Patricia Lovett – författare

Winner of the 2026 British Book Design and Production Awards - Scholarly, Academic and Reference Book categoryPages from some of the most celebrated and exquisite medieval manuscripts in the British Library provide the inspiration for twenty-one practical art and calligraphy projects. Seven classic scripts are explored in turn by expert Patricia Lovett. She explains their characteristics, origins and development and creates exemplar diagrams to show basic letter shapes and the quill strokes required to produce them. Each chapter ends with three complementary projects based on aspects of the manuscripts’ design and layout shown in preceding pages; these range from simple to more technical.Manuscripts from the British Library, Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the Getty Museum have been selected, and projects are illustrated with step-by-step photographs and beautiful images of the finished works.A substantial Part II provides vital guidance on specialist tools and materials, as well as practical techniques, such as cutting quills, mixing inks and paints, and preparing pigments and shell gold.

This stunningly illustrated new book focuses on 76 intricate, expressive and individual examples of calligraphy from the unparalleled collection of the British Library. The author, a renowned expert on the history of the form as well as a fine calligrapher herself, writes - uniquely - from a practitioner's point of view. Ranging from the Middle Ages, when beautiful calligraphy was a way of celebrating the divine, to the renaissance of the art form by William Morris, to the modern school of calligraphers following in the wake of master typographer Edward Johnston, Patricia Lovett charts the development of calligraphy through the history of European manuscripts. Large-scale full-colour reproductions enable the reader to see the fine detail of each manuscript, and to understand more clearly than ever before the painstaking craft and great artistic skill that were necessary to create these strikingly beautiful pieces of writing. Now in paperback, this stunningly illustrated book draws on the unparalleled collections of the British Library, as well as numerous world-leading institutions, to highlight 76 important, expressive and individual examples of calligraphy.