The term "chancery hand" can refer to either of two distinct styles ofhistorical handwriting.
A chancery hand was at first a form ofhandwriting for business transactions that developed in theLateran chancery (theCancelleria Apostolica) of the 13th century, then spread toFrance, notably through theAvignon Papacy, and toEngland after 1350.[1] This early "chancery hand" is a form ofblackletter. Versions of it were adopted by royal and ducalchanceries, which were often staffed by clerics who had takenminor orders.
A latercursive "chancery hand", also developed in theVatican but based onhumanist minuscule (itself based onCarolingian minuscule), was introduced in the 1420s byNiccolò Niccoli; it was the manuscript origin of the typefaces we recognize asitalic.
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Inmedieval England each of the royal departments tended to develop its own characteristic hand: the chancery hand used in the royal chancery atWestminster from the mid-century was employed forwrits, enrolments, patents, and engrossing of royal letters; its use continued for the enrollment of acts of Parliament until 1836.[2]
The English chancery hand was already an arcane speciality by the time of theRestoration.Samuel Pepys recorded (Thursday 12 July 1660):[3]
Up early and by coach toWhite Hall withCommissioner Pett, where, after we had talked with my Lord, I went to thePrivy Seal and got my bill perfected there, and at the Signet: and then to theHouse of Lords, and met with Mr. Kipps, who directed me to Mr. Beale to get my patent engrossed; but he not having time to get it done in Chancery-hand, I was forced to run all up and downChancery-lane, and theSix Clerks' Office but could find none that could write the hand, that were at leisure.
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The latercancelleresca corsiva ("cursive chancery hand"), often called "Chancery Cursive", developed fromHumanist minuscule, itself the progeny ofCarolingian minuscule, in the mid-15th century as "a cursive form of the humanistic minuscule".[4] In England and France at the time it was known asItalic.[4] In English it is often changed in spelling tocancellaresca corsiva.[5] The Italian scribeLudovico Vicentino degli Arrighi's 1522 influential pamphlet on handwriting calledLa Operina was the first book on writing theitalic script known as cursive chancery hand.[6] He was a scribe in thePapal Curia, which had refined cursive chancery hand in its infancy during the latter half of the 15th century.[4] While considered a cursive, this "papal hand" was "strongly disciplined in form, regular in movement and slightly, if at all, inclined from the perpendicular."[4]
In cursive chancery hand the pen was held slanted at a 45° angle for speed, but it could also produce beautifulcalligraphic writing. In 15th-centuryItaly the cursive chancery hand was employed in correspondence, everyday business, and documents of minor formal importance.
It was adapted as the model for theitalic typeface developed byAldus Manutius inVenice, from punches cut byFrancesco Griffo and first used in 1500 for the small portable series of inexpensive classics that issued from the Aldine press.
In 16th-century England it became known as the "Italian hand" to distinguish it from the angular, cramped,Blackletter-derived English chancery hand which had been developed earlier and independently.
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