One of the major benefits of this new period of learning and investigation -that was based on humanism- was the spreading of literacy, that means the ability of not only to be able to read but also to write.
Keeping diaries and notebooks became a widespread practice, not only amongst artists and scientists but also amongst the rich upper classes and the elites, as did the sending back and forth of notes and
letters.
As a result, the art of calligraphy, page layout and lettering obtained special importance. Calligraphy masters travelled from mansions to palaces, and taught the new educated aristochrats these new fine crafts. The scholarly notebooks and texts, which were decorated with illustrations were the most remarkable ones of the genré.
Here are some examples of these notebooks and texts from late 15th and mid 16th centuries.
The first one is Italian scholar Pietro Bembo's letter, after whom the typeface "Bembo" was named by its creator Francesco Griffi.
Beginning in the latter half of the 15th cent., a humanist faith in classical scholarship led to the search for
ancient texts, which would increase current scientific knowledge. Among the works rediscovered were Galen's physiological and anatomical studies and Ptolemy's Geography. Botany, zoology, magic, alchemy, and astrology were developed during the Renaissance thanks to the study of ancient texts.
The Scientists and their Inventions
Scientific thinkers like Leonardo Da Vinci, Nicolaus, Copernicus, Galileo, Tcho Brahe and Johannes Kepler attempted to refine earlier thought on astronomy.
In 1543 Copernicus wrote De Revolutionibus, the work that placed the sun at the center of universe and the planets in semicorrect orbital order around it. His work was an attempt to revise the earlier writings of Ptolemy.
Galileo's most important and famous invention was an accurate telescope, through which he observed heavens. He recorded his observetions in Siderius Nuncius.
Tcho Brahe gave an accurate estimate of planetary positions and refuted the Aristotelian theory that placed the planets within crystal spheres.
Kepler discovered that the planetary orbits were elliptical.
The Renaissance, was a cultural movement that expanded the period roughly from the 14th to 17th century. I has begun in Italy in the Late Middle Ages, and later on affected all the Europe. Movable type and paper have already been invented, so it was easier to spread the ideas from the later 15th century. During Rennaissance period, Latin and regular spoken languages (vernacular laanguages) have based on classical sources, because the actual aim was based on the ideas of Roman and Greek antiquity and humanism, which was very important. With these ideas and also with the help of patrons, artists, scientist, philosophers, writers, etc. were free to experiment, create incredible works, and make inventions, there fore, the linear-perspective, other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting (which was idealized), and educational reform have happened, and much more. There were really important "Rennaisssance Men" like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Massaccio, Boticelli...Also the economy of Italy have grew with the banks.
The technogy was getting more and more developed...
Incunabula
An incunabulum is a book, single sheet, or image that was printed -not handwritten- before the year 1501 in
Europe. These are usually very rare and fragile items whose nature can only be verified by experts. The origin of the word is the Latin incunabula for "swaddling clothes", used by extension for the infancy or early stages of something.
The first recorded use of incunabula as a printing term is in a pamphlet by Bernard von Mallinckrodt, "Of the rise and progress of the typographic art", published in Cologne in 1639, which includes the phrase prima typographicae incunabula, "the first infancy of printing". The term came to denote the printed books themselves from the late 17th century.
There are 2 types of incunabula, which are the xylographic and the typographic. The xylographic is made from one carved or sculpted block for each page and the typographic is made with movable type on a printing press in the style of German Johannes Gutenberg, whom I will explain later on. The incunabula does not reflect any important developments in the printig process (around 1500). It generally refers to the earliest printed books, completed at a time when some books were still being handwritten/hand-copied. There became a great diversity in the texts, that were chosen for printing anthe styles in which they appeared, thanks to the spread of printing.
During this period a myriad of typefaces were occured in local forms of writing or derived from the various European forms of Gothic script, or from documentary scripts, like most of Caxton's types. Tyes modelled on humanistic hands, especially in Italy, and these typefaces are still used today, hardly modified, in digitaal form.
Those days were dark in the Medieval Europe, so always reminded as the darkest period : the Third Century. The plague is the biggest reason for this darkness, but there were some other reasons, too, like fear, darkness, witch-hunts, illiteracy...The interesting thing is that, the magnifiscant illuminated manuscripts were occured during this dark period, in cold monasteries. The colophones of their books were the only testimonies of their really short, depressing lives.
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, like decoratedinitials, borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations. In the most strict definition of the term, an illuminated manuscript only refers to manuscripts decorated with gold or silver, but in common usage and modern scholarship, the term is now used to refer to any decorated or illustrated manuscript from the Western traditions. (Comparable Far Eastern works are always described as painted, as are Mesoamerican works, Islamic manuscripts are usually referred to as illuminated but can also be classified as painted.)
The earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from the period AD 400 to 600, initially produced in Italy and the Eastern Roman Empire The significance of these works lies not only in their inherent art historical value, but in the maintenance of a link of literacy offered by non-illuminated texts as well. Had it not been for the monastic scribes of Late Antiquity, most literature of Greece and Rome would have destroyed in Europe; as it was the pattern of textual survivals were shaped by their usefullness to the severely constricted literate group of Christians. Illumination manuscripts, that were used to increase the power of ancient document, helped their preservation and informative value in an era when new ruling classes were no longer literate.
The majority of surviving manuscripts are from the dark Middle Ages as I wrote before, but actually a myriad of the illuminated manuscripts survive from the Renaissance. The majority of these manuscripts are of a religious nature. Most illuminated manuscripts were created as codices, that has took the place of scrolls. A few manuscript fragments survive on papyrus, vellum or parchement. The most important manuscripts were written on qualified parchement, named vellum.
Apart from their historic value as documentaries, they were the only surviving examples of painting.
A video of a brief history of Illuminated Manuscripts
The Greek alphabet is actually the source for all the modern scripts in Europe. With the approval of the Phoenician language the history of the Greek Alphabet has begun. The Phoenician Alphabet represented only consonants. (abjad) Some historians accept the Greek Alphabet as the first true alphabet.
Another important alphabet is the Phoenician Alphabet that was developed in the city-states that grew on the eastern shore of Mediterranen Sea, Phonecia. These city-states were at the center of trade. "The Phoenicians were peaceful, seafaring people, expert in navigation and trade, and beginning aroun 3200 B.C., were the first to explore the Mediterranean Sea in boats made of cedar." (http://maryourmother.net) To communicate with other cultures -that Phoenicians were making trade with- they developed the Phoenician Alphabet, around 1400 B.C. This alphabet is acyually a continuation of the proto-Canaanite Alphabet, because the Phoenicians were the descendants of the Bronze Age Canaanites. Their trade used to reach even Atlantic coast of Africa and the Black Sea.
The Mediterranean world and Greece has received the alphabet, which had 22 letters, based on sound, different from many symbols şn cuneiform and hieroglyphics. As a conclusion, "The Phoenician Alphabet was based on the principle that one sign represents one spoken sound. Thanks to the Phoenician Alphabet Greek and Berber alphabets have risen.
Now, the we can see the Phoenician alphabet functioning as an ornamental use. For example you can find a mouse padd or mobile phone cases that has Phoenician letters on it.
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