Marie Pavie
In roughly 1600, French calligrapher Marie Pavie authored one of the first calligraphy copybooks published by a woman under her own name: Le premier essay de la plume de Marie Pavie (The first attempt at the pen by Marie Pavie). Only one complete copy of this stunning manuscript has survived, and it’s held by the Newberry Library (Chicago, USA).
Le premier essay demonstrates a connected French Gothic script written with a small, edged quill. The hand has a modest slant, tight counters, and narrow forms—at once delicate and assertive. In some places, the strokes connect so lightly they verge on disconnection, hovering between calligraphic script and print. Hairline daggers descend from the vertical letter stems, plunging through the baselines to create a text block that is cathedral-like in its sharp, Gothic structure. Crowning these lesson pages, Pavie wrote titles in a lavish Italian hand. Feathery hairlines spin into towering swashes, dramatically-shaded ornaments swell and taper in defiance of gravity.
Credits & Usage
Thanks to the archivists at the Newberry Library in Chicago, who digitized and cataloged this rare manuscript so the rest of us around the world can continue learning from them. You can view the original digitized pages in the Newberry Library Digital Collections.
I, Molly Suber Thorpe, created this digital flipbook by cropping, straightening, slightly sharpening, and brightening the original digital files. The cover thumbnail is my own creation, as the original does not have a title page.
This book is in the public domain. No licensing or permission is required. You may download it, print it, share it,