I’ll be coming back to this in future posts, but for now I’ll just highly, highly recommend this documentary tracing the history of writing presented by Lydia Wilson.
One highlight are the contributions of caligrapher Brody Neuenschwander, who demonstrates the influence that different media (papyrus, parchment, paper) have on writing speed, letter formation, and aesthetics, and the long-run influences that these factors have on the development of widespread literacy.
Most illuminating.
Here’s the link again – it doesn’t seem to be embeddable on other sites.