Calligraphy Script: Art in the form of Letters
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The use of calligraphy was used over 500 years ago as a way to communicate in the form of letter writing. Calligraphy scripts were used to make books before the inventions of the printing press by scribe works in a scriptorium. These scribe workers used a quill that was dipped in ink to write of material made out of parchment and vellum paper. Some of the styles of calligraphy that the scribe workers used were Black-Letter, Rustic, and Carolingian.
Some of the calligraphy styles that are used today are Arabic, Western or Roman, European, Chinese or Oriental, and Asian. You will find two types of European styles of handwriting that were used; Cursive script was used for records or letters while for more important documents the Uncial style was used.
Calligraphy in the countries of India, Japan and China was a well respected form of art that was used for centuries as a form of communication and art. In Europe calligraphy developed around 35,000 to 50,000 BC in painting in caves located in Lascaux, France as abstractions that later would become the letters that we now know as the alphabet.
One of the most interesting and beautiful forms of calligraphy was developed nearly 5500 years ago by the Egyptians, known as hieroglyphs. The Egyptian calligraphy hieroglyphics used symbols and pictures to designate sounds, objects, and concepts, which when put together told a story or delivered a message. Many of the Egyptian hieroglyphs were considered to be sacred and were used to inscribe scared inscriptions on the inside of tombs and monuments.
Some 2500 years later the Phoenicians developed a system of letters that later came to be known as the alphabet. This system had 24 letters that were written from right to left. In fact, the first two letters of the Phoenician alphabet is where the word alphabet came from, “aleph” and “bet”.
Later in 850 BC the Greeks took over the Phoenicians alphabet, introducing a writing system that had alternate lines written in opposite directions called boustrophedon. This type of writing didn’t last long as the first line was written from right to left while the second line was written from left to write. A bit confusing, so a later style was developed which we all use today.
With the passing of time people began to write with a stylus on wax tablets that allowed them to erase and be reused. The use of the Cursive script was developed as a means of correspondence, while the use of parchment made from animal skin was used for scrolls and books.
Today there are many methods that are used to produce calligraphy. It seems that calligraphy is a dying art, replaced by the typewriter, computer, and the many graphic programs that are available. There are still a few devoted artists that are committed to the dying art of calligraphy which can still be seen in their works of art. Calligraphy is truly a beautiful piece of work, whether written or in the form of a painting.
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