Saturday 4 March 2017

Handwriting

Only two letters Francis Lovell wrote survive to this day. Both are short missives to William Stonor, one written on 24th June 1482, the other on 15th October 1483, requesting Stonor to meet him with troops to fight rebels joining Buckingham`s Rebellion. (Stonor was, in fact, in league with the rebels, a fact Francis was unaware of.)

This second letter is, amongst others, reproduced in Charles Ross`s biography of Richard III. One very notable feature of it is that it is autographed by Francis himself, giving us a glimpse of what his handwriting looked like.



The bit on the right stating "Your hertely lovyng Cosyn ffraunceys Lovell", composed in a different hand than the rest of the letter, almost certainly written by a scribe, was penned by Francis himself. Up close, his signature looked like this.


Quite interesting in itself for how measured it is and for the heartshaped "s" at the end of "ffraunceys", there is another aspect of note to it, when one compares it to the handwriting of his famous best friend, Richard III - the first depicting it alongside that of his wife, the second being from a book he signed in his teens.



While there are certain similarities in the handwritings of the two men, those become really noticable in the note written in Richard III`s Book of Hours:


This note, reading "hac die natus erat Ricardus Rex Anglie tertius Apud Foderinyay Anno domini mlccccliio" - "on this day King Richard III of England was born in Fotheringhay in the Year of the Lord 1452" - shows "ff"s, "y"s, "ns" and "h"s nearly identical to the way Francis formed them in his signature, along some other similarities.

Which suggests that either, the two men were taught calligraphy by the same person while in the care of the Earl of Warwick, or else - the far more unlikely theory - that it was Francis, not Richard, who wrote this note in the king`s Book of Hours.

6 comments:

  1. Love this! I am intrigued for knowing more. Do you recommend any good historical books about The War Of The Roses?

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  2. Thank you!
    Sorry for the very late reply. Do you want books about the persons of the Wars of the Roses or a more general overview?

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  3. Both! But accurate ;)

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  4. I am intrigued by the thought that it might possible have been Francis who wrote in the Book of Hours. I have never heard of that before - fascinating!

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    1. Thank you!
      I believe it is only my theory - perhaps because it seems obvious that it being Richard`s book, it was Richard who wrote it. But the writing resembles Francis`s *very* closely, so it is possible.

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  5. Handwriting is very important to all for improving creative skills.I am glad to read your blog ,it helped me to know more details about handwriting.Now i want to learn Handwriting Classes In Chennai

    ReplyDelete