On the 14th of November 2022, within the exhibition, the second demonstrative workshop of medieval calligraphy on paper and parchment was organized. The facilitator of the workshop, one of Romania’s best medievalists, shared the workshop participants some introductory elements of Latin Paleography, and, thereafter, he initiated them into the various writing styles used in the Middle Ages. The calligraphy workshop started with a preliminary stage of preparing the “quills” through a specific method of indenting the tip of the bird (goose) feathers. The participants to the workshop learned the methods of indentation and precise use of this rudimentary and enduring writing instrument used for several centuries, from the beginning of the early Middle Ages to the XIXth Century. The participants got acquainted not only with this rare ritual of indenting bird feathers, a ritual which is still preserved only by a few professional calligraphers, but also with the differences that the support materials, either parchment or paper, impose on calligraphy. In this workshop, the facilitator insisted upon the writing (style) that was dominant in the Middle Ages in many parts of Europe, from England and France to Central Europe. The participants could practice the Gothic minuscule called textualis, the Nordic variant, the Carolingian writing. Thirty people enthusiastically participated in this workshop.
