Stub/italic Nibs- What Type Of Penmanship Were/are They For?

[Garageboy]

So I'm trying to piece together what style of nib is "proper" for what style handwriting

I've seen flex pens are needed for spencerian, but what are stubs/italics for? Chancery?

I know everyone here uses them for line variation in their normal Palmer script, but I wanted to know why they came to be to begin with

Thanks

[bokchoy]

I've been using mine for learning italic. Italic script dates back to the Renaissance in Italy. Formal italic is written unjoined, but there is also semi-joined cursive italic.

 

There's a few examples here:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/261892-examples-of-cursive-italic/

 

Edit: I'm not sure about this, but I think the square-cut nib is typical of quills.

Edited March 30, 2014 by bokchoy

[cellmatrix]

if you think italic nibs work great for palmer, you should try using them for italic script, I bet you will like the results!

Edited March 30, 2014 by cellmatrix

[00Photo]

I use mine for italic.

[KBeezie]

I use mine for italic.

 

Is there something wrong with the medium nib you use?

[KateGladstone]

I suspect it'll turn out that 00Photo is just one of the many, many people who (like me) find that an italic nib is a marvelous aid in controlling the hand.

[KateGladstone]

For more info on italic handwriting, I recommend the Society for Italic Handwriting at http://www.italic-handwriting.org ... And these other italic sites, too: http://www.BFHhandwriting.com, http://www.handwritingsuccess.com, http://www.briem.net, http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com, and http://www.studioarts.net/calligraphy/italic/hwlesson.html

 

 

 

I've been using mine for learning italic. Italic script dates back to the Renaissance in Italy. Formal italic is written unjoined, but there is also semi-joined cursive italic.

There's a few examples here:https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/261892-examples-of-cursive-italic/

Edit: I'm not sure about this, but I think the square-cut nib is typical of quills.

[Garageboy]

So Chancery and Italic are the same thing?

[cellmatrix]

Chancery is just one style of italic

[tinta]

I suspect that a medium nib lacks the flat writing "edge" of the italic nibs.

When I use a regular "ball tipped" nib, I get writing that looks much like the first line in 00Photo's sample.

An italic nib steadies my printed & written hand.

Edited March 30, 2014 by tinta

[jimk]

An edged nib is also good for e.g. uncial and gothic/blackletter.

 

A classic flex nib hand is copperplate. It seems that flex nib hands arose out of copper plate engraving, where a v-shaped tool makes a thinner or wider line depending on pressure. I don't know the history exactly but I would guess that maybe flex nib styles arose around 1600 and before that most everything was edged nib. Of course the nib was a quill, or a cut reed, or an edged brush. I gather the edged brush is a hypothesis of Catich, to understand the Origin of the Seriph.

[00Photo]

I was attempting some humor at illustrating the obvious superiority of italic nibs to standard ball nibs.

[jimk]

There is a drunken style of kung fu, that requires total mastery. There was something similar in a Bruce Lee movie, I forget the name, but Bruce Lee is pretending to be something like an incompetent telephone repairman. He defeats everyone but it all looks like stumbling stupid luck.

 

You have now created stumbling cursive! Immortal!

 

(The Bruce Lee movie was Fists of Fury)

Edited March 31, 2014 by jimk

[dms525]

I was attempting some humor at illustrating the obvious superiority of italic nibs to standard ball nibs.

 

Ha! And I assumed you were another doctor trying to reform his/her handwriting. (I can say that, because it describes me.)

 

In response to the OP, here is my understanding:

 

The history of writing implements in Europe started with stylus for clay tablets. Next, pens made from riverbank reeds were adopted from the Egyptians. These were square cut, as were the quills which followed historically and were used until the invention of the steel nib. So, Roman, Rustic, Uncial (and its derivatives), Carolingian, Gothic, Humanist, Italic ... They were and are all written with edged pens. As Italic evolved (or devolved, according to one's taste) from the 14th to the 17th Century, pen points tended to be cut progressively narrower, and text was written with more flourishes, ending up with pens more suited to English Roundhand/Business Script and their derivatives (Spenserian, Copperplate, etc.)

 

This is not to say that one is forbidden from using a round-tipped pen to write italic or a square nib (as long as it's not too crisp) to write, say, Palmer cursive.

 

I am sure that is oversimplified, and, if incorrect, I hope some one more expert than I will correct me.

 

David

Edited March 31, 2014 by dms525

[PaperDarts]

I use my italic nibs for ordinary writing - they slow me down a bit so my writing is clearer, and the results are a bit fancier without going as far as the more formal script.