A History of Bookhands
with
Ewan Clayton
Six one hour lectures about book-hands given by Ewan direct from his studio, he will track the evolution of scripts intended for extended reading with examples and demonstrations of how they were written. Each lecture will cover a specific period from the origin of the book in Roman times up to the Renaissance. As well as focussing on letterform and the forces that lead them to evolve Ewan will discuss their arrangement during the following six eras of the book.
1. Origins - The book and its scripts in the Roman world
2. scripts from handwriting - Uncials and the book in the late classical world
3. scripts from handwriting - Half Uncials and the scripts of the early middle ages
4. Carolingian minuscule and it legacy
5. The Gothic world and the Gothic book, from writing to printing
6. The Renaissance: the development of lower and upper case Romans and Italic.
About Ewan Clayton
Ewan is a calligrapher and part-time Professor in Design at The University of Sunderland where he co directs the International Calligraphy Research Centre. He grew up associated with a community of craftsmen at Ditchling in Sussex founded by Eric Gill. Ewan has enjoyed a varied professional career working as both a calligraphy teacher and a consultant to Xerox PARC, and he is currently a core faculty member at the Royal Drawing School in London. In 2013 he was awarded the first Karl-Georg Hoefer prize by The Schreibwerkstatt Klingspor for his work in calligraphy and education. His book on the history of calligraphy and typography The Golden Thread is out in paperback in the USA and has been released in Spanish and Italian translations.