ABCs - "M" is for Mercantile

"Mercantile Hands developed during the Renaissance and were used for all business purposes throughout Italy. Existing & evolving along with the Italic Hand, merchantile cursives were a "bastard" form of script that bridge the evolutionary gap between the old gothic print styles and the later business scripts of the 1600s. Consequently they straddled traits of both gothic style and the new italic sensibility. Early on styles of mercantile cursives varied from one major city to the next (e.g., Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice, etc). Italic eventually won out as the hand of choice, but other forms of merchant class scripts continued to develop as well eventually leading to our common writing of today."

~2010, Don Marsh~
©2010 Don Marsh