Art of Calligraphy

I purchased the above book and i am very happy it is easy to follow easy lessons on calligraphy and it is explaining how to use the strokes which has made learning calligraphy much easier.

A marvelous resource for different calligraphy styles and hands. A must have for the calligraphy library.

I recently took a calligraphy class, and my teacher used this book to teach the class. I immediately bought it, even though I already own a "few" calligraphy books, but this is one I reference more than any other. I particularly appreciate the history lesson of written script, as well as all of the samples of historical works throughout the book. I don't have this info in any of my other books. Harris utilizes multiple colors to illustrate the order of the strokes. This is very useful in tandem with numbers and arrows to show how to form each letter. 25 letterform styles plus "cadels" are taught in this book. The GLOSSARY in this book is fantastic. Any term you come up against, you can find it in this glossary. Saves a LOT of time instead of searching each page for the definition! There is a reference table of all the letterforms in the book, which makes it easy to decide which hand you may want to utilize at any given time. And to top it all off, there's a comprehensive bibliography. So, if you want to research anything on your own you have a great guide! I REALLY wish this book was spiral-bound so it would lay flat without a lot of bending and creasing, but it is NOT spiral-bound. It is a regular paperback. However, once you do your creasing and bending and folding, the pages eventually stay open and flat. I have resorted to clipping my pages open with a binder clip because the book is still new. Mr. Harris, if you are reading this review, PLEASE PRINT THIS BOOK WITH A SPIRAL BINDING!!!! Otherwise, 2 thumbs up!

David Harris's "The Art of Calligraphy" is one of my two must-have historical calligraphy books (the other is Mark Drogin's "Medieval Calligraphy"). While it's not comprehensive--one must turn to other books for information about inks, illumination, and so on--it provides a very nice overview of the evolution of calligraphic hands, from Rome to copperplate script. It's full-color, and includes historical background and images of historical texts. Charts of all the alphabets included and of their evolution are nice additions. I appreciate that the hands are not modernized--while additional modern letters (such as W and K) are included, the historical letters are accurate. The use of transparent ink to show stroke overlap, and of stroke direction diagrams is very helpful. The directions for cutting quill and reed pens are fairly good. The hands presented overlap considerably with Drogin; however, "The Art of Calligraphy" includes both French and English bastard hands, italic, and humanist, and goes into greater detail on the construction of cadels. For those interested in Renaissance hands, "The Art of Calligraphy" is a better choice. Overall, I strongly recommend "The Art of Calligraphy" for calligraphers interested in historically accurate medieval and Renaissance hands. I found it easier to read and follow than Drogin (although I recommend having both). Beginners should probably supplement with a basic book on calligraphy.

If you want only one book to learn about calligraphy, this is the one. Trained by a master calligrapher of the Queen's Court many years ago, I recommend this book very highly to anyone who wish to develop skill and proficency in this art.While I didn't pursue this field career-wise, I found this book to be an excellent reference to reignite the skill I thought was lost.F.Lee

There are so many books on calligraphy; it is extremely difficult to write one that will please everyone. This one will please you vastly if you are looking for a book full of well-laid-out, very clear ductus' pages, with minimal instructional material and beautiful color reproduction of historical examples. This book is basically about directions for writing historical hands. The DK style of minimal text supported by captioned pictures makes for a lot of visual learning, but this does cut down on the scope of information included. The information is historically basic, then, and the instructional section quite minimal. If you need beginner's instruction for the first steps of calligraphy, you may not find the depth of information you desire here. The real stregnth of the book is in its breakdown of historic hands. The step-by-step breakdown of each letter of each hand is most helpfully produed in color, allowing the areas of overlap to be clearly seen; this is much more definite in visually presenting the letterforms than the traditional method of providing black and white exemplers. Further, each hand is made with different calligraphy tools; markers, reeds, quills, dip pens, et cetera, allowing you to compare the look of each tool. There is a very helpful appendix, providing each alphabet in the book in simple, er, "abc form;" a skilled calligrapher could open the book to this two page spead and have every hand presented in the book available for visual reference. In all, a very, very useful book for those who are looking primarily for instructions for writing historic hands.