One of the things I love about making pens is when I get to use wood that has a story behind it. It might be wood from an historic tree – like the 300-year-old walnut tree in Swindon’s Lydiard Park. Or I might create a pen from the handle of a hammer that belonged to someone’s grandfather. Of no significance to anyone else – but to that person, every pen stroke they make will evoke memories and perhaps, record new stories.
So, thinking of stories, I thought I’d explore some stories surrounding what I do. And the obvious starting point has to be the history of handwriting itself. Because, of course, before humans ever developed pens we found ways to make marks. Marks that evolved into writing. We started with simple drawings before progressing to pictographs. At length pictographs standardized – and that was the start of handwriting.
Systems that we’d recognize as writing systems developed in three major cultures within 1200 years of each other. They’re as follows:
· Around 3000 BC, Mesopotamian Cuneiform developed. This included Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite, and others.
· The period around 2800 BC saw Egyptian hieroglyphs appear and …
· … around 1800 BC the precursor to Kanji Chinese
As for why humans needed handwriting anyway – well as cultures became more sophisticated the development of handwriting allowed them to record all their important stuff. Events, history, laws and mathematical theories. How would Pythagoras have got on without handwriting?
Then of course there’s science, medicine and literature – and more.
And we still record all these things – albeit largely electronically. Which might account for many people’s handwriting getting worse. While I can’t promise that one of my pens will give you stylish and clear handwriting, I can promise it will be a thing of beauty that you’ll love using.
Handwriting History Facts
1. CHARLEMAGNE WAS A STICKLER FOR HANDWRITING
The Emperor Charlemagne could barely read and write. But did that stop him from understanding the importance of literacy? No, it did not! Well not if his 9thC decree is anything to go by. In said decree, he declared that everyone must use the same script right across the Holy Roman Empire. This being across an area that covered most of Western Europe.
Called Carolingian Miniscule this uniform script dominated writing in France, Germany, Northern Italy, and England right up to the 11th century. The Gothic script that we now associate with mediaeval times derives from the Carolingian Minuscule that popped up during the 12th century. Revived in the 15th Century, Carolingian Miniscule formed the basis for Western typography as we know it.
2. MONKS WERE NOT KEEN ON PRINTING PRESSES
In an essay ‘in Praise of Scribes’, a 15th C monk called Johannes Trithemius defended the need for handwriting. Well he would eh? He claimed that, while scripture could last 1000 years, a printed book was a ‘thing of paper and in a short time will decay entirely." He went on to predict that history would judge "the manuscript book superior to the printed book.’ None of which had any relation at all to him losing his once steady job to a machine.
And then, proving that there’s nothing new under the sun when it comes to fearing technology: Martin Luther complained about books in the same way that people now mutter darkly about the sea of information online. He said: ‘the multitude of books is a great evil. There is no measure or limit to this form of writing”
3. HISTORICALLY, HANDWRITING PROFESSIONALS WERE UPWARDLY MOBILE
So then, if printing put scribes out of work, what did they do instead? Teaching, tutoring and writing books about penmenship is what. And they got a bit rich in the process – richer than they ever would have as simple scribes. Every cloud eh?
What’s more, they climbed the social ladder. When business and government hired secretaries for the first time in history, these ex-scribes filled those roles. Their knowledge of different scripts made them a valuable commodity, helping them climb the Mediaeval, European class ranks.
4. PUNCTUATION WAS RARE UNTIL THE 18TH CENTURY
Before literacy and standardized spelling were widespread, spelling varied from person to person. We didn’t see dictionaries until the 17thcentury. And, even then, we didn’t have regular, standardized spelling for another century. And punctuation was worse still. According to Trubek, this was "largely non-existent or no standardized’ until the 18th century.
The mid-1700s saw the establishment of special schools to teach handwriting techniques or penmanship. These schools employed master penmen to copy a variety of official documents.
Teaching handwriting is no longer on the curriculum in many schools these days.
A few years ago, in the USA, teaching ‘real writing’ stopped being a curriculum obligation. The argument being a triumph of the digital age over learning Cursive.
If, as indeed is the case (and more on this another time) we’re getting a resurgence of interest in fountain pens, then there’s surely a need to teach our children to write properly?
This is a great article. Well balanced with information providing a background on writing never previously know, to me! I truly hope there will be a revival of handwriting, in spite of the electronic alternative. The act of handwriting forces one to think about the purpose of what one wishes to convey, the structure of the correspondence, the presentation, and the desired impact. To send a physical derive correspondence should not be underestimated. The power of the pen has been an underlying bedrock of many a global history making event! Keep writing Simon, you are a natural and extremely blessed man.
Thank you Maxine. There is still interest in writing and a definite resurgence of interest in fountain pens. Which I am very pleased about! One of the few nice things about the lockdown is that I have received some handwritten cards from people I have not spoken to in a long time, and it was an utter joy to read them