La bella scrittura: scrivere in corsivo nel ’900 attraverso le carte di Giulio Battelli e Giorgio Cencetti

Learning handwriting in Italy (but not in other European countries) is now entirely entrusted to the initiative of schools and teachers: for children a non-cursive writing (such as the so-called script) is considered easier to write and is preferred in teaching. Otherwise, at the beginning of the 20th century the Italian ministry’s instructions clearly prescribed cursive handwiting: children had to learn the technique of connecting the letters well. The autographs of Giulio Battelli and Giorgio Cencetti, who learned to write in the same years, show very different results, showing for one the fidelity to traditional scholastic models and on the other to a greater personal sensitivity for aesthetic factors.