Sta Maria della Grazie, Milan

 This is the church where the famous Last Supper by Leonardo is. I mean the Last Supper is in a separate room, formerly a refectory, but now a museum of just one picture. To see that museum one has to purchase tickets well in advance, however, the entry to the church is free whenever it is open. The church is part Gothic and part Renaissance and one can find some good Renaissance calligraphy there. One of them is dated 1537. The lettering used is Capitalis Monumentalis, but with the characteristic contractions, some letters being smaller and inside others, normal size.

There is a book available, based on this blog.  

On the blog there is, so to speak, more room, one can show more illustrations there. Blogs, however, come and go, there is no certainty that it will be there ten years from now. The book, on the other hand, once you acquire it, will last, one can be sure of that.

San Ambrogio in Milan

 In San Ambrogio church in Milan, on the walls of the porch before the church, there are marble slabs which (I am guessing) used to be floor slabs in the church. These are apparently memorials for someone who died (although I have to admit that not knowing Latin I don't know what is written on them). They seem to have been made in various epochs. Some are dated, in others I can't find anything that would suggest a date but judging after the shape of letters some may be much older than the dated ones. Anyway seeing only the dated ones one can see the evolution of lettering from the textura and Lombardic towards classical capitalis elegans.

Here I am presenting first the dated ones and following them the undated

Dated 1444

Dated 1491

Dated 1496

Dated 1498

Dated 1514

Dated 1581. Interesting is the M in the date,
made of a "C" then "I" and a "C" turned backwards.
It seems to resemble a Lombardic M

Dated 1630

Dated 1693

Undated, using Lombardic letters

There is a book available, based on this blog.  

On the blog there is, so to speak, more room, one can show more illustrations there. Blogs, however, come and go, there is no certainty that it will be there ten years from now. The book, on the other hand, once you acquire it, will last, one can be sure of that.

Chichester cathedral

In Chichester, south of England, I found some interesting calligraphy panels. Some were produced during the period of English iconoclasm, when there were no pictures in churches but calligraphy panels would be framed like painted pictures. There are dates on each panel (just in case someone wandered when was this period of iconoclasm).

There is a book available, based on this blog.  

On the blog there is, so to speak, more room, one can show more illustrations there. Blogs, however, come and go, there is no certainty that it will be there ten years from now. The book, on the other hand, once you acquire it, will last, one can be sure of that.

Epitaphs in Melide

 Whoever walked the camino de Compostela and visited Melide, might have entered St Peter's church there (strangely when I was there most of the pilgrims were interested in the famous octopus restaurants than in visiting churches). In that church, which is Gothic, are two epitaphs with large inscriptions. I can see a date 1430 in one of them, which would fit the script used.

Just opposite the church, on the same plaza, there are stones with inscriptions in the wall. There is a plaque informing about the date when the building was built. The script seems to be rather late for that date, but it is possible that older stones with inscriptions on it were used. The script seems to be quite similar to the epitaphs in the church and may be from the same period.

There is a book available, based on this blog.  

On the blog there is, so to speak, more room, one can show more illustrations there. Blogs, however, come and go, there is no certainty that it will be there ten years from now. The book, on the other hand, once you acquire it, will last, one can be sure of that.

Gospels of St Chad

 Once travelling in the English Midlands I stopped at Lichfield and looked around its cathedral. It is a magnificent building in itself but apart from that I saw a manuscript of the Gospels of St Chad, of very early middle ages. It seems to be almost twice as old as the Cathedral itself, which is Gothic. It is written in Insular script, like the Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels.

There is a book available, based on this blog.  

On the blog there is, so to speak, more room, one can show more illustrations there. Blogs, however, come and go, there is no certainty that it will be there ten years from now. The book, on the other hand, once you acquire it, will last, one can be sure of that.

Fraktur in Szczecin

 Szczecin is a city in what is now north-western Poland but for centuries was the capital of the principality of Pomerania. In its principal museum I found a framed picture which basically contained just calligraphy. Possibly a part of a bigger epitaph, it is the genealogy of Andreas Franz Bulgrin, who died in 1658, which is likely the approximate date of this picture.

Pictures like this, containing only calligraphy, were not unusual in this part of Europe with its strict Protestant ethics (in fact the church in Luckau, presented below in this blog, is not very far from Szczecin, although now in Germany). In the 17th century churches in the Catholic part of Europe had illusionist paintings of the open Heaven on the ceiling, whereas in the Protestant part there were no pictures, just calligraphy.

In the presented example most of the calligraphy in in the German Fraktur style, with a few names written in something that looks like Capitalis Quadrata but does not keep the classical proportions of that script. In fact the calligrapher seems to have struggled with this script, whereas his Fraktur is of much better quality.

There is a book available, based on this blog.  

On the blog there is, so to speak, more room, one can show more illustrations there. Blogs, however, come and go, there is no certainty that it will be there ten years from now. The book, on the other hand, once you acquire it, will last, one can be sure of that.

Cancellaresca at St Michael's Mount

St Michael's Mount in Cornwall looks very much like its more famous French namesake over The Channel - an island in high tide but accessible dry shod in the low. It used to be (like the namesake) a monastery, after king Henry's dissolution it became an aristocratic residence and now is a tourist attraction. It is certainly impressive, both the monastic church and the palatial rooms, and well maintained rockery garden around.

With all the attractions I guess few people notice stained glass windows in one of the rooms. I guess even fewer people notice any calligraphy there. But I did. They are not windows from the time of the monastery and in fact they are not proper stained glass, they are really paintings on glass. I found one with an inscription in cancellaresca. The inscription is not in English, seems to me to be in Dutch, which would suggest it was brought here from somewhere else. The style of the painting above would suggest it was created sometime in the 17th century.

There is a book available, based on this blog.  

On the blog there is, so to speak, more room, one can show more illustrations there. Blogs, however, come and go, there is no certainty that it will be there ten years from now. The book, on the other hand, once you acquire it, will last, one can be sure of that.