A Brief History of Italic Calligraphy

Ivan Castro tells us about the origin of Italics, the historic handwriting that inspires his brush calligraphy

Ivan Castro (@ivancastro) has had a passion for letters since he was a child. Calligraphy and lettering have become his profession, which he practices from his studio in Barcelona, working for clients all over the world with his characteristic style that draws from both classic and modern fonts. His work requires a lot of practice but also an arduous research process. For Ivan Castro, knowing the origin of writing styles, the tools required, and the way they are built, is extremely important. That's why he has shared the fascinating history of Italics with Domestika:

Goodbye, Gothic. Hello, Italics

At the end of the 15th century, after the invention of Gutenberg's printing press and a growing preference for a more easily read style to Gothic, Italian intellectuals promoted a new model of writing based on ease and speed of execution: Italic or Chancellor's writing began.

This hand of continuous strokes, allows words to be written without lifting the pen from the paper. Thanks to its rapid execution, it is completely customizable and adaptable to whatever register one wishes to give it, allowing more expressive letterforms.

At the beginning of the 16th century, calligraphy manuals appeared from artists such as Ludovico degli Arrighi, Bernardino Cataneo, Giambattista Palatino, and Giovanni Antonio Tagliente in Italy and from Juan de Ycíar and Francisco de Lucas in Spain. A style that has become the basic structure of Italic typeface and remains valid to this day.

English calligraphy is born

During the following years, calligraphy continued to evolve and in the 18th century, from the Italic, the English Italics—also known as Copperplate—and the art of penmanship were born. A new tool also appears at this time: the pointed pen or expansion pen, with which thick or thin strokes are obtained depending on the pressure exerted.

In these styles, decoration and virtuosity in the handling of the pen take on greater importance than the shape of the letter itself. George Bickham, with his compilation of engravings, The Universal Penman, is a good example of this.

Calligraphy reaches advertising

By taking a great leap forward into the 20th century, from the 1940s and 1950s onwards, we can see how calligraphy began to appear in advertising and editorial design. The round brush was responsible for modernizing a style that is hundreds of years old, allowing the use of an already known script but obtaining a much fresher and more expressive result, in accordance with the taste of the moment.

Calligraphy today

Nowadays, brush calligraphy is experiencing a resurgence. Many calligraphers use the brush as another tool in their work process, and many artists even base their style around the tool itself.

Ivan Castro is one of those calligraphy virtuosos who embraces the expressive stroke of the brush to create pieces with personality. In Calligraphy and Rock’n’Roll, he teaches how to fuse classic styles with more modern ones to define your own.

Ivan also teaches the Domestika course Cinema Lettering, in which he goes deeper into the expressive capacity of scripts through lettering.

You may also like:

- English Calligraphy from A to Z, a course by Bego Viñuela Galarraga
- Calligraphy for an Ex Libris, a course by Ricardo Rousselot Schmidt
- Calligraphy with a Ruling Pen, a course by Silvia Cordero Vega