Calligraphy as seen from my bicycle: 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?