The very broad presentation of the history of scripts given here does not do justice to the many detailed areas of handwriting history which can be teased out from the general trends. There are regional histories, histories of scripts used for specific purposes, and even histories of individual letters of the alphabet. Strangely enough, some letters of the alphabet, like o, have very boring histories and are always immediately recognisable while others, like a, have thrilling histories of changing form and idiosyncratic variation. I don't know why this is so, but if we work our way through them, perhaps we may get some inspiration on the subject.

While there are broad general trends of change in handwriting styles as they have occurred across western Europe, changing fashions within particular sectors, and interactions between them, reflect changing patterns of social history. Have patience as we gradually add to the sections here to build up a picture.