COPPERPLATE FROM SCRATCH

How to make a fresh start after centuries of blackletter cursive

Benedikt Gröndal's handwriting booklet offers brief instruction in a new style that was introduced in Icelandic schools in 1875. Blackletter cursive had been replaced by the documentary hand of the British Empire.

Copperplate was written with a pointed nib and an awkward pen hold. It and the simplified versions that followed were taught to Icelandic children for over a century. Italic handwriting succeeded it in 1984.