I am finally well enough to participate once more and I want to take this opportunity to draw attention to my web pages which are now devoted to the formal Chancery cursive (Cancellaresca corsiva) writing of Cataneo (the hand I admire the most). It is time for me to do this for I find myself writing in my adaptation of this hand (albeit with my own majuscules & supplemental hands) all of the time now. Bennardino Cataneo was Writing Master (maestro di scrivere) at the University of Siena, Italy, c. 1544-1560. The only known surviving exemplars of his writing are twenty vellum leaves bound in a manuscript copybook, dated 4 February 1545, which is dedicated to Edward Raleigh, an Englishman (Signor Odoardo Ralyg Gentilhuomo) and which has been published in facsimile with explanatory notes by Stephen Harvard:

An Italic Copybook: The Cataneo Manuscript, by Stephen Harvard, 1981, Taplinger Publishing Co. Inc., New York, N.Y.


Example of a freely rendered example of my adaptation of
Cataneo Chancery cursive writing

All but three of the exemplars (which feature Cancellaresca formata, a more austere Chancery hand) are devoted to Cancery cursive -- the archetypal italic writing hand -- characterized by sloping, compressed letterforms with generous, kerned, ascenders and descenders. Harvard points out that Cataneo's Chancery cursive features pen lifts within and between letters and words which thereby stand alone without the diagonal joins that typify the running hands of earlier Italian Renaissance writing masters (Arrighi, Tagliente, Palatino, et al.). Although Cataneo's minuscule letterforms possess the same basic structural elements of the earlier ones, the overall aspect of his writing is of formal elegance.

I use my Cataneo based Chancery cursive handwriting for most of my everyday writing activities -- correspondence, greeting/congratulatory/condolence cards & envelopes, notes, diary/journal entries, checks, etc. I find that I can render it with comfort and ease and at an acceptable writing speed. I believe the resultant writing is beautiful, elegant and eminently readable.

I do not use the majuscule letterforms of Cataneo, preferring instead my own adaptations of the majuscules of other practitioners of Italic writing -- and some of my own developments. Similarly, I use classic Roman capitals (Monumentalis capitalis) and humanistic small roman writing (lettera antica) for my supplemental writing hands (headers, emphasized text, gloss, etc.) instead of the stylized letter forms of Cataneo.


Exemplar that includes freely rendered examples of my
majuscule letterforms

James

james, could you provide additional ideas for the majuscule "i" and "j". in your exemplar, they both start out looking the same, then the "j" curves back and curls up more than the "i". when i try this, both letters come out looking about the same: that is, people often confuse one with the other when i adopt your style.

Our modern majuscule letterforms are derived from the Capitalis Monumentalis of the late Roman Republic and early Empire. The alphabet in regular use at that time consisted of only twenty letters. Two of our modern letters -- J & U -- were not used, their equivalents being I and V respectively, thus, the modern JULIUS was inscribed on coins of this period IVLIVS.


DIUUS JULIUS -- the Divine Julius (Caesar)
On a silver denarius of Augustus c. 17 BC

The letter K was seldom used and then only before A -- W was not part of the alphabet at all. Y and Z were introduced only to be used in spelling Greek words.

Relative to your question, Viv, there are no codified standards for flourished Italic majuscules, but the J -- being derived from the Roman I -- has very similar features and construction, as you note. In rendering J, I always greatly exaggerate the lower curve and close it, or use the alternate with a pronounced top bar and somewhat curved descender -- as shown in the following exemplar -- to make the distinction from I clear.

James

thanks james, that historical perspective really helped!

James,

Thank you so very much for your exemplars and helpful hints on your website. I've downloaded them and have been practicing. My hand has improved to an almost infinite degree. Had you seen my beginning point, this would NOT seem like an exaggeration.

When I look over pages that I've written of late, I can see that I need to work on a consistancy of size and slope; I seem almost able to keep the characters on an even line.

I've just obtained three Rotring Calligraphy Art Pens and am using them OOTB with Waterman Black ink. From time to time, I find that the ink does not seem to flow freely and that I'm "fighting" the nib to produce the particular line that I'm trying to place onto the page. Does anyone have suggestions or insights on how to correct this?

I am pleased that you find my pages useful, George -- I am constantly updating and refining them so please keep checking for the latest information. I am glad to hear of your progress, George, I hope to see you post an example of your writing when you are comfortable with it.


That sometimes is caused by not maintaining the full width of the nib in contact with the paper throughout letter formation -- use double pens as I outline at .....

http://www.jp29.org/cat4.htm

..... and concentrate on maintaining correct nib contact while rendering some alphabets. See if that helps, George.

James

Rendered using Rotring Art pen -- 1.1 mm nib narrowed to .7 mm -- Waterman inks -- Rhodia lined pad paper.

James

James,

Thank you for the reply. I will try to make sure that I'm keeping proper nib contact with the paper.

I haven't used the double pens. On my next trip to Staples, I'll buy a few and fabricate them as you describe.

I have not set up an account with an image server, and my ISP does not offer web page hosting, so I'm unable to post images at this time. I'll have to look into this further.

Just as a point of information, I found myself unable to produce a recognizable character when following procedures outlined in some books on Calligraphy for letters based on the "a" form.

When following the procedures described in your web pages, I found that success came quickly and that I'm enjoying the practice. While I will probably never reach your level of perfection, (After all, you've been doing this for about as many years as I've been alive) I look forward to producing a hand that is both readable and pleasing to behold.

Thank you for the inspiration.

George,

You might want to look into Photobucket for your images. A free account gives you 25MB storage, 250KB max file size and 1500MB/month download(viewing).

Regards,

Bruce

http://www.photobucket.com/

So glad to see you on here, James. I know you only by reputation which is considerable. I came on this board, I guess, while you were absent. Sounds as though you were battling an illness of some sort, so your presence here, now, is encouraging

Living just south of you, in Sahuarita, I look forward to reading your posts and perhaps meeting, someday.

Good to see you back James!

Your handwriting his State of the Art as usual. Cataneo could not have found a better student.

I'm delightfully happy to see you well!

A Great by Cyber-Hug to you, your sweet wife and your cute doggy.

Sincerely,

Anne-Sophie


PS: One of the best feature of Fountain Pen Network is that we are able to keep the posts on, this way your wonderfull exemplars are saved.

I really wish that James would post again. His last post was on January 25, 2005.
But he is a busy man - check his web page http://www.jp29.org to see the myriad of projects he is involved in.
Currently he has RSS on his site - so it is a good way to see when he posts something new.

AZ

I first found Pickering's website about a month ago (through a link on FPN, I think) and I was absolutely floored by his skill and knowledge. Inspired me to delve back into the Chancery Italic Script instruction, here.

I will improve my handwriting, I will improve my handwriting,...

t!

Dear Friends,

Thank you especially to tntaylor, antoniosz, Anne-Sophie, Roger and georgem for your kind words and thoughts since I last posted here.

IMO, Ann Finley and Corien are doing a superb job with their instructional pages -- first rate!

I don't think I posted the following exemplar previously -- it is not my intention to intrude on Ann & Corien's instruction -- I include it only because my swash majuscule letter forms involve quite a lot of push strokes with the edged nib and several correspondents have expressed trepidation doing this:

Welcome back, James! Everyone loves to see your work, and you are a great inspiration to a great many people. Don't ever feel like you're intruding, we can all use all the inspiration we can get!

Best, Ann

Well said, Ann! Welcome back, James

WOW! As always, a pure delight to see the product of your hand. As a leftie, I appreciate your encouragement about push strokes!

Hi James
First welcome back,and secondly thanks for great work and effort it looks pretty neat.I work to write like this but first i need to get a Calligraphy pen

Emrecan

Hi Emrecan,

I can grind you a nib like that from one of the broads or double broads. If you want something for everyday use, I can grind it from a medium.

[SIZE=1] And you know the special deal I gave you. [/SIZE=1]

Dillon

Hi Dillon,
OK i didnt forget that but you need to wait a little im recovering from last pen buy,im a poor poor student

Thanks

Emrecan

Dear James,

it is always a pleasure to read your advice and comments on penmanship in your own hand.

Regards,

Denis.

Wow! To have that hand as your every-day, good speed handwriting! As always, thanks for sharing your handwriting/art work.

James,

Your examples are a wonder to behold!

Thanks for sharing, keep well.

Best regards,

Jim

James, I notice that your style of italic completely avoids using any joins between letters. It seems to me that the lack of joins limits the utility of the style and would be more printing or lettering rather than writing (in a cursive).

I notice that other italic cursives, such as those of Arrighi and Niccoli use joins and ligatures and are also quite dignified and elegant. So my question is, are you against the use of joins in writing, or is this just a personal thing?

I mean no disrespect for your calligraphy, but I was wondering about this because there is no way I can print as quickly as I can script, and I suppose that is true with most people, even those striving toward a dignified and legible hand.

Doug

Hi,

By the way, just a note, but that is not cursive, but italic handwriting. Very beautiful indeed!!

Dillon

Cursive writing -- flowing handwriting with the strokes of succeeding letters often, but not always, joined.

Running hand -- handwriting in which the letters are usually slanted and all the words formed without lifting the handwriting instrument.

Cancellaresca corsiva -- Chancery cursive -- is the archetypal italic writing hand of the Italian renaissance characterized by sloping, compressed letterforms with generous, kerned, ascenders and descenders. Stephen Harvard points out that "Cataneo's Chancery cursive features pen lifts within and between letters and words which thereby stand alone without the diagonal joins that typify the running hands of earlier Italian Renaissance writing masters" (Arrighi, Tagliente, Palatino, et al.). Although Cataneo's minuscule letterforms possess the same basic structural elements of the earlier ones, the overall aspect of his writing is of formal elegance. The following letter of Queen Elizabeth I (at that time Princess heir apparent) of England employs typical late sixteenth century Cataneo style Chancery cursive handwriting -- pen lifts within and between letters and words -- as can be seen, she was quite an accomplished practitioner of Italic handwriting.



I personally like the formal elegance of Cataneo style Chancery cursive handwriting and find it easier and quicker to render than running hand (connected letters) handwriting.

James

Actually, it depends on what you're used to doing. If you typically do not connect your letters, then you can do it very quickly. I "print" when taking notes in class and the vast majority of other occasions as well. IME, I write as fast or faster than many who connec their letters and have better legibility at speed. Just my $0.01.

Following is another letter of Elizabeth I (now Queen) that illustrates her use of Cataneo style Chancery cursive handwriting -- pen lifts within and between letters and words -- her Italic hand is by now more accomplished.




James

James,

Thanks for your replies, and for the highly readable royal examples. Is Queen Elizabeth writing on paper with some kind of line scoring? Or is that freehand? Very impressive either way.

Again thanks,

Doug

I don't know the answers to your questions, Doug, sorry.

James

Stephen Harvard was an outstanding calligrapher, illustrator, book designer, stonecutter and letter type designer. He wrote the explanatory text that accompanies The Cactaneo Manuscript. For more information relating to this remarkable craftsman visit:

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BECWOR.html

http://www.printinghistory.org/htm/misc/pubfund.html

James

so beautiful~~~,why not make it a font for Microsoft Office~~ then I can use it to write letters~~~

Leo, there already is a Cataneo True Type font!!! (And it's quite nice.) If you have an e-mail client that accepts e-mailed fonts, I can send it.

Best, Ann

Thank you very much for another magnificent "lesson". I print all your contributions and make my best to follow them.

Alejandro

James,

As usual, your examples are an inspiration to us all.

Glad to see you posting again!

Regards,

Jim