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Topics - jrvalverde

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Broad Edge Pen Calligraphy / Talking of tiny writing...
« on: November 13, 2019, 03:03:06 AM »
Cutting a long story short...

This is from an ancient book. The large script looks to my untrained eyes as Visigothic. The two coins are 1 cent of Euro coins.

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Design & Layout / Color blindness
« on: February 18, 2019, 11:27:45 AM »
Only curious.

About 2% of the population is colour blind for some colour or another. I was wondering how often do you find them and how do you deal with them (if you do)?

I tend to be cautious when I am doing something addressed to many people, trying to find colour combinations that will be seen by everyone. There are a number of websites with information on colour management for colour-blindness but I always lose the links among so many and have to look'em up again every time.

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The Library / Online Calligraphy books
« on: January 23, 2019, 11:19:22 AM »
I am new in the forum, and certainly very far away from the skills of most members, but I do try to improve. A large part of my attempts comes from online information, of which there is a wealth available.

For this reason I am opening this thread: to share in successive messages links to most of the books I have found in the hope others may find them as useful as I do.

I'll start with books in English, but beware: as a Spaniard, many of the books I use deal with the Spanish hand(s) and its history and are written in Spanish. I do also use books in Italian, French or other languages. However, the writing samples are in most cases self-explanatory and can be followed without difficulty.

I think it would be nice if others did also share their links to publicly available calligraphy books here.

'Nuff said! Time to get started.

1510 - Scribal Pattern Book

You can get this from Yale's Beinecke Library. https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3593605. Click on "Export as PDF" and select "Entire set" to get the full contents as  a single PDF file. Or use the direct link https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/pdfgen/exportPDF.php?bibid=10450154&solrid=3593605.

I think it is better to know how to get it and where from, since this will also enable you to explore other available treasures at this site.

I quote from the book page:

Description:   
Most passages of text in the first part begin with large decorative initials, primarily white floral designs on black grounds. Initial (green and red added) with full penwork border of swirling leaves on f. 1r; initial in colors and containing arms on f. 4r.

Abstract:
Manuscript on parchment of Gregorius Bock, Scribal Pattern Book. This model book for scribes is composed of two parts. The first illustrates alphabets in various scripts; the alphabet is often preceded by a text written in that style. The second part of the codex is composed of decorative initials arranged alphabetically.

A wonderful book to see alphabets and examples of several ancient scripts.


Examples of the chancery hand, engraved

The Getty institute and the Hathi project bring us this nice book on Chancery italic. The web page is at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100240768 and the full book can be obtained by clicking on... "Full view" at the bottom.  There you can download a single page or the full book as PDF (the direct link would be https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/download/pdf?id=gri.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft2n618p0z;orient=0;size=100.

If you visit the page instead of downloading directly, you can see the hierarchy it belongs to and explore the library.

By the way, it was digitized by the Internet Archive, so it can be found there as well https://archive.org/details/examplesofchance00leon.

1618 - Billingsley. The pen's excellencie

You will need Java to browse it at Cambridge University https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/billingsley/ if you check the Zoompan edition to browse it in high quality, but not if you access the simple version in straight JPEG images. The JPEG images have the advantage of being easily downloadable, which allows you to later bind them into a single PDF book.


1856 - Handbook of mediaeval alphabets and devices

You can find this book at Amazon, but also in the Internet Archive in various "versions" (digitizations). It contains mostly embellished capitals, which is a wonderful resource in many occasions. Some of the links are
https://archive.org/details/handbookofmediev00shaw/
https://archive.org/details/handbookofmedia00shawuoft/
https://archive.org/details/handbookofmediae00shawrich/
https://archive.org/details/handbookofmediae00shaw/
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sXoNAAAAQAAJ/ (this one is in B&W)
https://archive.org/details/handbookmediaev01shawgoog/ (this one too)


Alphabets, numerals & devices of the Middle Ages

Also by Shaw and also available at the Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/alphabetsnumeral00shaw/

Well, I'll leave it here and continue on another opportunity. But I am sure you also have your preferred links to free books, so why not share them?

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Introductions / Hi from Madrid, Spain
« on: January 23, 2019, 10:36:24 AM »
Hi, I'm Jose. I'm writing from Madrid, Spain.

I have been interested in Calligraphy ever since I was a child, but must acknowledge that I do not practice too much. Still, I do try (and try to pass it on). With time I have been collection some information here and there that I would like to share. And with time, I expect to draw on your accrued expertise to learn and improve my skills.

So, first and foremost, a big thank you to all in advance. I expect we'll have a lot of fun together.

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