By Jimmy James

Calligraphy literally means beautiful and nice writing. Some 500 years ago before the invention of the printing press, it was the way books were made. Each copy was written with handwriting by scribe workers in a scriptorium. The handwriting was done with ink and quill onto specific materials such as vellum and parchment. The letter writing style applied was one of the book-hands period such as rustic, black-letter and Carolingian etc. Today, there are many types or styles of calligraphy writing as follows; this article focuses mainly on Western calligraphy with a glimpse at the Asian and Arabic styles.

Western or Roman Arabic Chinese or Oriental European Asian-European Calligraphy:

In Europe 2 types of handwriting came into being very fast. Cursive script was mostly used for records and letters, while greater polished handwriting styles, called uncial, was used into literary works. Both calligraphy styles could be seen in fragments of papyrus from 4th century of B.C. After the time of 1st century of A.D. the half uncial and minuscule letter development from the Roman capital gave growth for an extraordinarily and beautiful long lasting art of calligraphy. The Renaissance humanistic handwriting style for the deliberate imitation of Carolingian minuscule was aesthetically pleasing & most legible. Design of alphabet became one subject of that study and some technical treatises were published on styles of handwriting. With the late 16th century, the secure establishment for the printing press and the art of calligraphy had declined throughout area of Europe. In UKs elementary school, Penmanship of a relatively inferior sort was taught and in the US until the late 19th century. The fine art of calligraphy is currently taught and crafted in schools with exhibition in museums. To the late 15th century the Italian manuscript copyists had produced many glorious work of calligraphy such as Matteo Gianrinaldo Mennio, Pierantonio Sallando and Contugi.

Asian Calligraphy:

As a major aesthetic expression, calligraphy has been consistently practiced in the east. In China from the 5th century B.C., when the calligraphy was used for 1st time, it has always been considered equal and even superior with comparison to painting. Chinese calligraphy began with a sophisticated and simplified seal script, called as chancery script, in that the strokes width varies & the edges sharpen at the ends. In the 1st century of A.D. the perfection of the brush made easy and possible stylization for the chancery script into regular script. The Japanese calligraphy values as high as the Chinese, they began to practice in the 7th century A.D., after the introduction of Buddhist manuscripts from China.

Arabic Calligraphy:

With the limited letter of alphabet by Arabic the art of calligraphy is also practiced. Due to faith of Muslim of discourages pictorial representation & Qur'an reveres, the people of Islam esteem calligraphy as highly as East Asia. In the beautiful Qur'ans the earliest Islamic calligraphy is found, written with gold leaf on parchment or by ink on paper with angular script. Elaborations, likes of foliation, interfacing, and other complexities were later invented. In the 12th century rounded cursive style was invented and spread throughout Islam, after that many different cursive scripts have developed. In Islam calligraphy experts decorate metalwork, textiles and pottery, as well as books.