History of Western Calligraphy

Western calligraphy is the calligraphy of the Latin writing system, and to a lesser degree the Greek and Cyrillic writing systems. Early alphabets had evolved by about 3000 BC, with capital letters (majuscules) emerging first. Lower case letters (minuscules) followed in the Carolingian period. In the first century calligraphy appeared in 3 typefaces; Roman square capitals carved into stone, Rustic capitals painted on walls, and Roman cursive for daily use. This continued until the end of the third century, whereupon writing withdrew to the monasteries.  

When the Roman Empire fell, its literary influence remained and Christian churches promoted the development of writing through copying of the Bible. Two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial (from the Latin "uncia," or "inch") developed from a variety of Roman bookhands. Each region seemed to have developed its own standards by following the main monastery of the region (i.e. Visigothic script , Merovingian script, Luxeuil script, Beneventan script, Laon script). The 7th-9th centuries in northern Europe were the height for Celtic illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells.

The script named ‘Carolingian’ from the monastery ‘Saint Martin de Tours’ was set as the imperial standard in around the 9th century. In the 11th century this developed into the Gothic script which was more cursive and for daily use. Over the next three centuries, the scribes in northern Europe used a 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. In the 16th century the discovery of old Carolingian texts encouraged the creation of the Antiqua script. The contemporary typefaces found on every computer owe a considerable debt to the past and to a small number of professional typeface designers. The most common tools used for Calligraphy were the dip pen, which took the form of a wood dip pen or a feather quill pen.