Medieval Calligraphy
Lady Penelope de Bourbon
Penelope.debourbon@gmail.com – feel free to ask me any questions
Overview:
Calligraphy bears little resemblance to our modern ways of writing, which can make it very frustrating to
learn. Exemplars of the alphabet of each hand can be hard to find, and if you do find them, how do you
know they’re historically accurate? Going back to our scribal roots and learning directly from the
manuscript ensures that we’re able to write any hand in a way that suits our own writing quirks while
remaining historically accurate and documentable. It even allows us to create complete alphabets in
exemplars when the example manuscript doesn’t have all 26 Roman letters.
We’ll cover the technique for how to make these exemplars and go over some basic guidelines on what
materials work best for major hands, as well as the angles and letter height parameters.
If you’re just beginning, be patient and know that this takes regular time and practice to be really good
at. Each scribe writes differently, and you’ll find over time that your calligraphy may vary significantly
from an exemplar while remaining unmistakably true to the characteristics of the hand you’re writing in.
That’s ok. The more comfortable you are, the more consistent your quality of work will be, and the more
work you do, the better you’ll get. One of the best things about this method is that it lets us make a
hand our own and find variations on difficult letters that we can be comfortable and consistent with.
Materials Needed:
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Broad edged calligraphy pen and nibs (dip pens are best, parallel pens second best)
Ink
Tracing paper
Access to a printer and/or copy machine
Recommended Resources and Books:
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Supplies: John Neal Bookseller and Paper and Ink Arts carry large arrays of nibs, pen staffs, inks,
books, and all manner of lettering and book binding supplies. Don’t hesitate to call customer
service and order direct or ask questions – they’re great!
Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique by Marc Drogin. ISBN: 0486261425
Historical Scripts: From Classical Times to the Renaissance by Stan Knight. ISBN: 1884718566
Digital Scriptorium: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/digitalscriptorium/ This is an incredible
resource of ultra high-resolution digital images and info for thousands of existing manuscripts in
the collections of the world’s great libraries. You can search on style, type of document, hand,
specific illuminated initials, geography, etc. Great for inspiration or for finding the perfect white
vinework letter A for the project you’re working on.
Material Notes:
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Cartridge pens are convenient but pretty terrible. The ink is watery, the nibs almost inflexible,
and these two things make it almost impossible to make the strokes correctly. Michael’s and
Hobby Lobby both carry Speedball nibs and staffs which will let you get properly set up for
under $10. There are much better nibs than Speedball, but you’ll have to order them. Speedballs
rust easily, so dry them well. If you really love cartridges, the Pilot Parallel pens are the best
option, especially since you can refill their empty cartridges with your own ink.
You need a straight pen staff to hold your nibs. Speedball staffs don’t hold other brands of nibs
well, but other staffs are universal and will hold Speedball nibs just fine. Some are cheap, some
are fancy, and my favorite one has a squashy cork grip. $2-10. DO NOT BUY OBLIQUE HOLDERS.
Those are for the pointed pen and copperplate styles post-period.
All period calligraphy is done with broad nibs, not pointed. Nibs come with a light coating of
machine oil from manufacturing. Pass them through fire for a second or two, then wipe clean to
remove it. Left-hand versions are available and are cut at a different angle than right hand nibs.
The nibs run from under $1 to over $3 apiece. Big ones are easy for learning, but you’ll mostly
use sizes from 1-2mm for scrolls and art. Speedball nibs aren’t great at small sizes, so you may
need a different brand for tiny work. Oh, and sometimes, you’ll get a bad nib or one with a tiny
burr. Swipe lightly, in one direction on the finest sandpaper you can find and see if that helps.
o Ok, ok… period calligraphy is done with quills. They’re very funky, and if you want to
play with them, take Mistress Hillary’s quill class whenever you see it offered.
o Mitchell – these are very flexible, which makes them great for italic hands and lateperiod work. Reservoirs are sold separately and snap on. You need the reservoir. Sizing
is 0-6, which corresponds to a chart in millimeters.
o Tape – my favorite for everything but Gothic hands. They’re moderately flexible and
come with a reservoir attached. Sizing in millimeters – what it says on the nib is how
wide it is.
o Brause – these are the least flexible of the lot. Like Tape, they have reservoir attached
and straightforward sizing. They’re fantastic for the more angular Gothic styles.
Good ink is important! You want something opaque, and with enough body to not feather and
bleed everywhere (paper is the other culprit on that one). Sumi ink is fantastic, and a small
bottle should last you a year or more – even with lots of practicing. Higgins Eternal (don’t buy
the waterproof) is a good ink that’s widely available. The acrylic inks come in vivid colors (yay!)
but will gunk up your nibs if you don’t rinse frequently during use and clean well with pen
cleaner and a teeny brush when you’re done (boo!). Gouache is a better choice.
Paper for practicing should be smooth, resist bleeding, and ideally let you see through to a line
guide beneath. Hammermill makes a laser paper with a green apple on the front that’s perfect
and about $16/ream. That’s a lot of practice. For scrolls or art projects, a good archival grade
paper is a must. Bristol board is pretty cost effective, has a nice finish, and is heavy without
being too thick to see through if you’re using a light table. Watercolor paper can be very nice,
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providing you get something without too much tooth. It tends to be more expensive, but is great
to pick up on sale, particularly if you like to illuminate on it. Don’t buy the mottled looking fake
parchment paper. The quality isn’t very good, it will buckle if you get it too wet with ink and
paint, and an evenly colored creamy surface is a better choice. Vellum and Pergamenta are their
own beasts that are more expensive than paper options and come with some serious quirks.
The oils from your hands make ink resist the paper. Wash hands well before work and consider
keeping a paper towel or small piece of paper under the part of your hand that touches the
page. I know a master calligrapher who puts sticky notes along her hand!
Straight lines are your friend. An Ames Lettering Guide is cheap and not too hard to find. You
can also line gently with a pencil or an awl and a T-square (erase lines with a white vinyl eraser).
I’ve worked out how tall my letters will be with a particular nib size and have made lettering
guides of plain lines in Photoshop, which I can use with a light table or tracing box. Line out the
whole document, paying close attention to line spacing and how much room you need to leave
for ascenders or descenders based on the x-height for the hand.
Mistakes happen. That’s why you do the calligraphy before you do the illumination! Sometimes
you can fix them if you have sturdy paper and a steady hand. You’ll need an exacto knife,
preferably with the curved blade (like a scalpel). Write the correct letter over the messed up
letter right away, and let the whole mess dry well. Sumi ink has a slight sheen, so sometimes you
can see the lines of the correct letter pretty clearly in good light. Carefully, gently, patiently
scrape away the ink that isn’t part of the correct letter. Try to go in one direction, with the grain
of the paper if possible. This will minimize how roughed up the paper gets. Pounce with ground
gum sandarac in a fine silk cloth to tame the paper and help stop bleeding and touch up with ink
if needed.
Note on Terminology: The calligraphic styles are called HANDS, not FONTS. When you have done
something in calligraphy, it has been calligraphed, it has not been calligraphied. The big letters are called
versals or majuscules, the smaller ones miniscules. Some hands or variations of them are majuscule or
miniscule hands, like Carolingian.
Spacing, Angles, and Line Height
Letter height is usually given as an “x-height”, which is the number of pen widths high the lower-case
letter x should be, i.e. 4-6 pen widths high means that the x is 4 and a capital letter or a lower-case
letter with ascender or descender is 6. This image is from Teach Yourself Calligraphy by Patricia Lovett.
If we were using a 1mm nib, based on the image below, we would allot 11mm for each line of
calligraphy (including ascenders and descenders), then space each line with 3-4mm of white space.
Measure off of a manuscript if it’s especially snug or widely spaced so that your final product looks right.
If you have a nib width or two that you prefer for the hands you do most often, you can make up
lettering guides with nice black lines and have them copied onto transparency sheets to place behind
your work for ease. This is very easy to do if you have Photoshop or GIMP.
Each calligraphic hand requires a specific pen angle to form the strokes correctly. Most have a general
angle, and may change that ten or fifteen degrees for serifs or decorative tails or the horizontal lines on
an A or E. Sometimes, you can figure it out by measuring the angle on a straight stroke’s beginning or
ending point. In the photo above, the bottom of the P would be the best bet because it doesn’t have the
decorative serifs the other letters do. Pen angle is measured with a protractor. When practicing, it’s nice
to draw a little square up in a corner with a line at the right angle so that you can check yourself as
you’re getting comfortable with the angle for a particular hand.
Timeline of Major Calligraphic Hands
Uncial
The uncial family of hands includes uncial and half-uncial, as well as some transitional hands
based on insular majuscules. Uncial grew out of Roman cursive and was at its height in the 3rd8th centuries CE, and continued to be a commonly used book hand through the 10th century. Our
most famous surviving examples, like The Book of Kells and The Lindisfarne Gospel, are from
Ireland and the British Isles. There are regional variations in how sharp or round the letter
shapes are. Manuscripts are mostly in Greek or Latin, so it’s necessary for us to create an
exemplar and fill in the missing letters for our modern alphabet based on the shapes and
rhythm of the Greek and Latin characters.
Characteristics:
 Letters are all capital (majuscule hand) and tend to be round and wide, roughly the
same size as the letter O.
 Written with the pen at an angle of 0-15°. Letters are 4-5 pen widths high.
 Serif and sans-serif forms exist, with the more complicated ones in the 7th and 8th
centuries.
Sample from the Lindisfarne Gospel.
Carolingian
Under Charlemagne’s rule, the cramped semi-cursive uncial derivatives gave way to the speedy,
uniform, and LEGIBLE hand known as Carolingian that dominated scribal works from the 8th-11th
centuries. Caroline miniscule and Carolingian miniscule are other names for the hand, which was
resurrected in modernity as Foundational hand (you’re more likely to find good Foundational
exemplars than Carolingian ones). Its curves and clarity inspired the rotunda and humanist
hands from late period.
Characteristics:
 There are upper and lower-case letters (majuscule and miniscule) with the miniscules
being predominant. Sometimes the only majuscule letters are at the beginning of a line
of text.
 Letterforms are rounded and closely spaced. The ascenders, descenders, and serifs are
“clubbed” – becoming thicker at the point of termination. There are some ligatures
(joined letters, like æ, ct, rt, and st).
 The letter S looks rather like an F. Lines ending in the letter E often have its center bar
drawn out into a long, sometimes forked tail. Do this with the edge of the nib lightly
drawing the ink into sharp points.
Blackletter and Gothic
The family of Gothic scripts is a large and diverse one where you have to pay special attention to
how old the example you’re using is. It’s still favored today in German and Pennsylvania Dutch
applications and was in very heavy use through the 1800’s. It grew directly out of Carolingian, as
a solution to the need for a more compact and still legible writing style to fill books quickly as
universities and learning began to thrive in the 12th century. There are lots of variations with
different names. Textualis is also called Textura and Textura Quadrata and Gothic bookhand; it’s
what comes to mind when most people picture Gothic lettering. Fraktur is the other primary
variant of Gothic. Other names and variations of Gothic calligraphy included in the family are
Old English, Schwabacher, Cursiva, Batarda or Bastarda, and Rotunda or Humanist hand or
Humanista. There are differences (sometimes significant) in how each country did their Gothic
lettering over the years, so it’s always a good idea to use the Digital Scriptorium to check out
some real examples from the time and place before starting.
Characteristics:
 Gothic hands are tall and vertical and most are very angular. The angles can be quite
sharp, and a number of curved letters have lines that don’t quite connect in some
variations of the hand. Experiment to find different variations on letters like “a” and “s”
and “d” to find one that’s comfortable for you.
 For angular varieties of Gothic hands, a stiff nib is best. Brause nibs or Pilot’s Parallel
pens make it easy to keep lines straight and crisp with extreme thicks and thins.
 The letters are written at a 45° angle with an x-height of 4 and 6 for capital letters.
Ascenders and descenders are 2 pen widths. Some especially vertical and narrow forms
of Gothic lettering have an x-height of 6 with an extra 2 nib widths for capitals,
ascenders, and descenders.
 The spacing is meticulously even, which can make it almost impossible to distinguish the
letters in words like “minimum”. This very issue is why we now dot our “i” and “j” in
miniscule, as well as why punctuation began to become popular. Spacing is usually with
the negative space being the same width as the nib, and each letter’s serifs almost but
not quite touching. This is not the case for Bastarda and Rotunda variations.
 Gothic hands offer a fantastic variety of options for illumination styles and fancy versals.
From the simple red letters to elaborately flourished Roman capitals to white vine work
and illuminated letters that are found with a large range of Gothic styles to the very
elaborate cadels found in late period work, particularly with Bastarda variations.
All examples from the 15th c., clockwise:
Gothic Textura, Gothic Rotunda with
truncated/flat terminations, an extremely
round Humanista, and Littera Bastarda.
Abecedarian Sentences
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Six of the women quietly gave back prizes to the judge.
Jay began removing six dozen black quilts with petty flaws.
The judge quickly gave back six prizes to the women.
Picking just six quinces, the new farm hand proved strong but lazy.
Judge Power quickly gave six embezzlers stiff sentences.
Jack quietly gave dog owners most of his prize boxers.
The six men have power to seize the ship quickly.
Maize quickly paid Jones for the five new taxis she bought.
Weekly magazines request help for and by junior executives.
Why did Max become eloquent over a zany gift like jodhpurs?
I quickly explained that many big jobs involve few hazards.
Jack's man found exactly a quarter in the woven zipper bag.
James Boxwell, the banquet speaker, analyzed a few carvings.
Quickly pack the box with five dozen modern jugs.
Jack quietly moved up front and seized the big ball of wax.
The five boxing wizards jumped quickly
Sphinx of black quartz judge my vowel
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs
A large fawn jumped quickly over white zinc boxes.
A mad boxer shot a quick, gloved jab to the jaw of his dizzy opponent.
A pox on you, Jergens, old beanbag, you've squashed my favorite zwieback.
About sixty codfish eggs will make a quarter pound of very fizzy jelly.
Alfredo just must bring very exciting news to the plaza quickly.
All questions asked by five watch experts amazed the judge.
An inspired calligrapher can create pages of beauty using stick ink, quill, brush, pick-axe, buzz saw, or
even strawberry jam.
How It All Comes Together
Calligraphy shouldn’t be a scary thing, but it is for so many people who are interested. I get it. There are
all of these pens and nibs and nib holders and inks and angles and lots of new vocabulary words. It’s the
alphabet, which you already know, only now your brain can’t seem to make your hand form the letters
well. It’s hard to find classes, and the examples you see of completed work can be seriously daunting.
Videos of calligraphers on YouTube make it look SO simple. Then you try it, and it’s not.
Good art isn’t magic – it’s mostly showing up every day, doing the achingly boring work of learning and
refining your skills. I say that, because being great at calligraphy IS hard and takes years. Being a heck of
a lot better than you are now – even if you’re a decent calligrapher right this very minute – doesn’t take
years. We make it too hard on ourselves. Maybe it’s idolizing the Medieval scribes, but calligraphers
seem to reinvent the wheel more than other artists.
If you really L-O-V-E letters and manuscripts and have the goal to improve your calligraphy skills, step
away from that cartridge pen and the awful exemplar that came with it. We need to learn from the
source, and the good news is that it’s much simpler than you think. Go get a great example done in a
hand you like. Stan Knight’s book is an excellent start, since he’s already done most of this for you. Make
an enlarged copy of it. Find a nib size that matches the width on a straight portion of a letter, like an L or
B. Put tracing paper down, then calligraph over the letters. You’ll learn the angles, the small shifts, and
the little muscle movements no teacher can write out in a booklet. If what you’re working from is in
Greek or Latin or some other language that doesn’t use certain English characters, make up one that
works for you, based on the other letters. Make a bunch and pick your favorite. If you’re struggling with
writing or hand positioning, think of it as drawing the letters with the nib, and see if that can help you
break out of the mental patterns of writing that we’ve been taught mundanely.
Repeating this exercise not only significantly speeds up the process of beginners getting the feel and
look of a calligraphic hand down, but it helps every calligrapher of every experience level. Beginning
calligraphers are getting down the letter forms, angles, and small adjustments that make their writing
look cohesive. Advanced lettering artists are working on spacing, balancing dark and light spaces, and
finding more elegant solutions to fitting letters together. I’ve been in workshops where we did this at
the start of the day, and people who have been doing calligraphy every day for thirty or forty years were
still learning small refinements to balance and rhythm. It’s a beautiful exercise.
It empowers us to learn historical hands without having to wait for a teacher to appear or a workshop
to be announced. The examples you get from master teachers in those workshops? They’re based on
the historical manuscripts you’re tracing over. Some letters from one, others from another, until
something cohesive can be worked out that feels good to the calligrapher. Make one of lower case and
one of upper case letters for the hand you’re learning. I keep folders of research, examples, my
exemplars that I’ve made or ones I’ve found, and any illumination tracings or designs or layouts I’ve
worked out that compliment that hand. Makes it easy to keep the aesthetic together, and it makes it
quick when you’re trying to get a scroll or an A&S project done.
There will always be some letters in any given hand that you struggle with and some that you do
beautifully. That’s normal, and not insurmountable. The scribes of yore had slightly different takes on
the same letterforms because it felt right or looked better. You’re allowed to deviate from your example
sheet, too. If it feels wrong, try a slightly different angle or incline. Try a different brand of pen nibs or a
paper that’s smoother or that has a little more tooth. Try a different stroke pattern – S can have two or
three or five strokes, easily. Find what works for you. The goal is to create a consistent look, so feel free
to experiment to find your own way of doing things. Still having problems? Quality of materials makes a
difference in your ability to actually form the letters – you may not be a bad calligrapher, just a
calligrapher who needs a new pen or better paper or a fresh nib.
Calligraphy isn’t a rigid art prison where things absolutely MUST look just like the manuscript featured in
a book of the most glorious art of the Middle Ages. The manuscript is in the book because it’s an ideal
form of that art. Most of the existing manuscripts aren’t featured in books of beautiful art. They’re
functional documents of the age, and they offer a much broader perspective that tends to be a lot less
fussy than the rarest examples of beauty. Go to a rare book collection. Go to the Digital Scriptorium that
Berkley University runs. While things like the Book of Kells and the Très Riches Heurs and the Rohan
Master are sublime and inspirational, they’re not the only standard we should look at as calligraphers.
They’re pinnacle works across a thousand year span. Broadening your exposure to the art is nice
because you’ll probably find yourself somewhere in the middle regarding skill and beauty in lettering,
and it’s a good feeling to look back in time and see works similar to what you can do.