Western Calligraphy - Modern Times

Modern Times

In the mid 1600s French officials, flooded with documents written in various hands and varied levels of skill, complained that many such documents were beyond their ability to decipher. The Office of the Financier thereupon restricted all legal documents to three hands, namely the Coulée, the Rhonde, and a Speed Hand sometimes simply called the Bastarde.

While there were many great French masters at the time, the most influential in proposing these hands was Louis Babedor, who published Les Escitures Financières Et Italienne Bastarde Dans Leur Naturel circa 1650.

With the destruction of the Camera Apostolica during the sack of Rome (1527), the capitol for writing masters moved to Southern France. By 1600, the Italic Cursiva began to be replaced by a technological refinement, the Italic Chancery Circumflessa, which in turn fathered the Rhonde and later English Roundhand.

In England, Ayres and Banson popularized the Round Hand while Snell is noted for his reaction to them, and warnings of restraint and proportionality. Still Edward Crocker began publishing his copybooks 40 years before the aforementioned.