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Italic script, also known as chancery cursive and Italic hand, is a semi-cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy that was developed during the Renaissance in Venice, Italy during the 1500s. Italic script has been in use since its inception and is still used by calligraphers in the Western world.

The term "Italic" is used to describe a family of scripts utilized in handwriting and typesetting that derived from Humanist scripts. It is primarily characterized by a rightward slope of 45°, asymmetrical letter arcs, and an oval shape.

History

Prior to modern typesetting and the invention of the printing press, penmanship was a specialized skill usually reserved for the clergy or other monastic purposes.

Before the development of Italic script, Blackface, or Gothic typeface, was the primarily used script in Europe. During the Renaissance in Italy, Gothic script slowly started to fall out of favor as it was time consuming to create and oftentimes illegible due to its ornate nature. Gothic Rotunda also took up space when printing due to its compact and round nature. Renaissance scholars wanted to develop a new script more appropriate for copying Classical Latin texts. Francisco Petrarca was once of the first scribes to voice discontent with Gothic scripts but neglected to develop a style fully divorced from Gothic.

The next generation of Humanist scribes, namely Florence Scribe Giovanni Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, developed the littera antiqua or littera humanistica hand which was also further developed by Niccolo de' Niccoli, whose style was favored by the Medici family and other book collectors.

Niccoli and other Renaissance scribes at the time felt that a more streamlined script would be appropriate for copying the Classics and other Latin texts. Scribe Niccolo Niccoli developed the script further from Blackletter by including an incline to the typeface.

First use of Italics in Virgil's Opera (1501)

The first recorded use of Italic script came from Virgil’s Opera printed in 1501 in Venice commissioned by Aldus Manutius. Typesetter Francesco Griffo was inspired by Humanistic cursive (littera humanistica cursiva) and Roman capitals. Manutius and Griffo are credited with inventing Italics and using it to produce cheap books for mass consumption. Manutius wanted to create books that “everyone can more conveniently hold them in their hands, and not just read them, but study them thoroughly.”

Development

Early Italic script was based on Humanist minuscule, which was directly influenced by Carolingian minuscule. Both scripts were characterized by streamlined elegance and small size. Later on during the invention of the printing press, this early form of Italic called littera humanistica became the basis for modern-day "Roman" font.

The first cursive variant titled littera antiqua corsiva was created by Niccolo de' Niccoli around 1420. Niccoli was not a professional scribe and developed the hand to quickly and legibly copy texts for his own purpose or to lend out copies. The characteristic slope of Italics was introduced by Niccoli, as well as creating a script with the least number of pen lifts possible, such as the "m" and "n". Niccoli's version also introduced the characteristic oval shape to letters, a departure from the round arches at the top of letters utilized in ilttera humanistica. This style also became popular with scribes for margin notes.

The capital letters are the same as the Humanist capitals, modeled on Roman square capitals.

Characteristics

The Italian scholar Niccolò de' Niccoli was dissatisfied with the lowercase forms of Humanist minuscule, finding it too slow to write. In response, he created the Italic script, which incorporates features and techniques characteristic of a quickly written hand: oblique forms, fewer strokes per character, and the joining of letters. Perhaps the most significant change to any single character was to the form of the a, which he simplified from the two-story form to the one-story form ⟨ɑ⟩ now common to most handwriting styles.

Niccolo's development of an oblique and slanted a, a departure from previous forms

Italic script was easier to read and had more space in between letter forms and words. Italic script was first utilized in body paragraphs or other small text purposes due to their narrow and compact shape.

Perhaps the most significant change to any single character was to the form of the a, which he simplified from the two-story form to the one-story form ⟨ɑ⟩ now common to most handwriting styles.

Modern Use & Revival

In the UK this revival was due in part to the 19th-century artist William Morris.^{[citation needed]} In 1905 Monica Bridges’ book, A New Handwriting for Teachers was published. She was a skilled calligrapher and this book is credited with making italic handwriting fashionable in British schools.

In the late 1500s in England and Ireland, Italic script was preferred for women and children in contrast to then-popular Secretary to learn. Italic script had been viewed as a script suitable for copying other works instead of composition, something women were barred from doing. The quickness of the hand was also preferable for daily writing tasks.

In the 1700s handwriting became more widespread and viewed as a status symbol and schools across the Western world were devoted to studying Italic and other scripts.

The Society for Italic Handwriting was founded in 1952 by Alfred Fairbanks who developed and modernized the Italic script to be quickly produced for modern audiences in 1926. Fairbanks detailed his updated form of the script in his 1932 book A Handwriting Manual.

Edward Johnston's book Writing & Illumination & Lettering was published in 1906.

A modern version called Getty-Dubay Italic was introduced in 1976.

References

"Italic | Serif, Slanted, Calligraphy | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-12-01.

Brandão, João Aranda; Almeida, Catarina Machado (2019-06-04), "The Italic Style: Understanding the Shape Through History", Advances in Ergonomics in Design, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 597–608, ISBN 978-3-030-20226-2, retrieved 2023-12-01

"A Brief History of Penmanship on National Handwriting Day". HISTORY. 2023-05-16. Retrieved 2023-12-01.

Cultures of Correspondence in Early Modern Britain. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2016. ISBN 978-0-8122-4825-8.

"Italic script | Handwriting, Penmanship, Lettering | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-12-01.

Typography, Referenced : A Comprehensive Visual Guide to the Language, History, and Practice of Typography

"The Society for Italic Handwriting - Home". www.italic-handwriting.org. Retrieved 2023-12-01.