Some thoughts from a member of my calligraphy list on this subject:
>
>Dear Anne
>This is an area I have found really fascinating. There is not a lot
>of info available, but I have used the following in my
>art history teaching:
>
>James Burke "The day the Universe Changed" BBC (about ten years old
>and the book from a BBC series). It deals largely with science, but is
>very good on the way developments in the theory of optics affected
>the development of perspective in the Renaissance. Easy to make
>connections with art history from it.
>
>I would also recommend Anthea Callen's 'Techniques of the
>Impressionists" New Burlington Books, London, which shows how, for
>example, the development of the paint tube enabled the Impressionists
>to work outside (something artists using ground pigments would have
>found difficult).
>
>Obviously the development of new types of pigment has drastically
>affected art ie the way acrylics affected artists like Rivera,
>Pollock and Morris Louis.
>
>In terms of calligraphy, Christopher de Hamel's recent book on Medieval
>Scribes (forget the title but it's published by the British Museum
>Press) is good on the different technologies involved in the book - I
>found it good about inks.
>
>The development of steel pens is also a clear example of the
>Industrial revolution being applied to writing implements - the
>machines that stamped out the metal for the pens were based on
>ones developed for button making (Joyce Irene Whalley's
>Writing Implements and their Accessories, David & Charles, 1975 is
>the source for this - I think)
>
>The metal pen actually made a big impact on the quality of 19th
>century writing. I am working on this at the moment, but I think that
>the Copperplate style with its clean edges only really became viable
>with the metal pen. Quills give a fuzzier edge to the writing. I
>imagine that hot press paper - invented in the 18th century by
>Baskerville - would have contributed to this too.
>
>Hope this isn't too incoherent. Written in as much haste as my novice
>typing can cope with, but perhaps some of it may be of use to your
>museum list
>
>Regards
>
>Peter
>
Anne Lane
Curatorial Assistant
Museum of York County
4621 Mt. Gallant Road
Rock Hill, SC  29732-9905
803-329-2121 ext 122  *  [log in to unmask]