I'd like to share with you an interesting example of official handwriting, which is hard to find these days. It's a certification, issued by the Vatican, that Pope Paul VI himself blessed the marriage of my parents back in 1963.

Everything in the document is handwritten and drawn, except for the Vatican seal.

The first part of the document is a statement of the request for the blessing, and is done in a very refined calligraphy. The largest letter on the left was actually painted with a fine paintbrush, and the leaf decoration below it was drawn with red ink. One can still see the faint pencil lines for the calligraphed letters and the margins.

Then it comes two lines of handwritten text, evidently made with a FP, maybe with gray ink. Next a big signature (the Pope's?) made with a broad nib and black ink, and below it a small signature that has faded out with the years, made maybe with sepia ink.

How do you like it?

The text:

The big H:

The signatures:

The seal:

A closer look:

Thank you for sharing that!!!

Beautiful -- what a treasure you have!

Doug

Beautiful document. What caught my eye was that Cardinal Montini hadn't been Pope very long when this document was generated; John XXIII had only died that summer. His election as Pope had been expected since Pius had died; he had supporters at that conclave but in 1958 was thought too young.

Congratulations!

Very pretty. I've only seen one or two other blessings like that before [possibly from Pope John Paul II], but they're fascinating to read*






*or pretend to read, in my case, since I can't read Latin. Oh well.

Thanks, your historical quotation is very accurate. I'm impressed.

Well, only the last two lines and the seal are in Latin, the rest is Spanish. Pope John Paul II's blessings were not so nice; I've seen a couple of them and they look more like souvenirs than official documents. I don't know how the newest ones look like (maybe I should get married to find out).

Yeah, Sonnet's an idiot.

Very interesting document, bernardo, and surely a treasured keepsake. Thanks for posting it.

I don't believe that the bold signature is that of Paul VI. The pope's signature usually includes "PP", the Latin abbreviation for Pontifex Maximus (literally, chief bridge-builder). Here is an example I found on the Web that I believe is his signature.

That sounds logical. Since the signature on the blessing is illegible, I have always had the doubt whose signature it actually is. Thank you.