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What do you think about brushes? In particular, what about edged brushes, the ones which, like our pens, have a square-cut tip? If you have ever tried to write with an edged brush, you probably held it like a pen and proceeded to make large, pen-like, calligraphic letters.
Fair enough. Almost our entire, Western, calligraphic training is with a pen. Every manuscript we study has been written with a pen. Every manual, every teacher reinforces the idea that formal writing is what the pen can do; any other tool can only imitate the shapes and understanding brought to us by the edged pen.
There is one manuscript, however, with which each of us is familiar. It was not written with a pen and it has been misinterpreted for centuries as a result. It contains superb, strong, calligraphic letter forms. It is irregular, idiosyncratic and full of life, even though it is nearly two thousand years old.
I'm talking about the inscription at the base of the Trajan Column in Rome. You will find a picture of this inscription at the beginning of almost every calligraphy manual. Surprisingly, though, the author will never explain how these letters were made. They will be used, at most, as the basis for the proportions of pen-made capital letters.
The "Trajan Letters" are considered a touch-stone of Western letter design. Looked at from our pen perspective, we can't quite fathom their construction. They have thicks and thins, the curves are tilted and yet, somehow, they are too strong, too uncalligraphic. We resort to imagining drawing the letters, perhaps using geometric tools. At any rate, we cannot see in them the natural, swinging rhythms present in our calligraphic writing.
In 1964, eighteen hundred and fifty one years after the inscription was made, an astonishing discovery was published by Father Edward Catich in his book, The Origin of the Serif *. He showed conclusively that each letter on the inscription was written with an edged brush with only three or four strokes. He also demonstrated that the complete inscription was rapidly written from top left to bottom right with very little preplanning. Catich took this most important text out of the hands of typographers and gave it back to calligraphers.
And what have we done with it? Certainly, almost no one has studied Catich's work to the point of being able to write authentic Trajan letters. Worse still, the edged brush is treated as just a large pen. If it is capable of making full-blown Trajan forms with just a few strokes, imagine what possibilities it has in the hands of a contemporary calligrapher.
I think we've had the brush all wrong. The edged brush is not a simple kind of pen; it is far more general and powerful. It has at least six extra degrees of freedom which allow for a greater range of and more subtle shapes. (i) The size of a brush is limited by the size of the human body, whereas pen size is limited by the dynamics of ink flow. Therefore, the range of available brush sizes is much larger. (ii) The brush's tip can be made to have a wider or (strangely) a narrower width, at will. A pen, by definition, has a fixed width at the tip. (iii) The brush can be twisted through at least 360 degrees. Pens, on the whole, require a fixed pen-angle to produce smooth, rhythmic writing. (iv) The brush can write on many more surfaces, as smooth as glass, as rough as stone or as soft as skin. (v) The brush can cope with both very viscous and very runny media. (vi) Due to the flexibility of the brush's bristles, strokes can be made equally easily in any direction. Pens, on the other hand, are held at an acute angle to the surface which limits their movement significantly.
Get a copy of The Origin of the Serif * and an edged brush. Study hard and find out how this essentially undiscovered tool can transform your understanding of formal writing.
Tom Kemp's new book Formal Brush Writing is available from Twice Publishing, 53 Mill Street, Oxford, UK. OX2 0AL
See the web site at www.twice.demon.co.uk
