What is Reddit's opinion of Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique (Lettering, Calligraphy, Typography)?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

For lockpicking, /r/lockpicking has a good beginner's guide. I like SouthOrd lock picks, and you really just need a couple to get started. A hook, shallow hook, half-diamond, some kind of rake (city or bogato), and a tension wrench will let you pick most padlocks and house locks you see (never pick a lock you depend on, never pick without permission).

For calligraphy, I normally do traditional nibs, but I've been getting a lot of mileage out of my Pilot Parallel pens lately, and they'd be great for a beginner. The 2.4 and 3.8 mm nibs would be good for learning. Get a good quality paper like Rhodia so the ink doesn't feather and a straight edge, and you're good to go.

I looked around online for a while at calligraphy tutorials on-line for you, and I didn't see anything that compared to what I have in books so you'll probably want a book to get you started. Since this is /r/dnd, I'm going to recommend Medieval Calligraphy. It has a really broad range of medieval styles and really helpful advice for learning and doing nice finished pieces.

This book is a good place to start. Once you figure out which script you want to focus on, start hunting down original manuscripts online. If you get the chance, also see if theirs a local scribal guild in your area.

EDIT: Almost forgot, NEVER underestimate the power of guidelines! We have a nice section on them in our wiki.

I kind of agree. Been trying out some different letterforms to find what suits me. This y comes from the exemplar in Marc Drogin's Medieval Calligraphy. I likely won't keep it.

Oh man, some of those books are just amazing! And I just want to buy more all the time!

If you want another cornerstone book on calligraphy, I really recommend

• Marc Drogin's Medieval Calligraphy amazon link.

There are so many good historical samples in there. And descriptions! And explanations! Unfortunately the book was published ages ago, and it's just black and white... sigh. But it's still amazing. There's 2+ full pages of various cadels, for gods sake!

Technical Books

• Harris, David. The Art of Calligraphy
• Shaw, Paul. Black Letter Primer
• Drogin, Marc. Medieval Calligraphy

Online Technical Resources

• Jake Rainis https://jakerainis.com/blog/learning-blackletter-alphabets/
• CalligraScape https://calligrascape.com/learn-blackletter-calligraphy/
• LetteringDaily https://www.lettering-daily.com/blackletter-calligraphy/

Technical Historical Books

• Derolez, Albert. The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books

Typographic History

• Bain, Peter and Shaw, Paul. Blackletter: Type and National Identity

Typographic Sample Books

• Printing History 38/39 (Volume XIX, No 2, Volume XX, No 1 [double issue]) Blackletter: Type and National Identity [NB companion issue to volume above]
• Schalansky, Judith. Fraktur mon Amour [NB includes all blackletter, not simply Fraktur. Includes CD (Mac & PC) containing 150 fonts for free private & restricted commercial use). This is *the* encyclopedia of blackletter typefaces.]

Blackletter and Chicano Culture*

• Paoli, Cristina. Mexican Blackletter

*Most of the blackletters you will see in calligraphy books are script models that resulted from collaborations with palaeographers. In contrast, most of the blackletters you will see on Insta, online tutorials, YouTube, etc, by the younger lettering artists, come from a distinct branch that has its roots in Chicano culture.

Books! Sheila waters foundations of Calligraphy isa thorough introduction and guide on continuing.

Lloyd Reynolds italic calligraphy and handwriting is a classic intro to both subjects and the physical booklet is great to have, and pretty cheap. There's an excellent series of vidoes too, Reynolds did for public tv in the 60s.

Marc Drogin's Medieval calligraphy is a note historical approach to learning the ductus of historic scripts.

I'm sure there are several other's I'm missing, if anyone else has suggestions please feel free to jump in.

Edit: you could also consider getting some illuminating supplies, if your interests lie in that direction. Also fixed links