The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

Calligraphy Layout, Step One.

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

Calligraphy Layout, Step One.
Now it's time to pull out the calligraphy books and settle on a hand. As Johann von Drachenfels has a German persona, the choice is easy: black letter. But there's a lot of black letter hands, so I leaf through Drogin to get ideas and eventually settle on gothic littera bastarda. Drogin has a set of majuscules (capital letters) for this hand but I don't like them very much; they're so loose and flowing I know I'll have difficulty forming them. I'm only an average calligrapher and the looser the letter, the more talent it takes to make it look convincing -- my stiff hand won't go well with that. Luckily, there's another set in the Black Letter Primer which is a bit less demanding, so I decide to go with those.

My best friend and calligrapher extraordinaire, Mistress Aldith Angharad St. George, has always told me that one should letter the text "at least three times." As I hate doing calligraphy, I have avoided this practice like the plague. However, this time was a little different. First, the hand was new to me; second, I knew there wasn't a heck of a lot of room for the text. I wanted the first row of text to be quite large so it won't be overpowered by the illumination -- but the step down to the body of the text can't then become too small, or it'll be overbalanced. I knew I wanted the letters to be a certain size, and selected the appropriate size pen nib (3 mm Brause nib for the first line, 2 mm Brause nib for the rest). I had a sheet of cold press watercolor paper and figured that would do for "scratch" paper for the first attempt.

I transferred the dimensions of the "box" for the text onto the watercolor paper, and also did a first drawing of Johann's arms (Or, a dragon couchant, wings elevated, head elevated and guardant gules, a chief urdy azure.) The dragon, which is rather unique the way Johann draws it, turned into a major bear. I was going to make it heraldic in style but couldn't find any examples of a dragon in that position so I had to fake it. Got the head from Johann's Dragonwing emblem and messed about with the rest until it sorta looked right. Using an Ames lettering guide, the calligraphy guidelines are drawn in. I also take a ruler in hand and rule in vertical guidelines every 1/4 inch. My letters have a tendency to slant backwards due to my pronounced head tilt (I think the letters are going straight up and down, but as my head is tilted to the left, the letters will actually slant to the left), so I need the extra lines to make sure the letters remain vertical and at right angles. Then I penciled in the entire text. Drat -- I can already see that the neat, wordy text I wanted to use isn't going to fit.

So I sit down with a print-out of the text and start removing anything that doesn't absolutely have to be in there to shorten the text considerably. It's ironic that although I hate calligraphy, I really love the wordy, more period texts. Oh, well -- out goes the description of Johann's skill and all his titles (Master of the Pelican, Court Baron). Roman numbers for dates and ampersands for the word "and." If it weren't for the blazon (description) of the arms, it looks like it might fit. Hmm. I've seen alternate texts from all over the Known World and recalled one which dispensed with the blazon entirely (this is legal so long as the emblazon -- depiction -- of the arms is on the document and is accurate). Being a herald I'm not fond of this -- but the scribe in me finds the compromise acceptable (and I can always stick the blazon on the back if anybody wants to get officious) if not particularly palatable.

Taking pen in hand, I ink the first line. My heart starts to sink and I switch nibs and start on the second line, then put the pen down. First, this paper is just horrible (watercolor paper, with its rough surface, is not meant for pen calligraphy); second, no way is the text going to fit, I'll have to cut even more. Sigh.

-- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).