[ANSTHRLD] Good Books

Hillary Greenslade hillaryrg at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 4 10:52:58 PDT 2005


> Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2005 21:01:36 -0500
> From: "Rhonda and Stephen Hays" <housedragonstar at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [ANSTHRLD] Good Books
> To: "Barony of Elfsea" <elfsea at ansteorra.org>,"Heralds List, Kingdom
> 	of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <heralds at ansteorra.org>
> 
> I was at Half-Price Books in Arlington today and saw that they had a copy of the Marc Drogin
> book on medieval calligraphy for 7 bucks.  While I was on vacation, I visitied a few other
> stores and it seemed that quire a few of them have copies of The Calligrapher's Handbook.
> 
> While I can't guarantee that you can find either of these at a store near you, when I see items
> at more than a store or three it usually means that they got in a truck load and spread them out
> to the different stores.
> 
> If you are not a C&I person, either of these books would be a welcome addition to a local
> guild's library or as a donation for a prize basket.
> 
> Medb Liath

Good eye, Medb! - 
The Drogin book is by Dover, probably going to be around for a while, and you lucked out on a used
copy. This book has long been considered the SCA scribes 'calligraphers bible'.  Until recently,
there were few choices showing letter formations, till some books by David Harris ("Calligraphy
Bible" and "Art of Calligraphy").  However, every SCA scribe or scribes guild should definately
still have Drogin's book as a foundational source.   

"The Calligrapher's Handbook" came in two versions, a pink cover (older) and a blue cover(newer)
issues.  While under the same title, they have different collections of articles on all things
scribal (brushes, quills, papers, inks, etc), so it's worth having both.  Taplinger Press
Publisher, may have dumped a number of calligraphy books on the market (or it's a storehouse
buyout including Taplinger, don't know).... but my concern is that if Taplinger is no longer going
to carry these books, then they will become 'out-of-print'.  Already, John Neal Books (supplier of
all things calligraphy), lists 'The Calligrapher's Handbook' as on backorder from the UK, with a
price around $35. Most of the copies I found at 1/2 Price Books were $9.99.   

So, I recommend when you find 'The Calligrapher's Handbook', snatch up a copy/s and give it to
your favorite scribe or scribes guild, as they may become harder to locate in future. And send it
to your friends out of kingdom not near a 1/2 Price Books - most scribes I gift it to drool over
it with glee! - think barters or payment for scribal arts! 

Cheers Hillary / Ansteorra





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