Dictionary

chancery hand en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (historical) Either of two styles of handwriting: a written form of black letter used in France and England from about 1350, developed in the Lateran chancelry in the 13th century, or a style of cursive handwriting introduced in the 1420s by Niccolò de' Niccoli, developed from humanist minuscule; a variety of either of these styles.
   • It begins like a transcript, at the top of the page, without the least appearance or form of an intended original : it is written in the common secretary hand of ,the age, which Crawford mistook for a chancery hand;[…]. 1819, Malcolm Laing, The History of Scotland, volume 1, page 373:
   • But, unlike his posterity, Hercolani did not carry this sort of pleasantry too far, and his book remains a splendid specimen of the late chancery hand distinguished by decorative treatment of the ascenders and descenders and a discreet flourishing of initial and terminal letters. 2009, Stanley Morison, Selected Essays on the History of Letter-forms in Manuscript and Print, page 165:
   • Her name, from Crawford's example of it, seems to me to be written in the same chancery hand, which renders the supposed forgery a mere copy, mistaken by Welwood for the original. 1830, John Pinkerton, The Literary Correspondence of John Pinkerton, Esq., volume 2, page 112:

Forms

Relateds

Carolingian minuscule · black letter · secretary hand · Chancery English · court hand · italic · humanist minuscule

Translations (6)

de Kanzleischrift (style of handwriting) · pl italik (style of handwriting) · fi kansliakirjoitus (style of handwriting) · cmn 大法官手寫體 /大法官手写体 (style of handwriting) · pl italika (style of handwriting) · nl kanselarijschrift (style of handwriting)