Dranchenwald Kingdom University A.S.

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Introduction to Blackletter Calligraphy

Gothic Blackletter
Notes for a practical calligraphy class at Kingdom University AS XXXX.

Introduction
The Blackletter or Gothic script is a calligraphic hand widely used in western Europe from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. Its main advantage over its precursor, Carolingian, is that the letters are simple, faster to write and take up much less space. This was a major advantage as during this period the demand for books had greatly increased. The narrower Gothic script allowed more letters to be Detail from the Malmesbury Bible, 1407 written on the same page, thus minimising the amount of parchment required for each book. The original tendancy to do large illustrations and borders on each page was also curtailed, leading to illustrations often being limited to large initial capitals as shown in the Aberdeen Bestiary.

Pens
Many calligraphy pens and nibs are commercially available. For Blackletter you need a pen with a broad flat nib. If youre new to calligraphy or just want something thats easily available and good for basic practice, the Berol calligraphy felt tip pens are very useful and come in a number of widths. Art shops also often sell double-ended colour calligraphy felt tips with a different tip width at each end. If you want to do something very large and bold, square-tipped marker pens can also be used. For more formal pieces such as scrolls it is more usual to use either a specialist calligraphy fountain pen or a dip pen with a removable nib. Lettering created with these looks fabulous but the pens themselves often take a bit of getting used to. Pilot and Berol do ArtPens which are broad-nibbed fountain pens which are much easier to use than the more traditional dip pens. The pen should be held close to upright with the line of the nib about 30 from the horizontal. This gives the correct weight to the downstrokes and the sideways strokes.

Ruling up lines
It is much easier to maintain consistency between letters if you draw them between pencil lines. These guide lines are still visible on many mediaeval manuscripts. The separation of the lines is defined in terms of the width of the nib of the pen. Gothic blackletter miniscules (lower case Height for letters) use a height of four nib widths for Height for Height for numerals miniscules majuscules the body of the letter plus two pen widths each for ascenders and descenders. Majuscules (upper case letters) use a height of six nib widths for the body plus two nib widths for descenders. Numerals use a height of five pen widths. When drawing up the lines use a hard pencil so that it leaves only a faint line. These can be erased once the ink is dry.

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Dranchenwald Kingdom University A.S. XXXX

Introduction to Blackletter Calligraphy

Creating the letters

The three illustrations below show the individual letters in both miniscule and majuscule, together with numerals and punctuation. The grey lines show the order and direction of the strokes used to make up the letters. The most important stroke in Blackletter is the downstroke, as this forms the basis of most of the letters. It may either fill just the body of the letter or extend into the ascender or descender. Practice getting the line straight and the serifs equal before going on to the other parts of the letters. The large curves of the majuscules also take some practise to get the balance right. The maexcules are, in general, far more curved than the miniscules and therefore much wider. The letter S, in majuscule or miniscule, can be very difficult to get write, so dont be disheartened if it appears unbalanced!

Resources
Pre-lined practice papers (in MS Word format) for use with the Berol calligraphy pens are available at http://notendur.unak.is/not/nicolaw/stormbird/downloads/index.html. Wikipedia has an excellent article on Blackletter, its history and development. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackletter The Aberdeen Bestiary is an excellent example of both Blackletter and illumination, and is available in its entirety on the web http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/

Gothic Blackletter Miniscules

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Dranchenwald Kingdom University A.S. XXXX

Introduction to Blackletter Calligraphy

Gothic Blackletter Majescules

Gothic Blackletter Numerals

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