The Calligrapher's handbook - Heather Child

This comprehensive collection of eighteen authoritative articles is written for those who are seriously interested in practising, or in learning about, the skills of penmanship and the art of fine writing. The authors, members of the distinguished Society of Scribes and Illuminators, are professional craftsmen with extensive experience. They write of the methods and practices that they have found most satisfactory.

John Woodcock writes on formal scripts and their presentation, Donald Jackson on quill preparation and gilding, Sam Somerville on parchment and vellum, and Sydney Cockerell on manuscript binding. There is plentiful and up-to-date information on writing instruments, pigments, writing surfaces, letter design, handwriting, decoration and printing techniques, with a selected list of books for reference and further reading.

Apart from the many explanatory line drawings and alphabets, there are some fifty reproductions of work by contemporary calligraphers and binders.