How to write like an Ancient Roman: Rustic Capitals 🖌
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- Learn to write the lovely undulating letters of Rustic Capitals! Common in inscriptions in Pompeii and Herculaneum, this form of handwriting is somewhat between the traditional Roman capitals and Roman cursive handwriting.
See the video in Latin by Stefano Rumak Vittori and subscribe to his channel here:
• De scriptione capitali... 🖌
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Intro and outro music: Overture of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by Mozart
00:00 Intro
01:55 Basic Matrices
12:29 An Example Text from Ovid's Amores
15:41 Final Comments
#ancientrome #handwriting #calligraphy
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I have a written a new short story in Latin! with drammatically acted audiobook. Check it out: luke-ranieri.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/fabula-anatina-a-duckish-tale-in-latin 🦆
It's a children's book about the odyssey of a duckling who wants to learn how to fly.
Is any part of that based off of anything in particular, or did you just wing it?
One neat thing I noticed: Greek “calamus” was borrowed into Arabic as “qalam” and is now an incredibly widespread borrowing in multiple languages, the way I noticed was because it sounded like the Swahili word “kalamu” !! A language I learn
And the Swahili word itself made its way in many other Bantu languages: in the Rutara/Runyakitara languages of Western Uganda, Eastern DRC and Northwestern Tanzania they say _ekalaamu_ or _ekaraamu_ .
@@vulpes1610 You can find Greek words or Greek roots in words of so many languages spoken today. I learnt French so much easier just because I already knew Greek.
Even though I learned Latin way before & much longer than I studied Arabic, I learned قلم before I learned calamus & it blew my mind.
My same surprise when I learned that an alternate word for “table” in Arabic is trapiz تربيز from τράπεζα.
You're an expert even in Latin handwriting!?
You're and incredible expert in ancient languages!
Congrats.
Can't tell if you speak English as a second or third language or if you haven't noticed a typo. God I love this channel.
@@tipi5586 he is a román
@@balazskiss985 when i translate ur comment you say: he is also an romanian.
Now I reimagined Life of Brian where he wrote “Rōmānī, īte domum” with this style.
I practiced it since I have watched this, and I wrote that said phrase in paper. I’d be happy to show it to you since I have learned calligraphy for a decade now.
It may sound a bit rude, but it feels nice to see a subject where Luke is not proficient yet.
As a man with a very good ear for sounds, distinct dedication to history and loads of drive to put these to good use, it's hard not to get swept up by the image of a modern-day citizen of Classical Rome.
I have a copy of the book "The Art of Calligraphy" by David Harris, and it presents a much nicer-looking set of Rustic Capitals based on manuscript copies.
I have the same book as well!
@@wyndonvillafuerte2228 Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.
If you're going to start calligraphy, I'd suggest lined paper underneath the unlined, or use pencil to sketch out the lines (see old illuminated manuscripts; much of the time you can see the faint marks where they set up borders & line heights).
Keep the accents- it makes it look cooler.
I totally get what you mean, and maybe he should at some point invest in proper kit, but there's a massive difference between learning to read and write in rustic capitals and doing it properly with the care and precision of a draftsman or calligrapher. Yes it's useful, and yes there are beautiful handwritten manuscripts you'd swear were typeset, but there's also screeds of examples of *truly* disgustingly malformed paragraphs of writing, etchings and carvings throughout Europe. One would waste far too much of one's life trying to prove one superior to the other.
*Shakes in excited calligraphy boy* Mmmmmyes, today's bounty is a rich one, indeed! Thank you so much for showing me this. I wanted to learn this for such a long time, especially that I am now learning with LLPI. Ya were wholesome too. Stay save and 'til next time, magister! ^^
Seeing that writing on the walls of Pompeii and then seeing you writing it moved me in a way that I can’t quite explain. There is something so simple and familiar yet sublime about it.
It feels like the world has been conspiring to get me to Italy lately; after living in that “other” Rome for 14 years, as well as Greece, I guess I need to complete the triangle. :-)
Calamus! My brain suddenly lit up from my Arabic calligraphy lessons all those years ago. The Qalam, or the reed pen! Always a nice treat to see unexpected loan words.
Wow... I don't remember EVER seeing any texts written like this, when I visited Italy. But then again, I wasn't *looking* for such texts, because I never knew Rustic Capitals even existed. And I was so focused on getting my Italian right 😅😅😅😅
But as usual, interesting video. Once again, I learned something new. Which is always a win for me 😊😊😊😊
These letters are beautiful! I'll try to learn writing them for sure.
This is really interesting and helpful. I've struggled with inscriptions because the letters were not familiar.
I’m glad you find it helpful!
That was very cool. :D I see this type of inscription a lot around town but never thought to learn it. It was fun to sketch along with you. Can't wait for the cursive!
This is such an elegant, kind lesson. I enjoy it as we did the lessons of the painting guy!
Congrats!
Hey Luke! I was often told that on average, Americans aren't big fans of writing. And a lot of times, Americans' handwriting tend to be bad. But you're one of those that helps remove this stereotype considering that you are even writing on Rustic Capitals.
Keep it up! I love your passion for languages to the point where you are learning their writing system the traditional way too.
That’s quite true! Handwriting is not emphasized as much as I think it should be these day. Thanks
@@polyMATHY_Luke I have to admit that I myself was guilty of it when I was younger. Hehe.
That is, until I suddenly fell in love with art so much and I view good handwriting as a form of art. It's just, these days, I am exhausted from work from my job as a call center agent too and we can't even bring even a tiny piece of paper in the production for fear that some agents would take in their customer's important information such as card information.
when I get home, I am pretty much tired to do other things though this job will be temporary.
@@polyMATHY_Luke also, I do agree that when learning a language, it's much faster to pick it up if you would practice writing on it.
@@polyMATHY_Luke If you when you refer to handwriting you mean cursive or calligraphy, that would be correct. I don't think we're particularly adverse to writing in print though.
1:50 "in order to be a speaker of latin in the 21st century!"
oh man luke really threw shade at those who refuses to address one or the other
Luke, another fantastic video... why is there always so much to learn with each and every one of them? I am a handwriting expert in the UK, and I have found this especially fascinating. Many thanks,
You say they don't look great. But that looks awesome!
When I have started to learn Etruscan language, I was surprised that some letters of late Etruscan alphabet (4th to 1st century BCE) are almost the same as modern Latin small letters, especially considering: m,n,t.
you did a fantastic job of writing and explaining! as a left handed person I'm feeling my own attempt using paint or ink will result in one large smudge! do you know if there's any indication of left handed authors on the walls at Pompeii?
When I was taught to write, leaning your hand/arm on the paper was forbidden. When writing neatly I still don't rest my hand. This should resolve your left hand problem.
With larger brushes I imagine there’s no leaning on the wall to steady your arm
Also if you were carving into graffiti into a wall your left handedness wouldn't be an issue. When in rome!
I’m a lefty. Tilt the paper to the right instead of the left. If you use a metal nib, there are lefty ones made (they’re cut in the opposite direction). If you use a brush, try not to choke up on the handle, and avoid resting your hand on the paper. I really like calligraphy felt tips.
I freaking love you channel!!!!
Just watched Rumak's video, too. Such beautiful handwriting!
This is one of my favorite scripts, I was showing it to my friends
Fascinante Luke! Un paso más en el fantástico mundo del latín!
Thank you .
Excellent content for those who love art !
God bless .
How wonderful is to see the ancient writings in walls still last the passage of time! But where is the next video on Roman cursive? I'm waiting to see that as well :D
Lovely video and beautiful calligraphy!
This is so cool! my interest in ancient languages stemmed from different alphabets, caligraphies, codes, etc. so this was very cool to learn how to do ^_^
very excited for the roman cursive video as well :D
Great video, as always!
Perfecto Luke! Gracias por subir tus videos. Abrazos desde el sur del mundo
I would love to see the roman cursive!
Now thats art! Great!
Bene ! A truly wonderful video!
How about Greek writing, when they started to write in what's now lowercase? Some of the letters look different from the modern ones.
There is a collection called the Beaty papyri that are displayed under glass beside a color bar and a ruler. I’ve seen older papyri from the classical period where the writing is virtually the same. These are in one size (caps) only. There is a book about Byzantine minuscule that was used in medieval times (the Archimedes Palimpsest was done in this script-you can find that in Wikipedia). The book is called “Learn to Write the Medieval Greek Minuscule Script: A step-by-step approach to reading and writing the Byzantine cursive hands” by Joshua Rudder.
I can certainly see the connection to cursive. Working from the matrices explains some of the stranger ones (b, r)
Looking forward to the video on cursive handwriting!!!
JUPITER BLESS YOU, LUKE
Hoc video valde mihi placet. Gratias tibi.
Luke stiamo aspettando il tuo canale in Italiano, dai.
Ragazzi mettete like così gli facciamo vedere quanti Italiani vogliono un suo canale in Italiano.
Cioè un altro canale nuovo in italiano, oppure dei video in italiano?
@@polyMATHY_Luke Come ti é più comodo però un canale totalmente in Italiano é secondo me una buona idea, non trovi?
Though, the Greek word really refers to reeds, which is why the palm genera Calamus is called such, as the long stems are reminiscent of reeds. It's actually cognate to the English word "haulm" which refers to the leftover stems of various plants after harvest, and the Latin word "culmus".
Ciao Luke, spero di vederti domani a Roma
Nice video!
Thank you very much for this tutorial, Luke! I enjoy calligraphy very much! I studied Japanese calligraphy while I lived there and had a blast. If you have any questions, just drop me a line. Ciao
Cool!
This was a great video. If you enjoy calligraphy, there are some really good books out there. I'd recommend "The Calligrapher's Bible" by David Harris. It details this and 99 other historical scripts with tips on pen angles, guidelines, materials, etc.
SO cool!! I learnt it from Stefano's video, too :-)
Et pulchre scribis, Luci, laudo! Ego nondum tam pulchre scribo :-D
Stephanus est nōbīs omnibus exemplar!
@@polyMATHY_Luke Est hercle! Est! Hihi!
Magister Ranieri, Considering that you are just getting started in this new Rustica style of writing, and that you are also making this video with its demands in the very way you hold the pen at the same time, I'd say you should cut yourself some slack-- it's a job well done! You carry us forward with your enthusiasm and love for your craft. You could use paper lined in blue guide lines as you are new to this script. Even without lines, you demonstrate that great gift, a steady hand. Thanks again.
Holy smokes Luke, this was like asmr, do writing in latin and greek more pls xD
Will do!
Salve from Peru
If you start from the bottom on the second column of the H, it’s much easier to do a more natural curve at the top :-)
Interesting!
Thank you so much for your videos on written Latin!! These are a godsend for me. I have one vital question for you: In ancient manuscripts such as Virgilius Vaticanus and Virgilius Romanus, how tall are the letters and what is their spacing? If you (or one of your subscribers) can answer this, it will set me on the road to authentic handwriting. I already use Roman cursive for Latin and handwriting from the Beaty papyri, which have 4mm tall letters (amazingly uniform) with 7mm spacing. I have gotten several complements on my “unique” Greek writing. Latin is next!
P.S. Sadly only a few people in my circle recognized Latin cursive. We have to spread the (authentic) word(s)!
Excellent video, this is precisely what I've been looking for! Gratias magnas tibi ago, Luci!
P.S. Any chance for a "how to write on a wax tablet with a stylus" video?
Was thinking about how the Romans wrote. Haha you answered my question!
Edit: One more thing, anyone knows what writing systems has proper stroke order other than Chinese characters?
The ancient Egyptian bookhand and hieratic scripts I believe
Japanese Hiragana, Katakana and of gourse Kanji .... which are basicly sometwhat simplified Chinese characters.... but they underwent a hole other method of simplification, though..
Maybe it's no longer like that but I'm a native Spanish speaker and up to not that very long ago, in kindergarten and the first grades of Elementary we had manuals and books on calligraphy for both regular handscript or block letters and cursive handwriting or manuscript letters, I had these lessons and I'm 27 years old, it's not like it was so long ago.
Most European hands in the Medieval period had a set stroke order.
Korean Hangul has a codified stroke order also
Latin was original written either from right to left, left to right, or alternating between those two directions (boustrophedon). By the 5th or 4th century BCE it was normally written from left to right. The sounds /g/ and /k/ were not distinguished in the oldest Latin texts.
Older letters, those written BCE, were more looking like runes, and not as the latter Latin letters
Can’t wait for the Roman Cursive video! I get the impression my previous comment had something to do with it 🤓
Time to use this font as my signature
After that first note at the start of the video my brain started playing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau in my head.
Now this is a guy that will actually survive a time travel to ancient rome. The rest of us will immediately be sold as slaves :(
Slavery sounds cool, I'm Catholic and have no skills I'm going to be lion chow.
Are you going to make a video on Cursive as well? 😱😱😱
Try Pilot calligraphy pens. They are very good.
Loving your videos as always. I have noticed however, in recent videos where you present from that couch, the audio is very echo-y.
It’s Italy. Every room in this country is extremely echoey. I am seeking a solution
Fun fact I discovered from this video: the modern Arabic word for pen is "qalam", which comes from the Latin/Green "Calamus" you talked about here.
¿Podrías hacer un video sobre la etimología de religion?
Great video! Do you still intend on doing a video on their cursive script?
I do
I didn't know about this kind of letters, they look really lovely! The one thing I don't like so much, however, is the lack of apicés in the inscriptions. That does seem odd considering how they can often be identified in the far less stylish old Roman cursive. Maybe it's indeed the case that they were written in a very subtle way that did get erased as millennia went by.
Thanks for the video! While you’re on the topic of Latin orthography, could you cover Latin punctuation and possibly the evolution thereof into the modern system? I’ve seen your video on apices (loved it), but it would be great to learn more about all this. VALÉ
That's a good suggestion!
Great video! And interestingly the word for pen in Arabic, Farsi and Urdu is qalam which sounds really similar, might be even related to calamus!
Turkish is kalem. They must all come from Greek.
@@MrNicopa Yessir, they do derive from Greek.
I recently printed a poem from Pompei and hung it on the wall in my office. He is written in rustic capitals and it reads: "Nihil durare potest tempore perpetuo: cum bene sol nituit, redditur Oceano. Decrescit Phoebe, quae modo plena fuit. Venerum feritas saepe fit aura levis"
Calam is Arabic for pen, it feels close to Calamus! Is there a connection in here?!!
hey Lucius, I have a cool idea for a video - how is accurate is the Latin in One-Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII? the lyrics are in Latin so it'd be cool to hear your take on it :)
Let me answer that quickly for you! 'Estuans interius ira vehementi Sephiroth' works just fine (in Cicero's time, it would be aestuans instead). The next part, "sors immanis, et inanis" is a reference to (Carl Orff's) Carmina Burana ('O Fortuna", the opening piece), it's entirely correct Latin. Then comes 'Veni, veni, venias, ne me mori facias', which is probably the only place where I raise my head in slight question with that 'facias'. I'll get back to it in a bit. Then we have the same lyrics but with 'gloriosa' and 'generosa' at the end of lines respectively, which render Sephiroth as feminine (so, a woman, which is strange), but they're just adjectives other than that.
So about meanings: 'estuans interius ira vehementi Sephiroth' means 'Sephiroth blazing with furious rage'. 'Sors immanis, et inanis' means 'Vast and void fate' (sors is a bit different from fatum, but it's the closest word in English in context). 'Veni, veni, venias' means 'come! come! may you come', while 'ne me mori facias' wants to mean 'don't cause me to die', but facias isn't commonly used like that. It's correct (happens in Cicero too!), in poetry especially, but it's a bit rare in the corpus. A different English translation might be 'Don't bring about my death'. Finally, we have generosa and gloriosa, both are very straightforward 'generous' and 'glorious'.
So the Latin is correct (save for generosa and gloriosa unless we take Sephiroth to be a woman), although it doesn't really tell a story or anything. Hope that helps!
@@AndreasAlcor nice breakdown :)
While a vid from Lucius would be cool, I can answer the question it poses right now: The original lyrics are taken directly from the Carmina Burana (a book of poems, including many raunchy drinking songs and lambasts against the clergy by scholastic students found in a monastery archive in Germany, and famously re-set to music in the modern day by Carl Orff)-except the word “Sepiroth,” which was added for obvious reasons-and as such are decent Medieval Latin, but with individual lines taken out of their original context and the musical emPHASis landing on the improper sylLABles. The alternate lyrics from one of the FFVII sequels or spinoffs (if forget which exactly) were original, but generally pretty poor, Latin.
Specifically:
Estuans interius ira vehementi (“Burning internally with vehement anger”)
Sepiroth
Sors imanis et inanis (“Fate, monsterous and meaninless”, from the poem O Fortuna)
Veni, veni, venias; ne me mori facias (“Come, come, may you come; may you not make me die”)
Gloriosa, Generosa (“Glorious, Generous”)
@@AndreasAlcor isn't gloriosa generosa referring to sors ? I don't know the gender/declination of that word though
Interestingly, I asked the same a week ago or so!
Please look into the Augustus Temple In Musiri Roman Colony Madurai, the Roman colonies in India
Came across a reddit post on this the other day! Apparently there was a new inscription in rustic capitals found in pompeii referencing someone named Secundius?
Do you know if there are any ligatures in rustic capitals, like "Œ" or "Æ" ?
Such ligatures are medieval inventions, if I'm not mistaken.
Ə
@@Michail_Chatziasemidis You are not. As best as I can tell they were originally created in Late Latin to signify that the original 'ae' sound had become more like an 'e', whilst keeping spelling consistency with earlier Latin. Later, they were also used to fill in for sounds which the base Latin alphabet did not have a letter: Eald Ænglisċ had two 'a'-like sounds, and so made the more 'a'-like sound 'a', and used 'æ' for the other one that sounded halfway between an 'a' and an 'e' per Latin phonetics.
@@therat1117 there's also the saving space thing. Done with ligatures sometimes and also with diacritics.
Like ñ being an n with another n on top
@@YouLittleRascal Also partially it recognises that by that in Old Spanish, nn had begun to sound like ny, so you didn't necessarily need to write as 'nn' to make sense. Ligatures are fascinating.
As pen hack: you can use an Architect grind fountain pen or hold stun nib sideways.
I have one thing to say... I broke my wrist in 3 different point and since then my calligraphy is terrible and my wrist hurts a lot when I write for more than 3 minutes.
BUT I am a reenactor and I do a little didactic about ancient roman calligraphy during our events. And let me say: the roman handwritten cursive is so fast and simple that I got it as my everyday handwriting calligraphy. It gives me soooo less wrist pain than normal cursive...
Anyway, doing it on modern paper is too easy. I challenge you at writing with a calamus and iron gall ink on a papyr sheet. XD
You're doing a great job, you'll improve !
6:51 _autem_
i'd have to check on Mr Vittori's video
I'm sure it's an honest mistake.
But i am priti sure the B is a L + R combination, the larger bulk doesn't go back clockwise, that's the whole point.
_atque_ 10:01
i've never seen the C done in one stroke-for some reason (knowledge of the Γ origin?) Roman writing always kept a 2 stroke ductus for the C
I wonder what this Calamos would be in more contemporary possible nib configuration of a Fountain pen. It may either be a "Cursive Italic" or perhaps an "Architect" nib, but I am just trying to give suggestions for a possible answer.
11:11 I was very surprised that you didn't use Roman numerals to write that! Haha
This is actually interesting
Hello.. and thank you. Can I ask please.. .where can I get those pens? Thanks .. or what type of pen tip would I be looking for?
Salvē, Lūcā. You might have answered to that in some of your videos, but i thought i'd ask. What initially inspired you to learn Latin (apart from your italian origins) and Ancient Greek, and how old were you when you started the journey?
Many thanks! Now I’m going to graffti “ROMANI EUNT DOMUS”, RUSTICO SCRIPTIONE!
I'm kinda reminded of ther Gothic alphabet (not the blackletter stuff, the thing to write Gothic)
Yay!
Hey, isn’t the verse you wrote quoted in the « dē arte poeticā » chapter of LLPSI?
Please do the cursive!
i need to learn latinnnn
I enjoyed your tutorial immensely. People call me an old nerd for my interests in history, particularly regarding my Italian heritage (mostly Sicily specifically). My surname being Liberatore has always made me proud to represent. Long story short… Would you do me the favor of writing the oldest Roman text you know saying the words
Strength
Humbleness
Love
Grace
I would like to get this in a tattoo in a listed fashion. Thanks in advance friend!! If humbleness is not a word then maybe Acceptance
2:44 So the Greek word "calamos" means cylindrical object that holds ink in it (aka pen)? The Arabic word for pen is similar. We say "qalam" for pen in Arabic.
A borrowing from Greek, yes.
"kalamos" means "reed". You can make a pen out of a reed by cutting it at an inclined angle. Same way the word "pen" comes from Latin "penna" which means feather, for the use of a bird's feather for the same purpose.
@@auriocus Interesting. We say "qalam" for pen in Arabic and "pena" for pen in Indonesian.
10:39 Bob Ross moment
@Polýmathy Could you post the link for the 2d video? it seems you forgot it?
Luke is so cute ❤️
"Calamus" is very similar to the Arabic word for pen "قلم" (qalam)
It’s from Greek en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/κάλαμος#Ancient_Greek
O, ok hahae. So am wating to cursive video. xD
This script is interesting as it is most associated with late antiquity - one of the reasons our writing appears more like Roman inscriptions than Roman handwriting is precisely because of the influence of this script that was the basis for uncial and other medieval scripts that eventually morphed into modern forms of writing with majuscles and miniscules. The few surviving manuscripts from late antiquity were all written in this, often the earliest known versions of certain pagan authors. Also, interestingly this script continued to be used alongside uncial writing for titles and headings well into the medieval era as a sort of 'fancy script' kind of like modern italics. We have this idea that with the fall of the Roman empire that Roman cultural ideas and practices just died, but actually dig a bit more deeper and you find on a whole range of levels, from writing, books, currency, language and ideas about political legitimacy many aspects of Roman culture survived the economic and political dislocations, albeit getting somewhat adapted by the centuries.
I wonder if there is any relation between the Latin word "calamus" and Arabic "qalam"? Love your videos by the way. Greetings from China😄
Hey, Luke. Sorry, kind of random question: I don't believe you ever analyzed the Latin from "Il primo re", the 2019 Italian film about the foundation of Rome, which claims to be spoken entirely in Old Latin (i.e. the language spoken in Alba Longa at the time of Romulus and Remus). Did you see it? I'd be extremely interested to hear an analysis from you about how good it actually was the research that went into it and the actors' pronunciation!
It's a faaaake!!! He actually did do a video about it here: czcams.com/video/2anB0BDJ5f0/video.html
@@sigilmedia That's not the feature film, though, it's the TV show, a completely different product, if from the same creator. Does the video also cover the film?
@@Kumagoro42 I'm pretty sure he mentions that linguistically it's more or less the same thing, that is not at all solid from a linguistic point of view, but I can't totally remember.
Please!!!!, in the next video...roman cursive!!!!!!!!!