Medieval Calligraphy

If anyone is interested in the calligraphy/penmanship of Richard or his
scribes, here's a good, easy to understand/learn from, reference for the
working art calligrapher.

Medieval Calligraphy: Its history and technique, by Marc Drogin.

Be sure to get the unabridged, corrected Dover edition of 1989 rather than
the edition published by Allanheld in 1980.

Richard and his scribes wrote a variation of the gothic littera bastarda
style. This style was used for at least three centuries (from the 13th
onward), hence there were many variations even as the basic model of its
letter shapes remained the same. Each scribe adjusted the working script to
suit his specific needs. More information on this can be found in Drogin's
work.

Richard and his scribes used oblique nibs (i.e., cut at an angle), which
means they had no need to turn the nib as they wrote. A basic pen angle of
45 degrees was standard for this alphabet to create the letters seen in
their letters.

As Drogin makes clear, there were cursive techniques to join capital
letters (illustrated by him in a modern presentation of the alphabet's
capital letters on page 159). It looks like Richard may have formed his Rs
in one stroke, and his Gs in two.

The book is an invaluable reference for anyone wanting to examine Richard's
writing from a calligrapher's standpoint, to see exactly what his
penmanship tutor taught him. The author is a professional calligrapher of
medieval styles as well as an illuminator and teacher. He created a single
comprehensive volume containing and analyzing every medieval calligraphy
style, using more than 200 plates reproducing medieval manuscript examples
to help guide the reader. He also outlines exactly how a modern-day art
calligrapher can recreate each medieval style.

~Wednesday