Blake and “the Wondrous Art of Writing”: Letter Faces, Letter Formation, Capitalization

Blake was a professional calligrapher with deliberately changing writing styles. For example, four distinct styles of handwriting can be identified in the Vala/Four Zoas manuscript, from copperplate hand to modified usual hand. All print editions of Blake’s works since 1827 have significantly simplified and regularized Blake’s writing. This chapter documents and examines Blake’s myriad ‘hands’ evident across his works, from manuscripts to illuminated printing, showing there to be considerable variety in letter formations, capitalizations, and extra-textual features such as catchwords, colophons, and letter sizes. Such differences in writing are difficult to represent typographically, even if facsimiles were included in letterpress editions of Blake’s works.