lzbt uo (1533-1603) Tudor Elizabeth uaithn ruche & hand humanist er,Lr ane (1545-1567) Darnley Lord Henry, ea ouet today. documents legal eiiu pe-ak,srbsadhrls tl sdin used still heralds; and scribes upper-ranks, religious tmhvn ensge.Cmol sdb ig,the kings, by used Commonly signed. been having item ojnto ihproa ae sa niaino an of indication an as names personal with conjunction aeGe (1537-1554) Grey Jane hogotteMdl gsado pt h 60 in 1600s the to up on and Ages Middle the throughout eeused were These written). have (I ruches subscripsi nitrwndSSo U,sodfrteterm the for stood SUB, or SSS intertwined An ak oaisue rw in R rm12-18C. from (R) signs drawn used Notaries rank. eeal ihteiltrt u oeie ihtoeof those with sometimes but illiterate the with generally eas hs eepplri h 01t Century, 10-11th the in popular were These petals. L omr ope in odigi col,dt and dots scrolls, in doodling signs complex more to (L) (1542-1587) iioh nIei sdeeyhn rmsml crosses simple from everything used Iberia in Visigoths ayQeno Scots of Queen Mary Earlyon,drawnsignswereusedtoidentifypeople.The in Sigils. & Signs dadV (1537-1553) VI Edward AcknowledgementsandFurtherResources. The LittleBooke ofSignatures. Foraquickwaytohandwritesomething,printitout This booklet aims to provide you with assistance in inasuitablefont,thenuseawindoworlightboxto developingaperiod-stylesignaturethatsuitsyou. traceovertheletterswithapen.Fromthere,youcan The earliest personal signatures appear in Europe buildupconfidenceandlearnformalcalligraphic around the 6th Century, and even then it took another styles.Seeascribeforthat! thousandyearsbeforetheyovertookusingseals,ringsor katherinekerr:http://webcentre.co.nz/kk/ tokens, x or cross signs, or even complex drawn symbols Historicalfonts(forpurchase),AlexMoseley: as personal identifiers. Knowing what is appropriate for http://www.crazydiamond.co.uk/ youisanicewaytoaddtoyourpersona. MS-basedfonts(free),PiaFrauss;citedasPF: Please note that the sample letters herein are from http://www.pia-frauss.de/fonts/fonts.htm electronic sources and may not perfectly mirror period Runes:VikingAnswerLady: text; some have been developed from specific period http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/callig.shtml manuscripts, with simplifications. Remember, period Signs:CastroCorrea:http://litteravisigothica.com hands,andespeciallyautographs, couldvarygreatlytoo. NotarySigns:http://www.davidthomas.com.au /notesseals.htm Soconsiderthisastartingpoint.... Medievalwriting(lotsofexamples): Ifyouwanttotakeitfurthertofullauthenticity,takea http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/writing.htm lookatlettersandother communicationswrittenduring Readingmedievaldocuments: your period and see how people signed themselves. https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspeci Collect as many examples as you can; identify the alcollections/researchguidance/medievaldocuments/i lettering styles likely in use and then try a range of ntroduction.aspx variations until you have something you’re comfortable Nameabbreviations:https://en.wiktionary.org/ with.Asyoucansee, wiki/Appendix:Abbreviations_for_English_given perfectletterformation katherinekerr, _names isnotrequired! hermark ór=Thor = Þórr = (1443-1524) ueo Surrey of Duke hmsHoward, Thomas abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz XYZ& MNOPQRSTUVW B EFGHIJKL K J I H G F DE ABC nerirCacr blackletter. Chancery earlier an SometimescalledtheItalianhandtodifferentiateitfrom pns rm17 P,Facsoua Briosa). FranciscoLucas (PF, 1570 from Spanish communicationfromthe1420sonwards.Thisversionis nw o t s nlgl eiiu n royal and religious legal, in use its for known hsi uaitccrieo aeCacr hand, Chancery late or cursive a humanistic is This hneyo Chancellaresca. or Chancery CesareBorgia Runes. (1475-1507) There are many variations of runes used from around 150ADto1500acrossnorthernEurope&Scandinavia. Having nice straight lines made runes useful for carving on wood, bone or stone; or inscriptions on jewelleryorweapons.Runicmanuscriptsarerare. LucreziaBorgia(1480-1519) Once Christianized, “Viking” scribes tended to use formal hands such as Caroline miniscule or Gothic for communications, so you don’t have to use runes for this OtherThingstoConsider. typeofpersona. Ifyouwanttousearuneformofyourname,somesay What language would you have written your name in? you should convert it phoenetically (ie by sound rather Consider finding out what Latin form your name than letter); others argue that as some sounds are not and.or titles would have taken. Charles could sign as covered by the runic alphabet, you’re better off Carolus;WilliamasGulielmusandsoon. covertingletter-for-letter.Youchoose. The alphabet opposite are Anglo-Saxon/Frisian Names could also be abbreviated: Tho or Thos for runes said to be brought to England by the Vikings and Thomas; Jas for James. And there are plenty of inusefromthe5thto11thcentury.Itisafuthorcalphabet, examplesofnamesbeingsignedinlowercase. sonamedfromsoundsofthefirstsixletters(theletterþ, called thorn, is a voiced th as in “the”). This rune set was And lots of examples of individual names being spelled predated by the Elder Futhark and related runes, used all manner of ways, such as: Willm Shakp, William byGermanictribesfromthesecondtoeighthcenturies. Shaksper, Wm Shakspe, William Shakspere, Willm Remember that there are lots of variations over time Shakspere, William Shakspeare (all as used by the Bard and geographical region, so you might want to choose a himself from 1612-1616; a standardized spelling for his setofrunesthattakesthatintoaccount. namewasn’tsettledonuntilthe20thcentury!) a a yk(1390-1441) Eyck Van Jan (1441-1509) Beaufort Margaret abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz VWXYZ (1338-1380) LMNOPQRSTU hre ,France V, Charles (1412-1431) ABCDEFGHIJK fArc of on(Jehanne) Joan P,XiBeronne). (PF, Phoebus’ MS oko h Hunt the of Book h lclte otblwi ae nte1CFrench 15C the on based is below font blackletter The aynms(gbsad,txua rku,rotunda). fraktur, textura, bastarda, (eg names many rne emn n nln.Mn ainsunder variants Many England. and Germany France, oua hog 2010s scal throughout espcially 1200-1500s, through Popular Blackletter/Gothic. Humanist. Monogrammatic signs or sigils were made up from the letters of the name or symbols of the profession of the signer. They gained popularity from the 12th Century ThishumanistcursivewasespousedbythelikesofItalian onwards,speciallywithartists. handwriting master Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi (1475–1527) and very common amongst the educated Pelagius(1105-1128) from the mid-1500s on. (First set below is a free font Visigothicpersonalmonogram called Ludovicos). Lots of flourishes and swashes which makeitprettybutitwasalsoconsideredeasytoforge. ABCDEFGHIJ LotharofSaxony,Rex(1075-1137) KLMNOPQRST UVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Charlemange(742-814) AFHKLMNRSVW Thecentralpartishissign manual,withtheCarolus Albrecht Dürer AHKLMNR lettersaddedbyascribe. (1471-1528) AFHKLMN pqrstuvwxyz (1512-1548) abcdefghijklmno KatherineParr,theQueenRegent TUVWXYZ ThomasMore,knight(1478-1535) KLMNOPQRS ABCDEFGHI AnneBoleyn(1501-1536) centuriesthroughoutEurope,withmanyvariations. eae oGti,adwspplri h 14-16th the in popular was and Gothic, to related nlec ntecptl Xreafn,P) atrais Bastarda PF). font, (Xirwena capitals the in influence HenryVIII(1491-1547) rmaFoetn oueto 37 ihsm German some with 1337, of document Florentine a from h is e eo sagnrlBsad ad taken hand, Bastarda general a is below set first The Batarde/Bastarda. Secretary Hand. Secretary hand arose as a cursive option to make writing Richard II more legible than Gothic or Bastarda. It was popular in (1367-1400) France and Italy in the late 14C and reached England by Henry VI the 15th. Like some of the earlier cursives, it differed (1421-1471) from the more gothic texts by its longer ascenders and descenders above and below the text line. Edward IV (1442-1483) ABCDEFGHIJ Elizabeth Woodville KLMNOPQRS (1437-1492) Richard (Gloucester) III TUVWXYZ (1452-1485) abcdef ghi j k l mnopqrstuvwxyz Willliam Shakespeare (1564-1616) Anne Warwick (1456-1485).