Calligraphy: [required]

Applicants must provide a calligraphed instruction to their persona. Information in this must include information noted above in (category  {persona creation}). Only an 8-½ inch x 11-inch sheet of introduction must be calligraphed. The criteria listed here is a minimum standard, it is not designed to limit creativity. Other persona information can be typed (double spaced) or legibly printed.

The Letter:

To thy Ladyship Magdalen of Haphazard Manor be this deliured unto you in thy Apyldore this Saturday thy xxviij of May

To her Ladyship Magdalen of Haphazard Manor, I recomaund me to yew in the humbill hammet thy Apyldore. A ghtty whoman whose haven’t inherit from her ghtty man wryt me to a fest namyd on continueth thy jourey to thy son’s manor in Devon Englond. Goldyn Swan that is hinor thy myghtty ladys and prayd me to wryte ti yew as she had gret prayse of thy ghtty men and ladys of Apyldore and wryt that all gentile men and ladys be wellcomyd there. I shal be lodging in your gret Apyldore from thy viiijth day of Octobre wiyth sayde ladys of gret and wold so wish to com on to yowre land this fest so namyd Goldyn Swan. Uppond comin I shallest bringth mine seruants.

May A Almyghty God haue you in hes blised hepyng. Wryting by and sealed this day of ourth Lord this Seturday the xxviij of May. Yowre seruant and ghtty lady Christiana Elizabeth Constable of Manor of Pheasant Hollow

Inks, pens and surfaces – Documents written between 1500 and 1690: most or all them used goose quill pen and an iron gall or carbon based ink. Iron gall ink was made up from galls most are oak galls, copperas (copper sulphate) or green vitriol (ferrous sulphate) and gum Arabic in varies proportions; carbon inks were developed using soot. To either mixture could be added other ingredients, affecting the color and the consistency to suit the immediate purpose. Different writing surface might call for inks in different viscosity; the most commonest writing surfaces were paper or vellum or parchment. The paper from this period was less than perfectly smooth and naturally absorbent. The paper in this period was treated with size; a gelatinous substance made from the hooves and skins of animals and applied to the surface after the paper was removed from the mold, rather than mixed with pulp a newer invention. The paper for printing was normally much less sized, as printer’s ink was oil based and so did not run. A problem, accordingly, confronted those wishing to make marginal notes in printed texts, and a remedy was to rub the margins with powdered gum sandarac, a resin so as to make them easier to write on.

Vellum, presented a different problem, as it was likely to be greasy notwithstanding prior treatment with chalk and pumice during the manufacturing process. The writer therefore needed also some ‘pounce’ made of powder pumice and or cuttle-fish bone, which was scattered over, and rubbed into the vellum before writing. Some writers commended crushed eggshells with powdered incense, others a mixture of alum and resin. The flesh side would be greasier but smoother than the hair side.

Quills have been in use from at least the 6^th century A.D. proving more elastic and more durable than the reed pen. The quills were easier to cut and for the majority were that of goose quills, but large fowl was put to service. These were the raven, crows, ducks, peacocks, and vultures, even pelicans and in the fullness of time, turkeys that last in particular, provided lawyers with broad nibs for engrossing hands.

Most writers, as well as their inkhorn, their pounce pot, and their quills, will also have use of a penknife. Characteristically it would have a blade with a curved sharp edge, and with one flat and one slightly convex side the whole narrowing to a point. The cutting of the quills would of course determine the final finish which would depend on the style of writing intended according to whether a stroke of consistent width or a variety of broad and narrow strokes was required. The stiffness of the pen could also varied both by the practice of ‘dutching’ – soaking the barrel in water and than plunging it into hot sand and ashes and, of course by the width and length of the nib.

Alphabet and Numbers: be noted that girls were not necessarily taught how to write and this was common with the lower class society, but with the upper society and nobility, especially nobility they would be taught how to write. This was also the time that the 24-letter alphabet gave way to the 26-letter alphabet in the later 1500s as new words were being added to the English language which necessitated the need. Also numerical numbers were written in Roman numerical text. The 24-letter alphabet to the currant one today is missing the “j” which would be “i” and the letter “v” is “u”. The 24-letter alphabet would be like the one shown below, along with the Roman numbers

ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUWXYZ

Numbers i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix and x form the number system. Larger number such as 50 would be L and 100 would be C and 500 would be D, and 1,000 would be M.  V=5 and X = 10. When either ix  = 9 as am example is behind say L (XL) = 40 when to the right of L (LX) = 60. This holds true with other combinations.

Origin of Language: This would for Christiana’s persona would be the alphabet and numerical language taught to her in around 1545 to 1550. Language would also be an influence on the structuring of the grammar in calligraphy. A chart of the language origins is included below.

English of the times: In early modern English, the use of Latin had become an increasingly troubled aspect of two diverging forums in England: the academic and the religious. Both of these areas of language underwent huge changes during the Renaissance era. The humanist movement of the Renaissance had placed new emphasis on the ideal of an ancient way of life exemplified by the Greet and Latin classics, AND England joined the rest of Europe in embracing the Humanist movement. The first school with exclusively classical curriculum opened in 1528 in England, and similar schools would follow in its wake coinciding with the rise of the merchant class who sought secular education and were embolden with examples of their continental Europe. Despite the allure of the classics, as the early modern period progressed in England in academic and religious communities tended towards an increasing use of the vernacular, Reason for this change were many caused by a shift towards an all pervasive vernacular and (Tony Crowley noted) that the crucial conjunction of the rise of Protestantism with the technological advance of print capitalism had tied the language firmly to the nation and thereby massively enhanced its status. The move away from Latin in the church, courts of law and classrooms meant that the English language essentially became integral to questions of national identity.

While full participation in the life of the Renaissance required the knowledge of Latin, the results of English Reformation meant that Latin was not only an increasingly impractical language through which to communicate with the common Christian, but (Millward) its association with the Roman Catholic Church of England’s continental adversaries tended to undermine its previously unquestioned status as the language of learning. England did not follow the Continental Reformation: King Henry VIII was a conservative who wrote a book against Luther in 1521; however, his divorce of Catherine of Aragon and the Church’s inability to grant the request resulted in England’s separation from the Catholic Church in 1534. The language of the Christiana church in England subsequently underwent great change and gained England’s prominence in a significant cultural area in which Latin functioned before. The Book of Common Prayer, and administration of the Sacramentes, and other Rites and Ceremonies after the Use of the Churches of England was developed in 1549 to unite the country in a single method of worship (Crystal) This book is the source of much of the vernacular idiom of English prayer and unifying force of a common language, which help to forge national identity.

(Bakhtin’s) The notion of the liberation of vernacular English as “set free from the dominance of Latin;” however while English certainly began to come into its own as the modern period progressed, Latin was not completely abandoned for reasons of tradition and practicality. The knowledge and deployment of Latin was considered an important upper class trait; and one that was guarded to maintain class distinctions. Locks and others, believed that people who presumably have no Latin (the merchant class and women) should not waste their time and money learning the language (Crowley). Latin was associated with the learned and leisured. For more practical reasons, Latin was not totally abandoned by the English; beginning in the Renaissance, the English language experience influx of borrowed words (Nevalainen), used more extensively in academic and scientific circles

Samples of language use in England in the time frame of Christiana Elizabeth Constable:

(The Will of Mary I) In the name of God, Amen. I Marye by the Grace of God Quene of Englond, Spryne, France, both Sicelles, Jerusalem and Ireland, Defender of the Faythe, Archduchesses of Austriche, Suchesse of Burgundy, Millayne and Brabant, Countesse of Hapsburg, Flanders and Tyroll, and the lawful wife to the most noble and viruous Prince Philippe, by the same Grace of God Kynge of the said Realms and Eomynions of England, &c. Thinking myself to be with child in lawful marriage between my said dearly beloved husband and Lord, altho’ I be at present (thankes be unto Almightly God) otherwise in good helthe, yet foreseeing  the great danger which by Godd’s prdynance remaine to all whomen in travel of children, have though good both for discharge of my conscience and continewance of good order within my Realmes and domynions to declair my last will and testament; and by these presents revoking all other testaments and last Wills by me at onny time heretofore made or devised by writing or otherwise, does with full consent, agreement and good contentment of my sayd most Dere Ld and Husband, ordeyn and make my sayd last will and testament in manner and forme following.

Good Fellows: A news Ballade intytuled, Good Fellowes must learne to daunce:

Good fellows must go learne to daunce

Thy brydeall is full mere a;

There is a brall come out of Fraunce

The tryxt ye harde this yeare a;

For I must leape, and thou must hoppe,

And we must turne all three a;

The fourth must bounce it lyke a toppe,

And so we shall agree a;

I praye thee, mynstrell, make no stoppe,

For we wyll merye be a.

Poetry of Elizabeth I

A Sonnet by Queen Elizabeth

The doubt of future foes

Exiles my present joy:

And wit me warnes to shun snares

As threaten mine annoy

For Falshood now doth flow

And subject faith doth ebbe;

Which would not be if reason rul’d

Of wisdome wev’d the webbe.

The Seal: The seal shall be made of wood; hand carved using woodcarving chisels, sandpaper and fine files. The seal so chosen is that of thy ladies heraldic devise, containing three arrowheads, with and embattlement, and divided into a chevron.

Special Note:. The rag paper is real and is supplied from France. The seal is of sealing wax. The samples of Elizabethan writing is proof of the writing back them, and I will try to come as close as possible to be as realistic to the time of Christiana’s persona. A goose quill was used in making the hand written letter that was sent into the Golden Swan Judging committee, however there is no sample of this hand written letter on view. The pen will be of a goose quill, with the nib temper by using heated sand.