Calligraphy

“ Ordinary hand-writing is a development of the kind of writing used by the old calligraphers. Generally speaking, the connection between the two is not recognised. Probably if this were so calligraphy of the present day would be much better than it generally is. The fact that it is generally referred to as “printing” shows how the connection has been lost. Drawing is thought to be more akin to it than hand-writing. It is no uncommon sight to see a student carefully drawing the shapes of the letters and then filling them in with a fine mapping pen. ”

“ As having a general fitness in the placing, connecting, and spacing of letters, words, and lines, in the disposal of the lettering in the given space, and in the proportioning of every part of the lettering and its margins. RIGHT EXPRESSION CHARACTER 7. Essential qualities of (Hand and Pen) work:
As being genuine calligraphy, the direct outcome of a rightly made and rightly handled pen. ”

“ The slant for the Gothic letter is the same as for all slant lettering, that is "3 in 8," and the unit of measure again is one-seventh (1/7) of the height. See the diagrams, pp. 30 and 31.
ITALIC LETTERING-LOWER CASE
The unit of measure for the Italic letter is one tenth (1/10) of the height, as is the case with the vertical lower case Roman. The straight strokes are one unit thick while the curved strokes such as in the c, o, etc., are 11⁄8 units thick. When this style is made very small it may be done as a one-stroke letter, greater pressure being exerted for the heavy stroke. ”

“ This use of signs for the initial syllable of the word is one of those tricks of abbreviation to which the human mind inclines. It is however scientifically known as an application of the acrologic principle; viz: the use of a sign primarily representing a word to denote its initial syllable, or the initial sound. Thus we have the use of the letters “C” for century; “A. D.” for Anno Domini, and other familiar examples. Also, the signs for the Phœnician words Alph, Beth, Gimel, etc., which came finally to appear as the initial letters of these words. ”

“ For not only have the effective letters of our alphabet a variety of meanings, but they are used in such a capricious manner, so utterly disregardful of all analogy—all expectation, that it is, as we have seen, totally impossible for even a practised English reader to guess, with any approach to certainty, what may be meant for the pronunciation of any word which he has not previously seen, or how to write any word which he has only heard, and never seen written. ”

“ As above said, legibility depends also much on the design of the letter: and again I take up the cudgels against compressed type, and that especially in roman letter: the full-sized lower-case letters “a,” “b,” “d,” and “c,” should be designed on something like a square to get good results: otherwise one may fairly say that there is no room for the design; furthermore, each letter should have its due characteristic drawing, the thickening out for a “b,” “e,” “g,” should not be of the same kind as that for a “d”; a “u” should not merely be an “n” turned upside down ”

“ FOOTNOTES TO APPENDIX B:
119 With which we may include Arabic numerals.
120 It should be clearly understood that legibility by no means excludes either beauty or ornament. The ugly form of “Block” letter so much in use is no more legible than the beautiful Roman lettering on the Trajan Column (see Plates I., II.) .
121 Roman small-letters and Italics, being originally pen letters, are still better understood if the carver knows how to use a pen, or, at least, has studied good examples of manuscripts in which those letters are used. ”

“ Orthography is less essential to language than orthoepy; since all languages are spoken, whilst but a few languages are written. Orthography presupposes orthoepy. Orthography addresses itself to the eye, orthoepy to the ear. Orthoepy deals with the articulate sounds that constitute syllables and words; orthography treats of the signs by which such articulate sounds are expressed in writing. A letter is the sign of an articulate (and, in the case of h, of an inarticulate) sound.
§ 143. A full and perfect system of orthography consists in two things:—1. ”

“ That is to suit the Alphabet to the Utterances of the Language.’ He announces that ‘care is taken to give every character one power of its own, in which no other character is allowed to interfere.’ He pointed out the defects and inconsistencies of our ordinary orthography, and sought by means of a simpler alphabet and a new vowel scale to place the spelling of the language on a strictly phonetic basis. ”

“ It is the function of the Calligrapher to revive and restore the craft of the Printer to its original purity of intention and accomplishment. The Printer must at the same time be a Calligrapher, or in touch with him, and there must be in association with the Printing Press a Scriptorium where beautiful writing may be practised and the art of letter-designing kept alive. ”

“ Where handwriting is questioned on notes, checks, drafts, receipts, wills, deeds, mortgages, bonds, anonymous letters, money orders, registered letter receipts, letters, pension papers, and in smuggling, and in short, on any kind of document where it becomes necessary to establish the identity of the writer, the expert is called in. Life, liberty, honor, and property are frequently balanced on a pen point—a few marks of the pen being the determining feature of many a case. ”

“ To write the same word with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only three strokes.
To write the word “highland,” the pen has to make twenty-two strokes.
To write “hyland,” the pen has to make eighteen strokes.
To write that word with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only FIVE strokes. (Figure 3)
To write the words “phonographic alphabet,” the pen has to make fifty-three strokes.
To write “fonografic alfabet,” the pen has to make fifty strokes. To the penman, the saving in labor is insignificant. ”

“ Lhuyd, (1707) . used χ for ch, λ for ll, and ꝺ for dd. The last has survived in the form ẟ in ordinary handwriting, but manuscript ẟ is printed dd.
§ 8. The orthography of Mn. W. is almost purely phonetic: each letter of the alphabet has one standard sound, except y which has two. It will therefore be convenient to give the values of the letters in the modern alphabet, and then, rising the modern characters to represent the sounds of the language, to show in detail how each sound was written in earlier periods, noting any changes which have taken place in the sounds themselves. ”

“ Setting-out.—An inscription of any size, or one requiring complex or very nice arrangement, is set-out in faint, sketchy outline of lead pencil or chalk. Simple writing is not set-out, but such slight calculation or planning as is necessary is carried out mentally, or on a scrap of paper. By practice the scribe, like the compositor, can fit his lettering to the given space with ease and accuracy. ”

“ Finding, on recovery, that his phonetic scheme was too daring to be successful, he made several modifications of it, and in 1870 he laid before the Society of Arts a paper 'On a Practical Method of Meeting the Spelling Difficulty in School and in Life,' in which he proposed the use of phonetic orthography concurrently with ordinary spelling. ”

“ Indeed, a transcriber’s work properly consists chiefly in correctly putting into modern handwriting the deeds which are only illegible to those unfamiliar with the handwriting; in consequence an actual acquaintance with the Latin grammar is less important than a correct eye, quick to note every minute difference in letters. Every stroke of the pen means something; bars or curves are the representatives of absent words or syllables, and are never dashed down hap-hazard or by accident. ”

“ Example 170.—Lettering, as has been pointed out, has an important place in booklet designing along with decoration, illustration and typography, and from well-lettered designs the printer can obtain valuable suggestions. This example was printed on hand-made paper, and the deckle edges and rough surface of the paper blended with the freehand drawing of letters and border. There was a further blend of the hand-lettering and the Caslon type-face used on the inside pages. The lettering was based upon the same model as the Caslon, which is standard for old-style effects. ”

“ The oral word therefore bears no more necessary relation to the phonetic organs than to the auditory; it is no more closely related to the physical than to the physiological process; and the image or the soul of a word is as indispensable, surely, to the psychic phenomenon as to any other link in the chain.
The spoken word has no more primary connection with the alphabet than with the ideograph. The alphabet relatively is a late invention of signs with which to suggest word-sounds in writing. The alphabet performs its function principally through the sight. ”

“ And in this connection, beware of practising with a fine nib, which tends to inaccuracy and the substitution of prettiness for character. Stick to definite pen strokes, and preserve the definite shapes and the uniformity of the serifs (p. 324) : if these be made clumsily, they become clumsy lumps. It may be impossible always to ascertain the exact forms—especially of terminals and finishing strokes—for the practised scribe has attained a great uniformity and some sleight of hand which cannot be deliberately copied. ”

“ Sometimes you will find a very elaborate letter, the outline of which has been worked in satin-stitch or French stemming. Little eyelets or satin-stitch dots are worked between the lines.
Fig. 138. Van Dyke stitch
When two or more letters intertwine they are called a monogram. It is not every set of letters that will make good monograms. Letters that have a good swing should be selected so that though they intertwine each letter should stand forth clearly. It is permissible to use the surname initial a trifle larger than the Christian initial. ”

“ Please to understand, then, ignorant Reader, that this curious alphabet reduces all the complex machinery of Cadmus and the rest of the writing-masters to characters as simple as can be made by a dot, a space, and a line, variously combined. Thus, the marks .— designate the letter A. The marks —... designate the letter B. All the other letters are designated in as simple a manner.
Now I am stripping myself of one of the private comforts of my life, (but what will one not do for mankind?) when I explain that this simple alphabet need not be confined to electrical signals. ”

“ But in this essay I am contemplating man as he was before hundreds of generations of speaking ancestors had evolved such cerebral powers.
I begin with some observations on the phonetic elements. These are no other than what we call the alphabet, the simple sounds which combined together make up the words of a language. In all European tongues, the mere letters of the alphabet, by themselves, have no meaning and convey no idea; furthermore, their value in a word is fixed; and, thirdly, arranged in a word, they are sufficient to convey its sound and sense to one acquainted with their values. ”

“ It is clear, for example, that, in the interest of explicitness, we should have a separate symbol for the vowel sound in each of the following syllables: bar, bay, bann, ball, to cite a single illustration.
There is, to be sure, a seemingly valid reason for not extending our alphabet, in the fact that in multiplying syllables it would be difficult to select characters at once easy to make and unambiguous. Moreover, the conservatives might point out, with telling effect, that the present alphabet has proved admirably effective for about three thousand years. ”

“ What word is there of five letters, that, by taking two away, leaves but one? Stone.
What word of one syllable, if you take two letters from it, remains a word of two syllables? Plague; ague.
Why is the letter E a gloomy and discontented vowel? Because, though never out of health and pocket, it never appears in spirits.
Why are the fourteenth and fifteenth letters of the alphabet of more importance than the others? Because we cannot get ON well without them. ”

“ Unquestionably, if there were more of the "science" of penmanship taught and practiced, and more time and attention devoted to its study and its cultivation, we would have more of the art of handwriting to delight our esthetic sensibilities.
The science of palæography, being related fundamentally to language, links us with prehistoric times. Writing is crystallized speech in visible record, as the phonographic "record" is speech in audible perpetuity. ”

“ But as typography gradually made models for itself, the best artists, particularly those who aimed at producing regular Roman and Italic letters, discovered the utility and expediency of arriving at uniformity in design and contour, by the use of these counter-punches, which stamped on to the steel the impress of the hollow portions of the letters they were about to cut, leaving it to the hand of the engraver to cut round these hollows the form of the required character. ”

“ Orthography is vitiated among such as learn first to speak, and then to write, by imperfect notions of the relation between letters and vocal utterance; but to those students every character is of equal importance; for letters are to them not symbols of names, but of things; when they write they do not represent a sound, but delineate a form. ”

“ Palæography, or the decipherment of documents, and Epigraphy, or the decipherment of inscriptions, have been indispensable keys to the history of the alphabet. But the materials with which each has to deal would demand a volume, and, moreover, reference to them here has warrant only in their immediate bearings on the development and diffusion of alphabets. But, as with the Papyrus Prisse and the [Pg 200] Book of the Dead, there is a deep interest attaching to some of the venerable records. They are, in the modern phrase, and in the best sense of it, "human documents." ”