western calligraphy

Western calligraphy is the art of writing and penmanship
as practiced in the Western world, especially using the Latin alphabet (but also including calligraphic use of the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, as opposed to "Eastern" traditions such as Turko- Perso-Arabic, Chinese or Indian calligraphy).

A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner." The story of writing is one of aesthetic development framed within the technical skills, transmission speed(s) and material limitations of a person, time and place.

A style of writing is described as a ''script'', ''hand'' or ''alphabet''.

Calligraphy ranges from functional hand-lettered inscriptions and designs to fine art pieces where the abstract expression of the handwritten mark may or may not supersede the legibility of the letters.Mediavilla 1996
Classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may create all of these; characters are historically disciplined yet fluid and spontaneous, improvised at the moment of writing.

Calligraphic writing continued to play a role long after the introduction of the printing press in the West, official documents being drawn up in ''engrossed'' or handwritten form well into the 18th century.
A revival of calligraphy in the later 19th century was associated with the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements, and it continues to be practiced, typically commissioned for private purposes such as wedding invitations, logo design, memorial documents, etc.

History

Late Antiquity

The rolls of papyrus used in classical antiquity (the ''biblia'' or '' librī'') in Late Antiquity were gradually replaced by the ''codex''.
Reed pens were replaced by quill pens.
Isidore of Seville explained the then-current relation between codex, ''liber'' ("book") and ''volumen'' ("scroll") in his ''Etymologiae'' ( VI.13):
:''Codex multorum librorum est; liber unius voluminis. Et dictus codex per translationem a codicibus arborum seu vitium, quasi caudex, quod ex se multitudinem librorum quasi ramorum contineat. ''
:"A ''codex'' is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called ''codex'' by way of metaphor from the trunks of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock (''caudex''), because it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches."

A tradition of biblical manuscripts in ''codex'' form goes back to the 2nd century (Codex Vaticanus), and from about the 5th century,
two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial (from the Latin "uncia," or "inch") developed from various Roman bookhands.

Early Middle Ages

With the onset of the Middle Ages from about the 7th century, literacy in Latin Europe was increasingly limited to the monasteries.

The tradition of illumination has its origins in Late Antiquity, and reaches early medieval Europe in about the 8th century, notable early examples including the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells.

Charlemagne's devotion to improved scholarship resulted in the recruiting of "a crowd of scribes", according to Alcuin, the Abbot of York. Alcuin developed the style known as the Caroline or Carolingian minuscule. The first manuscript in this hand was the Godescalc Evangelistary (finished 783) — a Gospel book written by the scribe Godescalc. Carolingian remains the one progenitor hand from which modern booktype descends.

Later Middle Ages

Blackletter (also known as Gothic) and its variation Rotunda, gradually developed from the Carolingian hand during the 12th century. Over the next three centuries, the scribes in northern Europe used an ever more compressed and spiky form of Gothic. Those in Italy and Spain preferred the rounder but still heavy-looking Rotunda. During the 15th century, Italian scribes returned to the Roman and Carolingian models of writing and designed the Italic hand, also called Chancery cursive, and Roman bookhand. These three hands — Gothic, Italic, and Roman bookhand — became the models for printed letters. Johannes Gutenberg used Gothic to print his famous Bible, but the lighter-weight Italic and Roman bookhand have since become the standard.

During the Middle Ages, hundreds of thousands of manuscripts were produced: some illuminated with gold and fine painting, some illustrated with line drawings, and some just textbooks.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, administration in the states of Western Europe became more centralised. Paper was again widely available in Europe, which allowed a bureaucracy with standardized bookkeeping. In late medieval England, this led to the development of the ''Chancery Standard'' of Late Middle English