Texts today are overwhelmingly printed, not handwritten. Therefore, almost no one thinks about the features and improvement of handwriting these days. Before the invention of computers and laptops, texts were created entirely by hand. At the same time, they could be easily identified both by handwriting and writing style.
Beautiful fonts
One of the most demanded professions in the past was the profession of a calligrapher. People of this specialty wrote texts in a special way - using beautiful fonts. For example, at the end of the year before last - beginning of the last century, the ornate Spencerian style was very popular in Western countries.
This type of font was used, for example, to create the Coca-Cola logo. In the United States, at the beginning of the last century, the Spenserian script was often even forced to write children in schools.
Medieval style
In more ancient times, there were other, no less original characteristic fonts used to write, for example, books. To the uninitiated, the vintage calligraphic styles seem the same. However, palaeographers - historians who study extant manuscripts - can easily distinguish fonts both in time and place of use. In the Middle Ages, for example, calligraphers, most of whom were monks, used only three main styles of writing: pregothic, gothic and caroline.
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Fonts are the simplest thing that historians can identify. By the manner and style of writing ancient manuscripts, paleographers easily identify many other indirect things.
Wooster's trembling hand
Historians gave such an unusual nickname to one of the ancient monks of the Middle Ages, who once created just a huge number of manuscripts. About 20 texts of this calligrapher with fifty thousand annotations have survived to this day.
A distinctive feature of this ancient scribe was that, unfortunately, his hands were shaking pretty badly. The letters and symbols of the notes he made noticeably "dance" - they are tilted left and right.
What caused the tremor: the first guess
Of course, the ancient monk of Worcester Monastery was very interested in historians. Palaeographers wondered what exactly could have caused the tremor of the hands of a church minister. The first thing that came to the scientists' mind was the old age of the calligrapher. However, later this seemingly plausible version was not confirmed.
The fact is that the currently known works of the Worcester monk have a large time spread of several decades. At the same time, hand tremors are observed in all the calligrapher's manuscripts, both early and later. In addition, while studying the work of the monk, paleographers noticed that over time, the tremor in the minister of the church gradually increased.
Cause - a neurodegenerative disorder
The second thing that scientists have suggested is that the monk's hands were trembling due to a pathology that is quite common both in the past and today, called neurodegenerative disorder. To test this theory, historians have recruited several volunteers with this problem.
Further, the researchers instructed the people they found to write several texts in a certain style. After that, scholars compared the work of volunteers with the work of a medieval monk. The experience carried out by paleographers confirmed that the ancient calligrapher, in fact, most likely had neurodegenerative tremors.
Difficult living conditions in medieval monasteries
Having determined the reason for the trembling of the monk's hands, the paleographers were, of course, able to draw some conclusions about the lifestyle of this person. It is known from history that the ancient church scribes had to work a lot. Perhaps the representatives of this profession in the Middle Ages did not work from morning till night until they fell in the fields. However, they most likely performed their work in very bad conditions and for a long time.
Worcester's table and chair were very likely very uncomfortable. In addition, the monk, according to historians, had to work for a long time in the evenings or even at night with a lack of artificial lighting. In the summer this calligrapher, like other representatives of the profession, did not get up from the table, according to scientists, for almost whole days. Because of this, he even sometimes had wrist cramps, which is easily identified by his handwriting.
In winter, the calligrapher's joints were very tense due to the fact that he had to write in a poorly heated room. The monk's hands were simply very cold, because of which the fingers became inactive.
Writing utensils
The minister of the church had to write, of course, using only ink and a pen. There were simply no other tools for creating texts in Medieval Europe. This also made the calligrapher inconvenient. After all, the minister of the church could not choose, like modern people with tremors, the writing utensils most comfortable for him in weight and length.
Did the monk rest?
The paleographers studied not only the manner of Worcester's writing proper. Scientists also paid attention to smaller details - differences in the location and size of characters, which are not often found in the text. So, paleographers noticed that sometimes the trembling of the hands of a monk became less noticeable.
In relation to this fact, historians have put forward two main versions. Some paleographers have suggested that the calligrapher's tremor was reduced due to the fact that he sometimes got the opportunity to just take a break from his work. Indeed, doctors confirm that in neurodegenerative disorders, even brief relaxation has a beneficial effect on patients' hands.
Did the monk drink alcohol?
The second version, oddly enough, was that the monk from time to time took a small amount of alcohol. Some forms of tremor in humans, as noted by doctors, can actually be significantly weakened after drinking. In modern people, hand tremors are often eliminated even after they have drunk just one glass of beer.
It is this version that currently seems to historians to be the most plausible. The fact is that the order in monasteries in relation to work in the Middle Ages was very strict. And therefore, hardly anyone would have allowed Worcester to leave the workplace at the table, even for a short time, to rest. Wine in churches, as you know, was always welcome in small quantities.
The fact that the monk took alcohol from time to time, among other things, is confirmed by the fact that he had just the usual mild nervous disorder, and not, for example, Parkinson's disease or ataxia. With such serious ailments, taking even a small amount of alcohol would only lead to an increase in the tremor of the hands of the clergyman.
Another monk with trembling hands
Of course, paleographers were also interested in whether in the past there were clergy in the monasteries with the same problem as in Worcester. And soon they found other manuscripts of ancient scribes with hand tremors.
For example, several texts of a French monk have survived to this day, the symbols in which "dance" strongly. After examining these documents, the paleographers concluded that this church minister had an even greater tremor problem than the Worcester calligrapher.
The latter's letter, although “trembled,” was still quite smooth and controlled. The French minister of the church, in addition to the trembling of symbols, also observed the uncertainty of the letter. From this, scientists concluded that this monk did not suffer from a neurodegenerative disorder, but dystonia.
Lazko Natalia