Was There Much Different Handwriting in the Middle Ages?
Gothic Bastard Hand*
Oh, yes! It was also a period of the introduction of new styles of handwriting. Some of them are echoed today in the considerable variety of computer fonts that are available. Here is a list of the known medieval handwriting styles:
- Roman Square Hand, or Quadrata
- Roman Rustica
- Roman Versals
- Uncial
- Lombardic Versals
- Roman Half-Uncial
- Artificial Uncial
- Insular Majuscule, or Irish Uncial
- Insular Miniscule
- Luxeuil Minuscule
- Merovingian Charter Hand
- Carolingian Minuscule
- Ottonian
- English Caroline
- Early Gothic
- Gothic Textus Quadratus
- Gothic Textus Precissus
- Round Gothic, or Rotunda
- Gothic semicursive, or Bastard
- Bastard Secretary
- Bâtarde
- Fraktur
- Schwabacher
- Cadels
- Source: http://www.tiac.net/users/waynem/calligraphy/index.html
For script examples, go to:
http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn/UncialScript.html
* from the following site: http://www.tiac.net/users/waynem/calligraphy/bastard.html