Chancery script Calligraphy in a wonderful hand made book

Rating:

Written by Paul Standard and last printed in 1979, this book does indeed seem to be the last of it's kind. It is very specifically a book about one particular elegant form of calligraphy. While it has the feel that it was handmade just for you and is indeed beautiful, for the price it costs to obtain a copy today, it is not practical for everyone to hunt it down. At only 67pages, the entire book is devoted to recapturing the "running hand." Do not be mistaken that this is a generalized how-to book on the subject of calligraphy, quite the contrary. Standard writes, "Chancery Cursive script may seem beyond the layman's power to acquire, and yet it is far less difficult than the scripts used since the United States achieved nationhood."

Pages 1- 32 are lovingly translated of sections of Arrighi's Operina, where Mr. Standard has treated us to the English translation alongside the original Italian. Each page contains only a small sample section of Chancery, laid out on the page in the style of poetry. This particular script is very clear and fluid to read, it is easy on the eye, and has a wonderful simple elegance to it.

The second thirty pages of the book are devoted to explaining and teaching the Chancery script. The discussion and details are directly related to the examples in the previous section of the book. There are original illustrations, penned in ink which are easy to understand. Attention in this section is given to: discussing Arabic numerals, blotting paper, the proper angles to hold your pen and paper, left handed situations, flat strokes, head strokes, ampersands, hairpin arches, two stroke letters, long stroke letters, nib sizes, capitals, sweeps, serifs, and more.

Anghirri's Running Hand contains no discussion on quills or inks and does not stray from the subject of Chancery writing only. Although the author does address the subject of learning this script in a very straightforward manner and uses simple language, I do not recommend it for a beginning student unless they are very quick to learn. I do recommend this book for intermediate and advanced students and any professional scribe that collects books on their trade and are looking to expand their artistic skills.

Other books that are recommend Paul Strand, but may be hard to find, are as follows.
A Book of Scripts by Alfred Fairbank, Humanistic Script of the XV & XVI Centuries by A.J.Fairbank, Sweet Roman Hand by Wilfred Blunt, Italic Handwriting: Some Examples of Everyday Cursive Hands by Wilfred Blunt and lastly, Renaissance Handwriting: An Anthology of Italic Scripts by Alfred Fairbank.