A script or handwriting script is a formal, generic style of handwriting (as opposed to personal handwriting), within a

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

. A hand may be a synonym or a variation, a subset of script. There is a variety of historical styles in manuscript documents, Some of them belonging to

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 ...

, whereas some were set up for better readabiliy, utility or teaching (

teaching script A teaching script is a sample script that serves as a visual orientation for learning to penmanship, write by hand. In the sense of a guideline or a prototype, it supports the demanding process of developing handwriting skills and abilities in a ...

). see History of the Latin script. Historic styles of handwriting may be studied by

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 ...

. Personal variations and idiosyncrasies in writing style departing from the standard hand, which may for example allow the work of a particular

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

copying or writing a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

to be identified, are described by the term

handwriting Handwriting in Italian schools (XXth - XXIst century) Handwriting is the personal and unique style of writing with a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil in the hand. Handwriting includes both block and cursive styles and is separa ...

(or hand). Evolution of minuscule

List of hands

Chancery hand The term "chancery hand" can refer to either of two distinct styles of historical handwriting. A chancery hand was at first a form of handwriting for business transactions that developed in the Lateran chancery (the ) of the 13th century, the ...

Round hand Round hand (also roundhand) is a type of handwriting and calligraphy originating in England in the 1660s primarily by the writing masters John Ayres and William Banson. Characterised by an open flowing hand (style) and subtle contrast of thick 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 ...

Court hand Court hand (also common law hand, Anglicana, cursiva antiquior, and charter hand) was a style of handwriting used in medieval English law courts, and later by professionals such as lawyers and clerks. "It is noticeably upright and packed togethe ...

Library hand Library hand is a rounded style of hand (handwriting), handwriting once taught in library schools. The intention was to ensure uniformity and legibility in the handwritten cards of library catalogs. Beginning in September 1885, Melvil Dewey and T ...

Blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter or black-letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule or Gothic type, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for ...

Humanist minuscule Humanist minuscule, or whiteletter, is a handwriting script or style of script that was invented in secular circles in Italy, at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The new hand was based on Carolingian minuscule, which Renaissance humanis ...

Carolingian minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one ...

Roman cursive Roman cursive (or Latin cursive) is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to some extent into the Middle Ages. It is customarily divided into old (or ancient) cursive and new cursive. Old Roman cursive Old Roman cur ...

Uncial script Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek and Latin, as well as Gothic, and are the current style for ...

Insular script Insular script is a Middle Ages, medieval script (styles of handwriting), script system originating in Ireland that spread to England and continental Europe under the influence of Hiberno-Scottish mission, Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries ...

Beneventan script The Beneventan script was a medieval script that originated in the Duchy of Benevento in southern Italy. In the past it has also been called ''Langobarda'', ''Longobarda'', ''Longobardisca'' (signifying its origins in the territories ruled by t ...

Visigothic script Visigothic script was a type of medieval script that originated in the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula). Its more limiting alternative designations and associate it with scriptoria specifically in Toledo and with Moz ...

Merovingian script Merovingian script or Gallo-Roman script () was a medieval variant of the Latin script so called because it was developed in Gaul during the Merovingian dynasty. It was used in the 7th and 8th centuries before the Carolingian dynasty and the dev ...

References

Sources

* * * Palaeography * Penmanship Graphology Questioned document examination {{writingsystem-stub