A Handwriting Manual
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"Despite the spate of publications on this subject, this one remains far and away the best." — Society of Industrial Artists Journal
This classic introduction presents the fundamentals behind every aspect of the art of penmanship, from the necessary equipment to the best techniques. Written by an expert calligrapher whose books were widely used in schools, it offers an essential guide to those who practice or teach lettering and graphic design.
Clearly illustrated with numerous examples and diagrams, the text begins with the development and characteristics of italic and the essentials of good penmanship: legibility, beauty, unity, speed, expedience, freedom, and control. Subsequent chapters explain the tools of penmanship and their use: pens and penholders, pencils, felt-tipped pens, chalks, paper, and ink as well as hand movements, pressure, and touch. Discussions and examples of technique focus on strokes, joins, rhythms, angularity slant, and spacing in addition to how to write capitals, minuscules, numerals, stops, and contractions.
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A Handwriting Manual - Alfred Fairbank
A HANDWRITING MANUAL
From Arte de escrivir by Francisco Lucas. Madrid, 1577
A HANDWRITING MANUAL
Alfred Fairbank
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Mineola, New York
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 by Alfred J. Fairbank
All rights reserved.
Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, first published in 2018, is an unabridged republication of the work originally printed by Watson–Guptill Publications, New York, in 1975.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fairbank, Alfred J., author.
Title: A handwriting manual / Alfred Fairbank.
Description: Dover edition. | Mineola, New York : Dover Publications, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017046604 | ISBN 9780486823867 (softcover) | ISBN 0486823865 (softcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Penmanship. | Writing, Italic. | BISAC:ART /Techniques / Calligraphy. | CRAFTS & HOBBIES / Book Printing & Binding.
Classification: LCC Z43 .F16 2018 | DDC 652/.1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017046604
Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications
82386501 2018
www.doverpublications.com
To
J. R. F.
'Now any spiritual elevation must come through competent teachers cultivating the idea of Beauty in the young. That children have an innate love of Beauty is undeniable. Yet this is so little recognized that our best and most attentive teachers frequently exhibit surprise when they discover a greater aesthetic sensibility in their young pupils than in the mature intelligence of their own inculcated minds; and they will even take credit for this acute observation. But, while the intellectual faculty is still dormant, spiritual things are to children as music is, which a child readily absorbs, without thought, although a full-grown man, if he has lacked that happy initiation, can scarcely by grammar come at the elements.'
From a broadcast lecture 'Poetry' by Robert Bridges given on February 28, 1929
AUTHOR'S NOTE TO THE NINTH EDITION
A series of new illustrations have been added to this edition showing demonstration scripts written by a number of accomplished writers in England, U.S.A. and Canada. These make a remarkable and valuable feature of this edition, for they give evidence of the international usefulness of italic handwriting, as well as of its various expressions of grace. The comments on handwriting in the examples add further to the value of the book.
Most of the examples come from America and represent the rising attention now being given to the virtues of italic handwriting in several States of the U.S.A. More control will have been used by the contributors than would be appropriate for scribbled notes which would stress individuality rather than style and legibility, and therefore would not fit the educational purpose of this book. This is not to say that the italic hand restricts casual usage, such as in making hasty memoranda, shopping lists, and other ephemera, for it is an all-purposes style.
An interesting circumstance which has arisen of late is that versions of my simple italic alphabet of Figure 40 have been published in the U.S.A., Sweden and East Germany. The simplicity of this alphabet and the fact that it can be easily developed into fluent writing, entitles it as worthy of study by educational authorities concerned with the teaching of the young.
ALFRED FAIRBANK
February 1974
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Grateful acknowledgements for permission to use copyright material or for assistance are made as follows: To the Director of the British Museum, the Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Vice-Prefect of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office, the Curator of the Colchester and Essex Museum, and Mr Frank Allan Thomson, for permission to reproduce Renaissance manuscripts. To the Trustees of the Conrad Estate and Messrs J. M. Dent for permission to use extracts from the writings of Joseph Conrad for the display of examples. To the Literary Trustees of Walter de la Mare, and the Society of Authors for permission to use The Horseman by Walter de la Marc, and to John Lane (Bodley Head) and the author W. B. Rands, for permission to reproduce the verse copied by Richard Yates-Smith. To the Dryad Press, Leicester, and Messrs Ginn & Co. Ltd. for permission to reproduce my exemplar examples from Dryad Writing Cards and Beacon Writing Books. To Air Chief Marshal Sir Theodore McEvoy, John Marsden and Jack Trodd, Misses Catharine Fournier and Anna Hornby for the fine specimens from their pens and also to Professor Lloyd Reynolds, Messrs Bruce Barker-Benfield, Alf Ebsen, Arthur L. Davies, James Hayes, Maury Nemoy, Paul Standard, Lewis Trethewey, Mesdames Barbara Getty, Margaret Horton, Jacqueline Svaren, Sheila Waters, and Miss Vera Law. To Messrs Denys John and Kenneth C. Yates-Smith (himself a writing master), and Misses Winifred Hooper and Vera Howells, for providing me with examples of children's handwriting.
The author was indebted to most distinguished and revered friends who have died: Sir Sydney Cockerell, Joseph Compton, Geoffrey Ebbage, and James Wardrop.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ITALIC
CHARACTERISTICS OF ITALIC
LEGIBILITY
BEAUTY
UNITY
SPEED AND EXPEDIENCE
FREEDOM AND CONTROL
PRINT-SCRIPT
PENMANSHIP, PENS, AND PEN-STROKES
HYGIENE
PEN-HOLD
LEFT-HANDED WRITERS
HAND-MOVEMENTS, PRESSURE, AND TOUCH
RECOMMENDED PENS
PENHOLDERS
PENCILS, FELT PENS, AND CHALKS
PAPER
INK
ECONOMY OF STROKES AND EFFORT
MOVEMENT AND JOINS
FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS OF LETTERS
CLOCKWISE AND COUNTER-CLOCKWISE MOVEMENTS
SIMPLE RHYTHMS AND ANGULARITY
COMPRESSION OF LETTERS
SLANT OF WRITING
THE MINUSCULE ALPHABET
SPACING
CONSTRUCTION OF THE WORDS
DIAGONAL AND HORIZONTAL JOINS
EXERCISES
CAPITALS
THE BEGINNING OF HANDWRITING
COMMON FAILURES IN WRITING MINISCULES
COMMON FAILURES IN WRITING SWASH CAPITALS
NUMERALS, STOPS, AND CONTRACTIONS
PEN-SCALE
ALIGNMENT
MANUSCRIPT BOOKS
THE TEACHER'S AIMS
REPRODUCTIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SUBJECT INDEX OF TEXT
ILLUSTRATIONS
IN THE TEXT
From Arte de escrivir by Francisco Lucas. Madrid, 1577
1. Lower case italic alphabets used in book printing
9. Pen-hold. From Libellus valde doctus by Urban Wyss. Zurich, 1549
10. A page of Arrighi's manual translated by Miss Anna Hornby and written with her left hand
12. Writing by Anne Giddings when aged 14
13. Writing by John Howells when aged 14
14. From Opera nella quale si insegna a scrivere by Augustino da Siena. Venice, 1568
16. From Literarum Latinarum by Gerard Mercator. Antwerp, 1540
19. From Libro nel qual s'insegna by G. B. Palatino. Rome, 1544
22. From Beacon Writing Book Five
24. Dryad Writing Card No . 1
31. From Opera nella quale si insegna a scrivere by Vespasiano Amphiareo. Venice, 1544
34. Dryad Writing Card No . 3
36. From La Operina by Ludovico degli Arrighi. Rome, 1522
39. Dryad Writing Card No. 5
40. From Beacon Writing Book One
45. From Second Supplement to Beacon Writing Books 1 & 2
47. From Beacon Writing Book Two
49. From Beacon Writing Book Two
PLATES
FOLLOWING PAGE
1. Pen position
2. From Psalter written by Joachinus de Gigantibus Naples, 1481
3. From La Paraphrasi. Sixteenth-century manuscript book
4. From a catalogue of early Roman inscriptions
5. Part of a letter to Henry VIII. Rome, 1517
6. Part of brief, handwriting attributed to Arrighi. 1519
7. Part of a brief from Leo X to Henry VIII. Rome, 1513
8. Part of a brief from Clement VII to Wolsey. Rome, 1529
9. From