraphy.Hours each day were spent on improving her

HeNn FoxrsHere are the hand fonts that I have produced to datewith David Kettlewell. I draw them, he digitises them fortype!

This shows that good handwriting can be made intocomputer fonts if you know how! Perhaps readers of WrittngMatiers will be better just enjoying writing with pen andpaper; it is far less stressful!

I appreciate all you do for the Society and your excellentwork for Writing Mqtters.

Richard Bradley, Gosport, Honts., England

Fon Snt-sWe have some old Journalsnamely:

The Bulletin of the SIH, Nos. 41989

The Journal of the SIH, Nos. 99 - 122 (excluding i10),Summer 1979 - 1998The Netusletter of the S/H, .l{o. -7, Spring 1991

All Journals and Bultetins are in good condition and in need

of a good home.

These are our contact details:1 Towneley Road West, Longridge, Lancashire PR3 3AB

Phone: O1772-784444Email; pqnrnandirect@supanet. com

Lola LMartin Taylor, Longridgc, Lancashire, England

and Bultelins to disPose of,

- 16 (excluding No. 9), 1983 -

Contributors

TheJollowing people have contributed to this edition: -

Wilfrid Blunt, Richard Bradley, Ken Brookfield, FredEager, Betty Eskenazi, Alfred Fairbank. Holly Kirkwood,Kathy Lacy, Foster Neville, nickthenibs, Reg Nutting, PaulStandard & Martin and Lola Taylor.

Square by Thomas Clowes

()'I'he SocictyJor Italic Handwritir,g 2008

CopS,rioht r: hcl,! h,y the Sll! rirh thc riylhts assigned to the original authors.

The riexs antl oytnions cxprcsscrl urc thosc 1l thc outhors and not necessorily oJ'the SIH

I'ront t,tvcnlcrt<1tvrl hS, nichtltcnibs

'fhe Sll! t: a rcet.stcrc,l tltortty nunhu lli7889R Revcnue numher X99153A

24

A Word from the New Chair:Foster Neville

Many of you will know Wilfrid Blunt's book Sueet RomanHand, its title taken from Tuelfih Night. I saw aproduction of Shakespeare's play this summer. On theline "I think we do know the sweet Roman hand", theactor - with a suitably theatrical flourish - produced apage, not of Italic but of...Copperplate!

Over the past few weeks, together with our SecretaryNick, I have been selecting material which might appearon the Society's new website. Old SIH Bulletins andJournals are a rich source of information not availableelsewhere. In particular there are a number of historicalarticles we hope to make accessible to members online.

The substitution of Copperplate for Italic in Ttelfih Nightis perhaps inevitable in an age when communication isalmost exclusively by mobile 'phone, text message oremail. I imagine most twenty-first century theatreaudiences would regard fine writing as something eitherunattainable or unsuitable for everyday use. Thedifference between the Roman hand (as Italic was knownin England in this period) and Copperplate now regardedas specialist knowledge.

In 1987 the piece set for the Society's HandwritingCompetition was a paragraph from Alec Guinness'Blessings in Disguise, where he describes hiscorrespondence with Sir Sydney Cockerell, and makesreferece to Cockerell's Italic hand and his encouragement(via a gift of Patrick Barry's Handutriting Sheets) thatGuinness sl^culd improve his hand. (Incidentally, if you'rewondering, the winning entry that year was penned byone Nicholas Caulkin).

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Issue 34 September 2008 ISSN 1468-9537

Edited by Nicholas Caulkin203 Dyas Avenue, Great Barr, Birmingham B42 lHN, England