Manuscripts of the Digital Era (LS-GR-320)

Calligraphy is an art that was widely practiced through centuries by many civilizations. Today, however, it is almost forgotten, not taught at schools and calligraphic handwriting is considered as inefficient and time-consuming. However, the artistic value of calligraphic writing and the joy that it offers for both readers and writers still remains unsurpassed.

Calligraphy: an art between drawing and writing

Especially during medieval and renaissance times, thousands of manuscripts were written in east and west in calligraphic format. Calligraphers, usually monks, dedicated their lives to complete these masterpieces that were highly precious and unique. Led by their devotion to their God and their passion to convey and preserve the knowledge and wisdom of their current and past eras, calligraphers offered to next generations an invaluable treasure both from the aesthetic and historic aspect.

Implementation in the classroom

In this learning scenario, students browse the Europeana manuscripts collection, the Calligraphy gallery and many other internet resources to come in contact with many manuscript images, videos and texts that explain how manuscripts were made, how they were used at the time of their creation and how they are used now. They focus on techniques, practices and the aesthetics of calligraphic writing and they are challenged to create a modern manuscript by using technology.

The students created their own font based on their personal handwriting using the Calligraphr site. They uploaded the font on their computer and then they used it in a word processor to write some text.  After writing and decorating their texts with images of initials and drawings that they found on the Internet, all texts were gathered together by the teacher and placed in a common document that was the manuscript of the class. The result can be seen here.

Would you like to know more about this learning scenario? You can download it below:

Did you find this learning scenario interesting? Then you might also like:

• Intertextuality: a Timeless and Borderless Dialogue by Nathalie ChesséChesnot
• Writing Explorers by Gratiela Visan
• Oil painting Diary  by Judit Benedek

The featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana Collections and belongs to the public domain.