What is writing: a history of handwriting.

Writing is a codified system of standard symbols: the repetition of agreed-upon simple shapes to represent ideas. The development of writing allowed cultures to record events, history, laws; theories in math, science, medicine; create literature and more.

The ancient Phoenician alphabet developed around 1500 BC. It contained 22 phonetically-based symbols and was widely used in the Mediterranean region. By 800 BC, it had spread to Greece, and under the rule of Alexander the Great, it further spread to Egypt, Persia, and India.

The Roman Empire rose to power in the 2nd century BC, and by 146 BC had conquered Greece. The Romans adopted many aspects of Greek culture, including the alphabet. This 23-letter alphabet spread across Europe as far as England, and also into Northern Africa and the Persian Gulf. Capital letters were carved for inscriptions on structures throughout the empire, while handwritten capitals condensed the letter forms themselves so that more text could fit on expensive materials like parchment and papyrus.

By 400 AD, more ordinary written letter forms were used, and letters began to flow together to save time and space on parchment. This was the earliest sign of lowercase letter forms, with ascenders, descenders and ligatures between the letters. As Christianity spread throughout the empire, Bibles were copied and distributed to the extent allowed by the limitations of producing each one by hand. St. Patrick brought a Bible with him to Ireland, and the Irish began producing their own elaborately designed Bibles.

The Celtic style of lettering involved writing the letters within 1-inch square guides, and were known as uncials. Around 600 AD, smaller half-uncials appeared, which closely resembled our modern lowercase letters. The letters were very rounded in style, and ascenders and descenders were extended on the lowercase letters. Also, word spacing was increased to improve readability. In the late 700's AD, the Emporer Charlemagne appointed an English monk to oversee standardized lettering practices for copying texts. Large uncials were used at the beginning of sentences, and lowercase letters were now a uniform part of the Roman alphabet.

This style developed into Romanesque hand, and later into the Gothic style in Germany, around 900 AD. Gothic lettering was very thick, angular, and tightly set between letters and words, to save space. The dot on the lowercase i was added to distinguish it from similar strokes in the m, n and u. The letter u was created separately from the v, whereas previously the v was used for both sounds (such as sirivs instead of sirius). The w was created in the 12th century to accommodate more European languages, where the v would not serve. The j evolved from a modified i in the 15th century. This brought the Roman alphabet to 26 letters total.

When Gutenberg created his movable type press in the mid-1400's, he modeled his letters upon the writing style of the scribes at the time. As the technology advanced, more upright letters were designed for printing, and similar styles were created by others like Manutius, Jenson and Caslon, then in the late 1500's, Robert Granjon designed type faces that more closely resembled script writing, and these became quite popular.

The development of copperplate engraving allowed for the use of very delicate type faces with many flourishes and curliques in the script-like letters, which greatly influenced handwriting. Handwriting masters began to grow in number throughout Europe, to produce beautifully written documents. Elegant handwriting became a sign of social status.

By the mid-1700's, there were special schools established to teach handwriting techniques, or penmanship. Master penmen were employed to copy official documents such as land deeds, birth and marriage certificates, military commissions, and other legal documents. Timothy Matlack was commissioned to write the final copy of the Declaration of Independence, and Jacob Shallus penned the final copy of the Constitution of the United States of America.

In the early 1900's, it became standard to teach penmanship to children in public schools, rather than in exclusive penmanship schools aimed at adults for professional usage. Today, the Zaner-Bloser and D'Nealian methods are the 2 most popular methods taught in U.S. schools.