Definitions of "calligraphy" from different sources

CALLIGRAPHY (Greek: kalligraphía — neat handwriting, from kallós — beauty and grápho — am writing), the art of beautiful and legible handwriting. The history of C. is connected both with the history of font and writing utensils (kalam, the reed stick in Ancient world and medieval East; quill pen in Europe till 1850’s; brush in the Far East ) and also stylistic art evolution. C. is not only meant for making the process of reading much easier, but also implies emotional and graphic expressiveness to the sign. Stylistics of C. varies from plain lines, remote reading to expressive shorthand italic and decorative ornamentation which sometimes complicates reading process. In China and other Far Eastern countries C. was highly estimated as the art of implying emotional and symbolic significance to the sign as well as its meaning and thoughts and feelings of a calligrapher. This provokes the free brush strokes and special rhythm of Chinese, Korean and Japanese C. among the foremost Chinese artists are: Van Si-Chzhi (300 AD); Suan-Tszun (700 AD) and Mi Fay (1000’s AD). In the Islamic countries where the fine arts were restricted C. became the source for rich ornamental rhythmical compositions often decorated with geometrical or floral and pictorial elements. Among the foremost calligraphers are the masters of the “nashi” font: Ibn Mukla (900’s AD), Ibn Bavvab (1000’s AD) and Yakut Mustasimi (1200’s AD) in Baghdad, Iran and Middle East masters of “nastalic” typography: Mir Ali Teb-Rizi (1300’s AD), Sultan Ali Meshhedi (1400’s AD), Mir Ali Heravi, Shakh Mohmud Nishapuri, Akhemed Al-Husseini (1500’s AD). In the antique period of European history calligraphers created classical samples of Greek and Latin fonts, clear and harmonic; in the middle Ages C. which originated in monastic scriptoriums evolved from the classical proportions of Carolingian type fonts to decorative and tangled gothic script (blackletter). The prominent calligraphic samples of Russian calligraphy are known from the 11th century (starting with the Ostromir Gospel rewritten by deacon Gregory in 1057). From the 15th century the leadership role in C. was taken by engravers, scribes and artists who designed elaborate and luxurious font compositions. Book printing partially limited the field of C. application, and with the invention of typewriters it was preserved as one of school disciplines (penmanship)and a number of fields requiring application of artistic fonts (book and banner design, industrial graphics, etc,).