The Alphabet Book of Amos Lewis - An Elizabethan Calligraphic Manuscript Revealed

The manuscript, here shown in facsimile with commentary, was made by a clergyman in a bid for the patronage of an Elizabethan magnate. The earliest known English attempt at an original writing book, it combines scripts and ornament to emulate printed Continental writing books, with quoted texts to individual letters stressing the value of learning.