The Alphabet Book of Amos Lewis : An Elizabethan Calligraphic Manuscript Revealed

The manuscript, here shown in facsimile with commentary, was made by a clergyman in a bid for the patronage of an Elizabethan magnate. The earliest known English attempt at an original writing book, it combines scripts and ornament to emulate printed Continental writing books, with quoted texts to individual letters stressing the value of learning.

This delightful manuscript, published in facsimile, was composed around 1585 by a clergyman in a bid for the patronage of an Elizabethan magnate, Sir John Petre. Modeled on printed writing books, German and French, it presents a profusion of scripts, accompanying decorated capital letters from A to Z. Its texts are eloquent on the value of learning. All is transcribed in print and, when needed, translated, including poems in English and Latin in which Amos Lewis, the creator, presses his case, reinforced by colorful Petre heraldry. The commentary unravels the Alphabet Book’s precursors and analyzes its ingredients, including a lively range of ornament. The first writing book published in London, in 1570, was by a Frenchman, Jean de Beau Chesne. Lewis’s manuscript is the first attempt at an original writing book by an Englishman. This signal rarity, virtually unknown hitherto, is a window into handwriting and education in the age of Shakespeare.