DOI Heft:
No. 47 (February, 1897)
DOI Artikel:Strange, Edward F.: A Spanish writing book of the sixteenth century
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18388#0059
A Spanish PVriting Book
laymen, and brought with it a demand for books of
fair copies and rules for their use.
Without spending more time on this part of the
subject, we may say in passing therefrom that so
early as 1514, Sigismondo dei Fanti published a
writing-book at Rome of which the examples were
cut by Ugo da Carpi; that in 1529 appeared the
famous philosophy of writing by Geoffrey Tory at
Paris; and in 1548 at Saragossa the first edition of
Juan de Yciar's Rccopilacion Subtilissima, a very
beautiful work, but one rarely seen in perfect con-
dition. On the model of this latter master is
founded the Arte de Escrivir of Francisco Lucas
(Madrid, 1577, the blocks dated 1570), which
forms the subject of the present paper.
The book begins with much parade of royal
licence, of dedication, of gratulatory verse addressed
to the author; but this once over, our master
plunges directly into his subject with useful disser-
tation on the different styles of lettering in use, the
manner of holding the pen, and " other matters
necessary and convenient." Of this pen-holding,
we may shortly say that he advocates, not the rigid,
uncomfortable method many of us were taught at
school, with unbent fingers and stiffened thumb;
but an easy grasp of the barrel between thumb and
48
fingers, the points of which come nearly opposite
to each other. A little practice will realise this
position much more easily than pages of instruc-
tion, when it is remembered that the pen is a reed
or quill cut to a fairly broad point; and that the
thick and thin strokes of the writing are to produce
themselves naturally with the swing of the hand.
It becomes convenient in this connection, also to
point out the essential difference between the old
and the new methods of writing ; in the latter thick
or thin strokes are the result, to a considerable
extent, of variations in the pressure put upon the
nib—a practice provocative of the maximum of
friction between pen and paper and only effective
of an artificial line; while in the former these
differences of strength are the easy consequence of
the angle which the point of the quill or reed makes
with its line of general progression.
When this principle is once grasped, it becomes
possible both to understand the examples of our
master and to reproduce them. But there is yet
another important technical question to be eluci-
dated. The examples figured by Lucas, and
chosen for illustration, fall into two categories. In
the redondo de libros—round book-hand—the ele-
ments of the letters are made each by a single
continuous stroke ; the hand being kept, as just
n^eaonaitialiana mas--
<~\ joecjuena'-
cljavitruo csjjauantiacjue nun
ca sepie/i'De.rt'o cjuc noscpassaj,
mai aue no se naj^a, J^uejoque
nunca $.? apaga, resoio Cjue Jamas
sjcmcz, l-yiaato <jue nunca sc\en
cc, caicja quenuncajpcsa,cspia cj:
s i'c mpi e 6u c lue^ju aia a cju t n o 5 C
<-*-* encjanoL-
ucas (_ csactita
- .'.CJae5ua>i,xx.:>-'
laymen, and brought with it a demand for books of
fair copies and rules for their use.
Without spending more time on this part of the
subject, we may say in passing therefrom that so
early as 1514, Sigismondo dei Fanti published a
writing-book at Rome of which the examples were
cut by Ugo da Carpi; that in 1529 appeared the
famous philosophy of writing by Geoffrey Tory at
Paris; and in 1548 at Saragossa the first edition of
Juan de Yciar's Rccopilacion Subtilissima, a very
beautiful work, but one rarely seen in perfect con-
dition. On the model of this latter master is
founded the Arte de Escrivir of Francisco Lucas
(Madrid, 1577, the blocks dated 1570), which
forms the subject of the present paper.
The book begins with much parade of royal
licence, of dedication, of gratulatory verse addressed
to the author; but this once over, our master
plunges directly into his subject with useful disser-
tation on the different styles of lettering in use, the
manner of holding the pen, and " other matters
necessary and convenient." Of this pen-holding,
we may shortly say that he advocates, not the rigid,
uncomfortable method many of us were taught at
school, with unbent fingers and stiffened thumb;
but an easy grasp of the barrel between thumb and
48
fingers, the points of which come nearly opposite
to each other. A little practice will realise this
position much more easily than pages of instruc-
tion, when it is remembered that the pen is a reed
or quill cut to a fairly broad point; and that the
thick and thin strokes of the writing are to produce
themselves naturally with the swing of the hand.
It becomes convenient in this connection, also to
point out the essential difference between the old
and the new methods of writing ; in the latter thick
or thin strokes are the result, to a considerable
extent, of variations in the pressure put upon the
nib—a practice provocative of the maximum of
friction between pen and paper and only effective
of an artificial line; while in the former these
differences of strength are the easy consequence of
the angle which the point of the quill or reed makes
with its line of general progression.
When this principle is once grasped, it becomes
possible both to understand the examples of our
master and to reproduce them. But there is yet
another important technical question to be eluci-
dated. The examples figured by Lucas, and
chosen for illustration, fall into two categories. In
the redondo de libros—round book-hand—the ele-
ments of the letters are made each by a single
continuous stroke ; the hand being kept, as just
n^eaonaitialiana mas--
<~\ joecjuena'-
cljavitruo csjjauantiacjue nun
ca sepie/i'De.rt'o cjuc noscpassaj,
mai aue no se naj^a, J^uejoque
nunca $.? apaga, resoio Cjue Jamas
sjcmcz, l-yiaato <jue nunca sc\en
cc, caicja quenuncajpcsa,cspia cj:
s i'c mpi e 6u c lue^ju aia a cju t n o 5 C
<-*-* encjanoL-
ucas (_ csactita
- .'.CJae5ua>i,xx.:>-'