Workshop: Learning to Write

Learning to write is an essential cultural technique which lies at the heart of the production and dissemination of both secular and religious manuscripts. Learning and teaching writing skills is an organised knowledge transfer, be it from an individual teacher to a disciple, or in the form of a school or scriptorium.

The workshop aims to address but is not limited to the following research questions: 

What models did teachers employ for the student to copy? Were there step-by-step techniques for the student to memorise certain forms of script?

What methods were in place, to correct mistakes in faulty exercise writings?

The rise, use and effect of writing primers (both handwritten and printed).

The role of samplers (Germ. Stickmustertuch; Chin. Kesi, cut-silk technique緙絲) in the writing education of girls.

The passing on of a distinct family writing style from generation to generation.

The creation and use of script compendia.

Writing faster and more beautifully, the development of new types of script to that end (for example ‘Spencerian penmanship’).