ABSTRACT
In the history of Western handwriting, Humanistic script has an importance that surpasses that of all other types of handwriting, because it is the direct ancestor of printed Roman type in use in the whole Western world and may be considered one of great creations of human mind. Even if the latter criticism had more to do with correctness of texts and orthography than with the handwriting itself, Francesco Petrarch's statements betray a general negative feeling towards the handwriting used in his time. Some paleographers have denied‒or have passed over in silence‒the revolutionary or innovative character of Petrarch's handwriting. Petrucci states that Petrarch was the first, after an interruption of more than two centuries, to re-establish the harmonious use of various types of handwriting on the page. Especially in Northern Europe and less so in Italy at the time, rubrics and titles were written in the same handwriting as the text.
