A book hand was any of several stylized
handwriting script
A script or handwriting script is a formal, generic style of handwriting (as opposed to personal handwriting), within a writing system. A hand may be a synonym or a variation, a subset of script.
There is a variety of historical styles in manus ...
s used during ancient and medieval times.
It was intended for legibility and often used in transcribing official documents (prior to the development of
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
and similar technologies).
In
palaeography
Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...
and
calligraphy
Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...
, the term ''hand'' is still used to refer to a named style of writing, such as the
chancery hand.
See also
*
Court hand
*
History of writing
The history of writing traces the development of writing systems and how their use transformed and was transformed by different societies. The use of writing prefigures various social and psychological consequences associated with literacy a ...
*
Secretary hand
Secretary hand or script is a style of European handwriting developed in the early sixteenth century that remained common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for writing English, German, Welsh and Gaelic.
History
Predominating before ...
References
Tudor England
Blackletter
Medieval scripts
Writing
Palaeography
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