

It may seem like a humble virtue but it is not therefore to be disregarded. The great virtue of Roundhand is its simplicity. Roundhand is a modern, twentieth-century calligraphy alphabet based on the scripts of the Italian Renaissance, which themselves were invented because Italian scholars (in particular) had got heartily fed up of trying to read long texts written in tiny, cramped Gothic.

His is the version I've based my own tutorial on. Marc Drogin's Medieval Calligraphy also offers useful diagrams – and Drogin uses Rustic Caps throughout his excellent book for section titles.The Historical Sourcebook for Scribes, by Michelle Brown and Patricia Lovett, provides analysis of the script and a calligrapher's expert breakdown of the pen-strokes involved.Two calligraphy books stand out for this script:
BUBBLE LETTER CHART FREE
I love this alphabet, and so have written a free Roman Rustic Capitals tutorial to encourage others to use it more, too. Living in ancient Rome, you would have seen announcements, information or even rude messages written in Rustic Capitals on the walls of the city, in just the same way as advertising posters or graffiti today. They are basically a nib- or brush-written alternative version of the grand, stone-chiselled, square capitals you can still see all over Roman monuments. Rustic Capitals are the oldest script I include tutorials for on this site. Rustic Capitals are a robust, dynamic calligraphy alphabet, good for titles when you want formality and impact without rigidity. Colour temperature for calligraphy and art.
