A script or handwriting script is a formal, generic style of handwriting (as opposed to personal handwriting), within a writing system. A hand may be a synonym or a variation, a subset of script^[1]

There is a variety of historical styles in manuscript documents,^[2] Some of them belonging to calligraphy,^[3] whereas some were set up for better readabiliy, utility or teaching (teaching script).^[4] see History of the Latin script.

Historic styles of handwriting may be studied by palaeography

Personal variations and idiosyncrasies in writing style departing from the standard hand, which may for example allow the work of a particular scribe copying or writing a manuscript to be identified, are described by the term handwriting (or hand).

List of hands

• Chancery hand
• Round hand
• Secretary hand
• Court hand
• Library hand
• Blackletter
• Humanist minuscule
• Carolingian minuscule
• Roman cursive
• Uncial script
• Insular script
• Beneventan script
• Visigothic script
• Merovingian script

References

Sources

• Florey, K.B. (2013). Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting. Melville House. ISBN 978-1-61219-305-2. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
• Douglas, A. (2017). Work in Hand: Script, Print, and Writing, 1690-1840. Oxford Textual Perspectives. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-250621-4. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
• Thornton, T.P. (1996). Handwriting in America: A Cultural History. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07441-3. Retrieved 2024-06-16.

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