The direction of the thickest strokes is approximately at right angles to the direction of the thin strokes; which commonly approaches the horizontal in early round hands, and is oblique in other hands (see fig. [9] and [10]). The positions both of these strokes in the model, and of your pen, determine the angle of the nib. Therefore, cut the nib across at such an angle to the shaft of the pen that, when you hold the pen naturally, the direction of the thin strokes which it makes on the writing paper will coincide with the direction of the thin strokes in the model; but
- (a) The way in which the shaft is held,
- (b) The angle at which the nib is cut,
- (c) The position of the writing paper,
may all be slightly varied, so that the direction of the thin strokes can be followed exactly (see p. [66]).
The writing paper is cut and ruled exactly in accordance with the model; and the heights of the letters and the widths of the thick strokes in the copy agree as nearly as possible with those in the original. It is therefore a good test for accuracy—when a few lines of writing have been copied—to measure and compare their lengths. If they correspond with their originals, it goes far to prove the copy a good one.
Before copying more of the page, the construction of the letters should be carefully studied. The number and the forms of pen-strokes in each letter [p084] are found by examination—with a magnifying glass if necessary—and by the experimental putting together of strokes, to form a similar letter. For this a large pen, such as a reed, is useful, and it is a good plan to write individual letters and words exactly two, three, or four times their height in the model: both the pen nib and the individual letters are made correspondingly two, three, or four times as wide as in the original.
It is particularly important, in copying, to preserve accurately the proportion of the thick stroke to the height and width of a letter (see p. [324]). These are conveniently measured by the pen nib itself, or by the estimated width of the thick stroke; thus, in the writing shown in fig. [50], the width of the o is approximately five, and the height approximately four, times the width of the thick stroke.
Not only must the copier ascertain what the forms are like and what are their proportions, but he must try to find out how they were made. This is of the greatest importance, for the manner of making a letter, or even a single stroke, affects its form and character with a definite tendency (see p. [416] & fig. [172]). And this becomes more marked the faster the writing. An apparently right form may yet be wrongly—if slowly—made; but in rapid writing, a wrong manner of handling the pen will inevitably produce wrong forms. As the real virtue of penmanship is attained only when we can write quickly, it is well worth training the hand from the beginning in the proper manner.
Patient and careful examination should be made of the changing pen-strokes, and of the mode in which they join—to form letters—and begin and end—to form “heads” and “feet.” This, accompanied [p085] by practical experiments in cutting and handling the pen, will bring out details of the utmost technical value. A certain amount of legitimate “faking” (p. [246]), play of the pen, and sleight of hand (p. [311]), may be found, but, in the main, the regular, natural, thick and thin strokes of the pen, and the orderly arrangement of the writing, give to a manuscript its beauty and character.
Then having cut the nib rightly, you may, in a sense, let the pen do the writing, while you merely follow the strokes of the model, and you will, in course of time, have the pleasure of seeing the same beautiful writing—in the very manner of the ancient scribes—growing under your own hand.