Christopher Austin - calligrapher

History of Calligraphy

The word ‘calligraphy’ originates from the Greek and literally means ‘beautiful writing’. Writing as a form of communication developed all over the world as different peoples became more civilized. The letters we use today date back some 2,000 years while in the East, the characters are some 5,000 years old. In Europe, it was the Romans who adapted the Greek alphabet and added further letters. Since Latin was the language of the churches in Europe and monks were amongst the best educated, it is to them that we owe the beautiful copies of ancient texts from the Middle Ages. They adopted a narrower writing style since paper was expensive. Although the printing press, invented in the fifteenth century, introduced faster printing of Bibles and other documents, handwriting skills were still highly valued. They became particularly highly prized during Europe’s Renaissance, when the Italians developed a new script called ‘italic’. As other printing and writing inventions were developed, such as the fountain pen, calligraphy seemed to be a dying art. Fortunately there were artists in the nineteenth century, led by William Morris, who were determined to keep it alive. He reintroduced the flat edged pen needed for calligraphy. Today, in spite of the advent of the word processor, calligraphy is becoming more and more popular, not only in the East where it has always been a highly respected art form, but in America and Europe as well.

More detailed histories can be found on several of the websites listed in the links page of these notes.