Siena exihibition in London National Gallery

 Earlier this year there was an exhibition of painting from Siena that led the way to Renaissance. At least one picture had writing in Lombardic capitals. Can't be seen anymore (at least in London), but I reproduce it here.

Santiago de Compostela

 When walking the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, you end up in the church of Santiago. There is some interesting calligraphy in the church. One which seems to me Renaissance is incrusted, which means somebody must have written the letters by hand, but later they have been cut out in stone. Seems quite a lot of work. The other is dated 1715, and is engraved in stone.

Archivo de las Indias in Seville

 The Archivo de las Indias in Seville is a bit like the British Library: it is free to enter and you can see some of the most interesting documents there. Of course all the documents are post-Columbus, as “las Indias” really means America here. The documents are hand-written, one can see the delelopement of document hand. The earliest, like the treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, are written basically in style of mediaeval documents, later documents (some of which are dated) show the developments of later styles.

There are no Neudorfer-style fraktur initials, but in some documents we see clearly Baroque flourishes.

The treaty of Tordesillas

The treaty of Tordesillas

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533 

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533

Charge against Hernan Cortes, 1533

Document of 1663

Document of 1663

Document of 1665

Document of 1665

Document of 1665

Warning about English pirates, 1683

Document of 1744

Dominican Museum in Cracow

 There is an interesting museum in the cloisters of the Dominican church in Cracow. I mean it is interesting if you are either into history of the Dominicans or into calligraphy. There are some documents pertaining Dominican history here, they are of course mediaeval and written in the best hand. They are examples of official documents hand of the time. The first is so called "passport of st. Jacek", a letter explaining his credentials to whoever may be concerned (he was sent by the pope to organise the Dominican order in Poland). The second, of almost the same date, is the document permitting the Dominicans to build their church in Cracow. The third, a century later, is a document establishing the papal inquisition in Cracow. There also is a missal written for a pope, of course also in the best hand possible. It is an example of texture capitalis quadrata in the best version, although apparently created late for this style.

There are also examples of later styles. Apparently in the 17thcentury in Poland there was a custom of writing on the pictures, an information of who is on the picture would be written on it, not always in the best hand but in the style of the times. The styles are capitalis minumentalis with antiqua and also some corsiva, of course written by hand with a brush. They seem to have been written with a relatively wide brush held so that vertical lines would be thicker than the horizontal ones.

I also found a picture from the 19th century with descriptions of what is on the picture in quite a good hand of the time. In fact I wander how it was written there. It appears to be a style of hand writing taught at schools at the time, with a steel nib, which pressed when writing vertical strokes would produce a thicker line. But how it was done on an oil painting?

"Passport" of St. Jacek (also called St. Hiacynth),1227

Charter of the Dominican monastery in Cracow, 1227

Charter of the papal inquisition in Poland, 1327

Life of St. Jacek, 1360

Papal missal, 1570