Recent from talks
Alfred Fairbank
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Alfred Fairbank
Alfred John Fairbank CBE (12 July 1895 – 14 March 1982) was a British calligrapher, palaeographer and author on handwriting.
Fairbank was a founding member of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators in 1921, and later became its honourable secretary. He was involved in the foundation of the Society for Italic Handwriting in 1952; his work and 1932 textbook A Handwriting Manual were influential on the italic script handwriting taught in British schools. His portrait was painted by Anna Hornby. For Penguin Books he wrote A Book of Scripts, on handwriting styles.
Fairbank was a civil servant who spent his professional career working at the Admiralty in London and Bath; he retired to Hove on the south coast and lectured at what is now the University of Brighton after his retirement. Fragments from medieval manuscripts collected by Alfred Fairbank are located at the Cadbury Research Library of the University of Birmingham.
Alfred John Fairbank was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, on 12 July 1895, to his father of the same name; Alfred John Fairbank and his mother Emma Fairbank, née Greetham, he married his cousin Elsie Kneeshaw in 1919. They had a daughter Milfred Nolly Fairbank in 1922 in Bromley Kent but she died in the same year. They then had a son John Richard Fairbank in 1924.
Fairbank studied at the Central School of Art and Design where in 1920 he attended evening classes in lettering and illuminating under Graily Hewitt, who in turn had been taught at the same institute by Edward Johnston, Fairbank would later describe himself as a 'disciple' of Johnston. Johnston and his student Hewitt were the preeminent revivalists of calligraphy at the turn of the century and clearly influenced Fairbank.
Principal professional career:
Despite being an Admiralty civil servant for the majority of his career, Fairbank created acclaimed artistic works of calligraphy and works of palaeography as catalogued below.
Fairbank's greatest achievement was the revival of a general hand-writing style known as Italic Script which was invented in renaissance Rome and used extensively by the Vatican bureaucracy. The style was described by writings from the era by Arrighi in his 1522 pamphlet La Operina, where he described a sub-style which became known as Chancery Hand, then shortly afterwards in 1538 by Palatino in his treatise on calligraphy, Libro nuovo d'imparare a scrivere. Examples of other master scribes from the era were: - Bartolmeo San Vito, Antonio Tophio & Bartolomeo Fonzio.
Hub AI
Alfred Fairbank AI simulator
(@Alfred Fairbank_simulator)
Alfred Fairbank
Alfred John Fairbank CBE (12 July 1895 – 14 March 1982) was a British calligrapher, palaeographer and author on handwriting.
Fairbank was a founding member of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators in 1921, and later became its honourable secretary. He was involved in the foundation of the Society for Italic Handwriting in 1952; his work and 1932 textbook A Handwriting Manual were influential on the italic script handwriting taught in British schools. His portrait was painted by Anna Hornby. For Penguin Books he wrote A Book of Scripts, on handwriting styles.
Fairbank was a civil servant who spent his professional career working at the Admiralty in London and Bath; he retired to Hove on the south coast and lectured at what is now the University of Brighton after his retirement. Fragments from medieval manuscripts collected by Alfred Fairbank are located at the Cadbury Research Library of the University of Birmingham.
Alfred John Fairbank was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, on 12 July 1895, to his father of the same name; Alfred John Fairbank and his mother Emma Fairbank, née Greetham, he married his cousin Elsie Kneeshaw in 1919. They had a daughter Milfred Nolly Fairbank in 1922 in Bromley Kent but she died in the same year. They then had a son John Richard Fairbank in 1924.
Fairbank studied at the Central School of Art and Design where in 1920 he attended evening classes in lettering and illuminating under Graily Hewitt, who in turn had been taught at the same institute by Edward Johnston, Fairbank would later describe himself as a 'disciple' of Johnston. Johnston and his student Hewitt were the preeminent revivalists of calligraphy at the turn of the century and clearly influenced Fairbank.
Principal professional career:
Despite being an Admiralty civil servant for the majority of his career, Fairbank created acclaimed artistic works of calligraphy and works of palaeography as catalogued below.
Fairbank's greatest achievement was the revival of a general hand-writing style known as Italic Script which was invented in renaissance Rome and used extensively by the Vatican bureaucracy. The style was described by writings from the era by Arrighi in his 1522 pamphlet La Operina, where he described a sub-style which became known as Chancery Hand, then shortly afterwards in 1538 by Palatino in his treatise on calligraphy, Libro nuovo d'imparare a scrivere. Examples of other master scribes from the era were: - Bartolmeo San Vito, Antonio Tophio & Bartolomeo Fonzio.