[Fig. 173.]—Part of [Plate IX.] (Charter of CNUT), enlarged three times linear (see p. [416]).
[Fig. 174.]—Part of [Plate X.], enlarged three times linear (see pp. [417]–[419]).
The real importance to us of these early types [p310] lies, I think, in their relation to the Roman Small-Letter (pp. [418]–[19] & [429]–[83]), and their great possibilities of development into modern formal hands approaching the “Roman” type.
ROMAN SMALL-LETTERS Ex.: (Italian) Plates [XIX.], [XX.] (15th century); figs. [175], [176] (16th century): figs. [147], [148] (modern MS.).
The Roman Small-Letter is the universally recognised type in which the majority of books and papers are printed. Its form has been in use for over 400 years (without essential alteration) and as far as we are concerned it may be regarded as permanent.
And it is the object of the scribe or letter-maker gradually to attain a fine, personal formal hand, assimilating to the Roman Small-Letter; a hand against the familiar and present form of which no allegations of unreadableness can be raised, and a hand having a beauty and character now absent or unfamiliar. The related Italic will be mastered for formal MS. work (p. [315]), and the ordinary handwriting improved (p. [323]). These three hands point the advance of the practical, modern scribe.
The Roman Small-Letter is essentially a pen form (and preferably a “slanted-pen” form; p. [305]), and we would do well to follow its natural development from the Roman Capital—through Round Letters and Slanted-Pen forms—so that we may arrive at a truly developed and characteristic type, suitable for any formal manuscript work and full of suggestions for printers and letter-craftsmen generally.
A finished form, such as that in [Plate XX.]—or even that of fig. [175]—would present many [p311] difficulties to the unpractised scribe, and one who so began would be apt to remain a mere copyist, more or less unconscious of the vitality and character of the letter. An earlier type of letter—such as that in [Plate VIII.]—enables the scribe to combine speed with accuracy, and fits him at length to deal with the letters that represent the latest and most formal development of penmanship.