Calligraphy has been an advancement for teaching writing to various social groups and a way for the emergence of female teaching. It is a difficult task to frame calligraphy in a specific aspect, as it is not considered an individual discipline but always relates to others. Calligraphy proposes that it should be studied based on manuals that were born about it in the sixteenth century.
With the birth of the printing press a century before, the work of scribes or copyists is relegated and what seems to be the beginning of the end turns out to be quite the opposite: it marks the start of a period of renewal in written culture, which simultaneously translates into an astounding transformation of working life. As a result, social perspectives change gradually at all levels. The need for the inclusion of women as teachers due to the popularization of reading and writing education (Negrín Fajardo, 1987, pp. 334-340) increases.
That is why during these volatile times of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, women will go from being students first to collaborators later, eventually becoming teachers and expert calligraphers.
The Humanism of the seventeenth century opens the doors to learning, and numerous schools and workshops are created (Gutiérrez Cabero, 2014, pp. 73-79). In this context, women are gradually allowed access to books, although they remain marginalized in terms of writing.
Within this context, the humanistic script is established and reaches Spain through Francisco Lucas from Seville. It will be renewed with a patriotic style and known in Castilian borders as "bastarda," whose foremost representative is Pedro Díaz de Morante, tutor to subsequent calligraphers, and indeed, he had one of the first female students: Isabel Angulo, whose name appears mentioned at the end of the calligrapher's manual. This "bastarda" script differs from its predecessor in that it is more inclined, with letters tending to join together (Galende Díaz, 1998a).
Later, in the eighteenth century, Charles III of Spain implements a series of reforms, and the decade of 1770 is noteworthy for an educational reform. This reform is marked by despotism. From the bourgeoisie, efforts were made to train sectors of the population that had not previously had the same resources, such as the female population, who was offered jobs that men were leaving behind, namely teaching (Negrín Fajardo, 1987). In 1783, a Real Cédula was issued establishing official girls' schools in Spain and it is from this moment on when the figure of teacher begins to take shape (Giró Miranda, 2009, pp. 39-41).
During this period, the round bastarda script emerges, criticized as artificial and overly contrived by many specialists. Among these illustrious pendolists stands out Santiago Palomares, who created a new manual based on Morante's work, and Torucato Torio, advocating for the preservation of Spanish bastarda script (Gutiérrez Cabero, 2014).
Regarding this century in particular, we find dense epigraphs dedicated to Josefa Bahamonde (Rico y Sinobas, 1903, p. 16), who at the age of twelve was a disciple and collaborator of Palomares. The final plates of this master's manual were meant to showcase his students' work as an example of what they had learned, and indeed one of these final plates from Arte nueva de escribir (1776) is done by Josefa Bahamonde. From this emerged mentions by renowned calligraphers such as Servidori or Torcuato Torío about this prodigy girl and how she performs the Spanish bastarda script, so similar to her teacher's that they were barely distinguishable (Cotarelo y Mori, 2004, p. 141).
And it will be during the nineteenth century when many manuals signed by women with great influence from their instructors circulate. During the first third of the century, there is a setback in education mainly due to the Spanish War of Independence. Despite this, in 1812 the Quintana Report was published, a key document for public and free education equality. However, it took time to implement due to the country's situation. In 1857, the Moyano Law was promoted requiring girls' schooling but this would not fully take place until the twentieth century (Colmenar Orzaes, 1988).
Parallel to this, there is a rise in calligraphy as student numbers grow, with José Francisco Iturzaeta emerging as a great reference regarding the rules of letter formation, although Palomares would also continue to be influential. Strokes gradually become less rigid and more room is given for personal expression through letters and other daily documents. Also noteworthy is that English script, with its inclined strokes and fine cursive, receives good reception in Spain but will not be decisive as the national method continues to be followed.
Next, four authors of the art of writing who stood out during the nineteenth century and early twentieth are listed. This selection is made based on their role as teachers within their society and the influence they had over subsequent pendolists, as well as due to the information that could be recovered about them among many great forgotten figures.
Walda Lucenqui de Pimentel
Walda Lucenqui is a calligrapher from Badajoz belonging to a military and artistic family. She actively participated in a progressive movement that was gaining strength in Extremadura during the nineteenth century, supporting equal education. Thus she became an important figure of national feminism. She also trained as head of the Normal School for Teachers in Badajoz (Rico y Sinobas, 1903, p. 242).
With Walda we can properly speak of a manual published by a woman, considered to be the first one in Spain. She follows Iturzaeta as a model for the bastarda script, although compared to him she makes it with more breadth (Cotarelo y Mori, 2004, p. 435).
Filomena Amor Arias
The work of this Vallisoletan woman, Orthography and Calligraphy for the Teaching of Reading and Writing, is mainly theoretical with no practical samples but it serves as a good compendium of different scripts up to that point and procedures for learning calligraphy. She explains calligraphy from a historicist perspective and at the end of her work summarizes the main points of Spanish bastarda script (Rico y Sinobas, 1903, p. 211).
María Encarnación de la Rigada y Ramón
María Encarnación de la Rigada is an important pedagogue from Cádiz, who dedicated her professional career mostly to arithmetic and mathematics but has a work worth mentioning that she did while training as head of the Normal School called Calligraphy as a Beautiful Art, as a Useful Art and as a Beautiful-Useful Art. Her educational efforts are preserved as anecdotes compared to her vast work in arithmetic and clinical studies of pedagogy focused especially on children with disabilities, which was quite advanced for her time (Rico y Sinobas, 1903, p. 258).
Thus she not only became an excellent teacher but also one of the great references within Spanish pedagogy. Additionally, she was a great journalist, directing the Periódico de la Gaceta, one of the greatest newspapers in Spain's history (Colmenar Orzaes, 2009, pp. 593-604).
Fidela Ruiz Celorri
Fidela Ruiz composes with her brother Cipriano the Treatise on Calligraphy and Orthography (1887), in which they base themselves on arithmetic rules for letter formation. It is signed by both siblings, and little is known about their lives except that Fidela was head of the Normal School of Teachers in Lérida (Rico y Sinobas, 1903, p. 259; Cotarelo y Mori, 2004, p. 226).
Conclusion
With the introduction of the printing press, literacy among classes begins and consequently a female student body is recognized. One can properly speak of the beginning of feminine calligraphy with Maria Josefa Bahamonde when Palomares counts her as prodigious pupil in the final plates of his manual.
Gradually, women are trained to give classes and this crystallizes fully during the nineteenth century. Thus, the first manuals by Spanish calligraphers emerge, such as those of Walda Lucenqui, Filomena Amor, María Encarnación de la Rigada, and Fidela Ruiz with her brother Cipriano, who mainly follow Iturzaeta's work but also take into account other great figures like Palomares or Morante despite the new emerging suspicion about imitation by rules and samples. In these times, there was already advocacy for learning to write through dictation while still following a series of guidelines, leaving room for personal handwriting to develop with distinctive features.
Bibliography
Colmenar Orzaes, C. (1988). History of the Central Normal School for Teachers in Madrid (1858-1914). Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Colmenar Orzaes, C. (2009). Contribution of Mª Encarnación de la Rigada to Special Education and Social Education. The Long Journey towards Inclusive Education: Special and Social Education from the 19th Century to Our Days: XV Colloquium on History of Education, 593-604.
Cotarelo y Mori, E. (2004). Biographical and Bibliographic Dictionary of Spanish Calligraphers, I and II. Visor Libros.
Galende Díaz, J. C. (1998). The Humanistic Script in Renaissance Europe. Espacio, tiempo y forma. Series III, Medieval History, 11, 187-230.
Galende Díaz, J. C. (1998). Paleography and Spanish Calligraphy Schools. Concepts: Proceedings of the Third Congress on the History of Written Culture, 137-148.
Giró Miranda, J. (2009). Woman and Education, Teachers: An Analysis of Gender Identity and Work. Instituto de Estudios Riojanos.
Gutiérrez Cabero, Á. M. (2014). The Teaching of Calligraphy in Spain through the Arts of Writing from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century: The Construction of a Writing Style. Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Negrín Fajardo, O. (1987). Popular Education in Spain during the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.Rico y Sinobas, M. (1903). Diccionario de calígrafos españoles. Imprenta de Jaime Ratés.
Comments