The civilization of ancient Rome left us with a legacy of one strange paradox - the books of ancient Rome did not reach us, probably because of deep antiquity, but the Romanesque font did not just come down, but is the most used font in the 21st century!
FIG. 2
The keyboard is usually set to one of the variants of the Roman font - isn't that strange?
The Romanesque font is very beautiful, it is perfectly balanced, it is harmonious! It is easy to write with almost any instrument! Even Microsoft! This well-designed font is a product of high technology and great experience of previous generations of calligraphers, like any advanced technology it should have its own development path, well, just like airplanes - first there were plywood shelves, then the first all-metal aircraft, and only then the "dry superjet"! I think so!
When my article about ancient manuscripts of the 19th century came out, a simple question was asked in the comments: how do you think really ancient manuscripts look? I think like this:
FIG. 3
FIG. 4
FIG. five
Promotional video:
As they say - the material corresponds to the tools and application technologies … everything is logical, a wooden die and a knife, well, the font is appropriate!.. damn it … even went to smoke … what a thought - this is the logic of assessing the reliability! Material, tool and technology of use must match each other! I’m not going to philosophize too much… if you take a plastic panel and scribble a crooked nail on it - Vasya, where is illogicality, not correctness - material! But if you scrawl on a birch tree with the same nail in a beautiful Romanesque font, there is not even so - write - YOU! Then again there will be a violation of logic! And if you burn out crookedly on a birch with a laser - the same wasya, there will be another violation of logic! That's why I see the inscription on the stone in Romanesque, I see a violation of logic! I will try to prove it now….
Here is an ancient runic inscription - everything is logical, crooked.
FIG. 6
Here is an ancient Etruscan inscription, the same sikos nakos and sideways across!
FIG. 7
But how is it - the Etruscans created Rome, and people never learned to write - wild, what can you take from them!
What is a font - this is an established form of writing, generally accepted, widespread, standard as in GOST! That is what we see in Rome, all the inscriptions are designed in the same style with one font!
It takes time and a lot of paper to form a font, to write, write, write, even one person for a long time of real writing develops, as it were, his own font - we call it handwriting, remember how they tried to put handwriting on us at school - calligraphy and that, what is it like now?
For the formation of the font, the material on which you write and the tool with which you write is very important.
Here is a birch bark letter, the material is very difficult to write, as it has a pronounced texture, which is why the tool determines - a special knife and writing - cuts, and pay attention - it is written across the fibers, otherwise the knife will cut through the birch bark and it will be difficult to clearly finish the line … everything seems to be logical, but there is one thing in this example - the slope of the letters (!!!) was written by a person who was taught calligraphy on a lined notebook, he got used to it! I honestly don't know what kind of birch bark it is and how it dates from but….
FIG. 8
This birch bark is already more like reality - the letters are dancing.
FIG. nine
Here is another ancient text. Papyrus, written with a stick, look how, as you write, the stick dries up and the letters are not spelled out, but the handwriting is good, we would all like this - it means there is a school of writing. But in general, everything is logical - the material, the tool corresponds to it - the wand and the font - the usual recipe. Now, if in the 20th century it will be logical to write like this, it will be very difficult to date! So either a very good fake or a real ancient inscription!
FIG. 10
For example, the classic of writing with a goose pen - the width of the stroke changes from the force of pressure, from narrow to very wide - the pen is soft and allows, but for example the metal one does not allow, the width of the stroke is determined by the width of the pen - it will not work out wider!
FIG. 11
But Gothic, but written with a metal pen - the width and line of the butt are the same everywhere!
FIG. 12
It is necessary to tell a little about nibs for writing, modern, poster! So it will be clearer what I mean!
Here are some simple writing pens:
FIG. 13
And these are nibs for calligraphy, they are wide, which allows you to make a letter of different thickness in different areas - vertical and horizontal lines.
FIG. 14
This inscription is either in a goose feather but widely cut off, flat or metal but still of very low quality, that is, this inscription is ancient.
FIG. 15
Calligraphy, work with a wide pen, you can see it very well on the symbols in the arabesque cubes!
FIG. 16
FIG. 17
This is how a caligrapher writes with a pen from top to bottom - wide to the side narrow!
FIG. 18
Now look at this masterpiece of calligraphy - this font could have appeared only with the advent of printing, it is possible to write like this with your hands, but it is very difficult, and in a manuscript the writing time is important, not only the quality, but if the fonts are already made of metal, then there is no problem!