"Why should we be interested in studying hand-written and decorated books? For the historian they are the link between past, present and future, as they are about people and yield a wealth of information about their lives, beliefs, aspirations and also symbolise the essential human need to communicate this information across time and space. For the scribe the manuscripts provide inspiration and information about letter-forms."--BOOK JACKET.

"This book is the first to put the needs of the historian and the scribe at the forefront. Large-scale examples of the manuscripts are included for letter analysis, with, in most instances, a full page colour reproduction of a page from the same manuscript alongside. Other selected manuscripts with clear letter-forms show the development of that alphabet style throughout the periods under consideration.

A whole page is devoted to exemplar letters of each alphabet style, with clear guidelines on how the letters are formed, including punctuation marks, an ampersand (or et ligature) and numerals. Each section includes a specially created piece of modern calligraphy, showing how the hand can be used today."--BOOK JACKET.