Like many here, I've developed a fascination with pens and handwriting. There is much on the internet about pens, but information about handwriting itself is less abundant. Among pen manufacturers, I've only noticed Pelikan to have actual examples of handwriting posted at their website, and those examples are remarkable to view although I wish I could read German so I could get an idea of how legible those letters actually are.

I've been pondering the subject of legibility of handwriting of late. Back in the day when all writing was handwriting, legibility must have been of primary importance. My initial study shows that there were different styles of handwriting depending on a document's purpose and function. Legal documents would have to be very clear and easily legible (at least to another lawyer) and intolerant of corrections and strike-overs. There were also styles of handwriting designed to accommodate the day-to-day transactions of merchants, and styles for personal communications between people.

What I currently find so fascinating are scientists' and ship captains' logs. It's amazing to be able to actually read the journal entries of, say, Captain Cook or William Bligh (don't laugh or I'll have you flogged -- besides, his bad rap is from bad history, bad movie history). For want of a better (or proper) term, I've been calling this style "documentary cursive." For my own purposes, I define this style not by the form of the script or the shape of the letters (as in "chancery cursive") but by the function of the writing: a handwriting designed to accommodate quick writing legible enough to be read by an unknown third party. Part of the purpose of the journals was to provide information to future readers, and there must have been an assumption that the writing might have to survive the writer and be obligated to offer historical record, or at least a clear and unambiguous testimony of the writer.

This is very different from the sort of personal handwriting one might use in a letter to a friend -- that script might be less formal, i.e., less legible to a third party. Mozart's letters to his sister are written in a form that to my eye seems less legible than his letters begging for loans and commissions. Or at least, that's how it appears to me. I may have to learn German after all.

And although handwriting has a different function in this digital age (how I wish I could "search" through my journals, or even find the proper volume) my own current desire is to develop such a documentary curvise. My journals are often repositories of private thoughts, but there seems to be some egotism in wanting them to serve as historical record rather than just a personal mnemonic device.

Many years ago I studied chancery cursive in an effort to reform my hand. The problem with chancery cursive though, is that it's too slow for the purpose of journaling. And that's not really a criticism of it because that's not what it was designed for. It was designed for the every day communication between offices of government. The writer was generally not the author of the words but was someone performing a much more secretarial duty.

What I'm calling "documentary cursive" is a form where the writer is also the author of the words themselves -- a fact which makes examples of the form so attractive.

Well, to get to the point, appended are a few examples I've been able to find. If anyone else has any, please post links in this thread. It will be very interesting to me, and hopefully, to the other forumers here as well.

Doug

P.S. I've recently decided to draft all pen forums posts in handwriting before transcribing to the computer. Up to now, I've usually written via the delete, copy, paste, edit, and correct functions of my word processor. After writing by hand for a bit, I'm certain that drafting by hand requires a completely different set of cognitive skills,. I'll write more about this later if the good people of the FPN will allow it.

Links:

Pelikan page featuring handwritten letters (Babelfish translation):
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/t...%2fsch_hand.php

British Library's online library (see Mozart's catalog -- with music and narration!):
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html

Crouse Autograph Collection (many image files of different people's handwriting):
http://crouse.cromaine.org/

Captain Bligh's log and transcription:
http://www.atmitchell.com./journeys/histor...rra/logbook.cfm

Hi Doug,

Do you have a scanner? Since you write the pen forum posts first, why not scan and post them.

Welcome to the nuthouse!

Elaine

I'm interested in this a propos the teaching of "cursive" in US schools. I've looked at a few of the 19th c. hands in the Crouse collection, and I wonder how many of them would count as being cursive for the purposes of the US school curriculum. One of the nices I've seen so far is Conan Doyle's; his hand seems to have loops only where they occur spontaneously from the fast movement of the pen.

I'm all for good, legible, efficient working hands. I'm slightly consoled by seeing how irregular some of the 19th c. examples are -- makes me feel less deficient, and I've got the excuse of the keyboard.

Best

Michael

I would say that I can go both ways - Legibility and efficiency, and Legibility and beauty, sans some of the efficiency.

I nearly jumped out of my chair when I discovered how the pages turn on Captain Bligh's logbook. Absolutely astonishing! I could turn them all day! If they made e-books with pages turning like that I'd be happy.

Doug, I like your term, "documentary cursive" . I've modified my 1970's California public elementary school cursive as follows:

block form for all upper-case letters
(some connecting to following letters and some not),
loops on the ascenders of lowercase eff and ell only
(all other ascenders thin and written-over, not looped),
loops on all descenders
(more comfortable, important for distinguishing gee and qew, and easier to connect),
finishing lowercase bee at the bottom of its curve,
writing lowercase ess with both curves but the top curve smaller than the bottom curve,

and putting a curve onto the finishing downstroke of lowercase arr so that the whole letter looks a little more like the right-hand side of a block uppercase arr (learned from observing the cursive of a fellow teacher a decade younger than I).

I don't have a scanner, and I'd rather just make suggestions so that people can have fun developing their own, very legible styles of connected cursive .

Be kind to the first example; I haven't yet mastered the art yet.

And my normal handwriting, somewhat:

I had to take pictures since my scanner is on the fritz.

I would say your handwriting is similar to what I tried to learn in grade school 15 years ago; but yours is much neater.

I have trouble regulating my handwriting. You may see from the second example that my connections differ greatly, and sometimes my letters are sideways, and my 'm's aren't nice and rounded unless I actually take the time.

But, it doesn't take long to write anymore, and I can achieve better legability with fast cursive than fast manuscript.

Incidentally, I practice French cursive; if any want to know what it looks like, see the following link for a site with some examples and a font that I can't use because it's not Truetype. Sad, because it's a nice font.

http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~beffara/soft/fr...e/index.html.en

Well, yes, it's cool, but the circumstances of its introduction make me fairly hacked off. That is called "Turning the Pages" ™, and the British Library made a huge hoo-ha about how they had got this new technology for displaying digital facsimiles. And when you get down to it, it's an animated, chrome-plated "Next" button. I'm sure they paid someone a lot of money to develop it, which would be OK if they had spare cash, but they don't, and it would have been better spent on getting more MSS and early printed books up on the web.

The British Library is a great institution, but its move from the BM was hugely botched, both by the Library management and the Treasury. Still, in the old round Reading Room in the British Museum, they had a sign that said "Please pick up books on the left hand side of the Reading Room." How do you find the left of a perfect circle, please? And in the days before the on-line catalogue, they were using the mid-nineteenth century one, which catalogued some early materials by place of publication. Lord help you if your item was catalogued under "London."

It is fun to see it happen, though they wouldn't like you treating the corner of a real MS like that.

Best

Michael

Very nice writing samples! Thank you for sharing.

In Umberto Eco's novel, "Name of the Rose," the head monk/librarian saturated the upper right hand corners of a particular manuscript w/poison so those reading this forbidden manuscript (and licking their fingers before turning the pages) would payy the price for their misdeeds. So yes, be careful how you turn pages!

I have read that book. I loved it.

Thanks for the compliment, Elaine.

I came across this thread almost by accident but it brings two thoughts to mind.

First, some years ago I visited the Maritime museum at Greewwich and remember being intrugued by the logs of not just the Captains and Masters but also the Midshipmen, young lads who were destined for a life in the Royal Navy. Apart from the small, neat writing, there were pen and pencil drawings of various ships and items of rigging. Written in small, leather-covered books, perhaps that is what has been in my subconcious leading me to my notebook writing.

They used ink that has lasted for hundreds of years, yet I doubt the quartermaster spent much money on high quality ink - who knows what was actually used and how much it was watered down to make it go further.

The second thought is that I agree drafting with a pen and drafting on screen are quite different; the outcome is different too.

I shall look forward to following the links at lunchtime!

Chris