Joris Hoefnagel

Joris (George) Hoefnagel was a 16th century painter and illustrator. His forte was nature. He illustrated a gorgeous miniature book, Mira calligraphiae monumenta, a model book of calligraphy. A master calligrapher did the writing (which is incredible), and 30 years later, Hoefnagel was commissioned to illustrate it. The above illustration is not from that book but is in the same style.

Digital Scriptorium

The Digital Scriptorium is a collection of medieval & renaissance handwriting that can be magnified very large. I only discovered it, and have much exploring to do. By the way, this initial is not from the site but it's representative.

Free Online Book on Ornamental Letters

A great find on Project Gutenberg -- illustrated book called Letters and Lettering: A Treatise with 200 Examples by Frank Choutou Brown.

Lost art

This is Spencerian penmanship. I sure wish I'd been taught how to write beautifully, but it was already a lost art in the 1960s. Of course, there are a few people who still do it.