Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering

Rubricating — Initial Pages or Title Pages — Prefaces & Notes in Colour — Pages with Coloured Headings — Page or Column Heading & Initial — Versals in Column or Marginal Bands —...

SIMPLE ILLUMINATION Tools & Materials for Simple Illumination — Parchment, “Vellum,” & Pounce — Colours — Simple Colour Effects — Matt Gold — Burnished Gold — Burnished Gold For...

ARRANGEMENT Good Models — The Qualities of Good Lettering — Simplicity — Distinctiveness — Proportion — Beauty of Form — Beauty of Uniformity — Right Arrangement — Setting Out &...

The Roman Alphabet — Proportions of Letters: Widths — Upper & Lower Parts — Essential or Structural Forms — Characterisation of Forms — Built-Up Forms — Simple-Written Capitals...

Divers Uses of Lettering — MS. Books, &c. — Binding MSS (_with Note by Douglas Cockerell_) — Broadsides, Wall Inscriptions, &c. — Illuminated Addresses, &c. — Monograms & Device...

Nearly every type of letter with which we are familiar is derived from the Roman Capitals, and has come to us through the medium, or been modified by the influence, of the pen....

The simplest way of learning how to make letters is to acquire a fine formal hand. To this end a legible and beautiful writing (see p. 70) should be chosen, and be carefully cop...

_Always write at a slope._ This enables you to sit up comfortably at your work, and to see the MS. clearly as though it were on an easel—and, by the resulting horizontal positio...

The best training is found in the practice of an _upright round-hand_ (p. 302). Having mastered such a writing, the penman can acquire any other hands—sloping or angular—with co...

In acquiring a formal writing the penman should have two paper books constantly in hand: one for the study of the forms of letters, the other for both the letters and their arra...

_The making of manuscript books_, based on a study of the early MSS., offers the best training to the scribe and illuminator in _writing_, _lettering_, _rubricating_, _gilding_,...

The earliest books consisted of a number of lines of continuous writing in capital letters. There were seldom any divisions of the text—into paragraphs, chapters, or the like—or...

Rubricating — Initial Pages or Title Pages — Prefaces & Notes in Colour — Pages with Coloured Headings — Page or Column Heading & Initial — Versals in Column or Marginal Bands —...

HARD LEAD PENCIL. For drawing forms if necessary. POUNCE. For preparing surface: “pouncing.” “SIZE” OR RAISING PREPARATION. For raising and backing leaf. SMALL SAUCER. For mixin...

_BRUSHES._—Red Sables are very good. A separate brush should be kept for each colour—or at least one brush each for _Reds_, _Blues_, _Greens_, _White_, and _gold “paint”_—and it...

It is convenient to give a wide meaning to the word when we speak of an “_illuminated_ manuscript,” for the scribe works with a very free hand, and when he wishes to decorate hi...

An art or craft is so largely dependent on the tools and materials which are used by the craftsman, that we may reasonably say that it begins with the tools and materials, throu...

Perhaps the nearest right definition of “design” is “_contrivance_”—applied to the actual doing of the work, rather than to the work when done: “_decoration_” (when that is the...

Good Models — The Qualities of Good Lettering — Simplicity — Distinctiveness — Proportion — Beauty of Form — Beauty of Uniformity — Right Arrangement — Setting Out & Fitting In...

The Roman Alphabet — Proportions of Letters: Widths — Upper & Lower Parts—Essential or Structural Forms — Characterisation of Forms — Built-Up Forms — Simple-Written Capitals —...

monumental forms about 2000 years ago, the Roman Capitals have held the supreme place among letters for readableness and beauty. They are the best forms for the grandest and mos...

Divers Uses of Lettering — MS. Books, &c. — Binding MSS. (_with Note by Douglas Cockerell_) — Broadsides, Wall Inscriptions, &c. — Illuminated Addresses, &c. — Monograms & Devic...

_Treatment._—Inscriptions are carved in stone for many uses: for Foundation Stones and Public Inscriptions, for Tombstones and Memorial Inscriptions, for Mottos and Texts, for N...