Italian Roundhand

Roundhand (also Round Hand) is a style of handwriting and calligraphy originated in England in the 1660s, as the result of a gradual process of adoption with Italian Chancery. Characterized by an open flowing hand and subtle contrast of thick and thin strokes deriving from pointed-cut quill and metal pointed nibs, its popularity rapidly grew, becoming codified as a standard through the publication of printed writing manuals. Later in the 17th and 18th centuries, English writing masters including George Bickham, George Shelley and Charles Snell helped to propagate Roundhand's popularity, so that by the mid-18th century the Roundhand style had spread across Europe and crossed the Atlantic to North America where its cursivity was accentuated under the influence of American writing masters such as Joseph Carstairs and Benjamin Foster.

Technically, Italian Roundhand is more drawing than writing, though it shares similar contour to English Roundhand. The distribution of thick and thin strokes was modified, which resembles the natural ink flow and utilitize recognizable loop turn from down stroke to up stroke. Visually it seems to have no pen lift while writing, but in fact requires thoughtful retouch on monoline letterforms. Italian Roundhand also shows the creativity of using pen manipulation, such as reversed pen position, uncommon slope angle and variations of form. Care should be taken not to fall into the trap of drawing spurious or artificial curves which are alien to the spirit of the letter. Whether drawn or written this style remains quite remarkable when appropriately used.

In this workshop we will learn how to write Italian Roundhand with pointed nib, either straight or oblique holders, then explore the dedicated flourished styles that possibly come out from simple letters.

Materials List
• Straight/Oblique Pen Holder
• Fine pointed nibs, various flexibility (Gillott 303, Leonardt Principle, Hunt 101, etc)
• Dark color ink, white & vermillion gouache
• White & black paper (preferred blank paper)
• Couple sheets of texture or handmade paper
• Pencil, ruler, eraser
• Watercolors (optional)