Firstly, I've been distracted for a few days coz I buggered my back. Ooops! Back again now, tho :-)

I've updated my post http://elmsleyrose.blogspot.com/2007/06/script-analysis-on-density.html
to include all of the answers I've got about density of script.
It's such a simple issue, but I just couldn't get a handle on it. I do now.

James Cornwell (Sir Bjorn Jorsalfar, OL, KB
Knight-Principal of Green Knight Academy Medieval Martial Arts
www.GreenKnightAcademy.net)

has been kind enough to offer me further help. He asked me to script a couple of sentences so he could see what my writing was like, as opposed to seperate letters.

These are my very very first sentences written in non-standard gothic textura quadrata but in a historical gothic g.t.q. script, and IMHO they suck.
I'm not doing the letter forms quite correctly and have a strong tendency to make them too wide


I need to write some more to get some more confidence and better letter shaping.

I had another look at the spacing at george's suggestion.

Between words, it's only 1 nib width (as opposed to the standard of 2 nib widths in standard gt.q.) and that spacing is taken from the last flourish to the first flourish (not measured between the last and first verticals).

Between letters, the spacing is somewhat less than 1 nib width. It's difficult to put an exact figure on it. "damn close" is one way to describe it. I've noticed that on the original mss page, the hook serif that extends at 45 degrees from the bottom diamond of the a letter (if it ends in a diamond) intersects with the first diamond/quadrant of the following letter, to give an almost cursive affect.

I was able to buy a William Mitchell Nib of 3 mm width yesterday, and am going to work with that, rather than the springy Speedball. I'm very much looking forward to finding out if this nib helps in improving my script.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22, 2007 at 2:41 PM and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

4 comments

M'lady, the writing does *not* suck. I'm glad that you're being critical, since that helps you find and fix what isn't right, but.....Those are damned good examples of textura, really very even, very dense, solid lines of legible text.

As a matter of fact, it greatly resembles the Metz pontifical, which is my favorite of all the gothic examples. So you're doing great, and your analysis posts are brilliant.

June 25, 2007 at 6:59 AM

Are the curls, or thin lines, or whatever, that are on letters such as l, b, p, etc. possible with a fountain calligraphy pen? I'm aware that you probably did the GtQ with a dip pen, but are they possible to execute with a cartridge calligraphy pen?
Thanks =)

April 15, 2008 at 7:07 PM

oh, and,
great job, by the way :D

April 15, 2008 at 7:08 PM

I'm not sure - it all depends on the nib. Are you a member of the SCA scribe lists? You could ask there.
(I've never used a fountain pen)

April 16, 2008 at 10:42 PM

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