Long before Parker rollerball pens, calligraphy was practiced by ancient people who used quills instead of a mechanical device that held ink in a reservoir.
In the West, calligraphy became recognizable with the use of Rome’s Latin script. Appearing around 600 BCE, the Latin alphabet became the most well-known writing system in the land. When the Roman Empire fell and the Dark Ages began, religious institutions and monasteries were the few places calligraphy would be preserved for the future in the form of copying the Bible and similar texts. After centuries of evolution in writing styles and the rise of many cultures, the Roman alphabet would become the standard script in Europe, the last major innovation being English script.
In the East, China–where paper was invented–was the first country to practice calligraphy as we know it today. When practicing calligraphy, practitioners had to take into consideration the color and water density of the ink, the intricacies of the ink brush being used, and the paper’s texture and water absorption rate to gauge what the final product will look like. Both Japan and Korea would follow suit when they eventually developed their own writing styles, many of which were based off of the Chinese.
