ABSTRACT
Initial studies on handwriting can be attributed to the area known as graphology. The term “graphology” was first used by St. JeanHippolyte Michon in Paris in 1887, and comes from a combination of two Greek words: “graphein”—write, and “logos”—the science. However, the first attempts of systematic analysis of writings are contributed to Camillo Baldini whose work entitled “Treated how, by a letter missive, one recognizes the writer’s nature and qualities” from seventeenth century is considered the starting point of today’s handwriting analysis. The main interest of graphology is the interpretation of handwriting in order to determine personality traits of the writer and the assessment of his state of health (mental and physical). Currently, however, graphology applied to the psychological assessment is usually regarded as pseudoscience.
