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testeggiata
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Letter written in the testeggiata style of italic bastarda script by Gianfrancesco Cresci, 1572; in the Vatican Library, Vatican City (MS Vat. Lat. 1685, fol. 135r).
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Letter written in the testeggiata style of italic bastarda script by Gianfrancesco Cresci, 1572; in the Vatican Library, Vatican City (MS Vat. Lat. 1685, fol. 135r).
Letter written in the testeggiata style of italic bastarda script by Gianfrancesco Cresci, 1572; in the Vatican Library, Vatican City (MS Vat. Lat. 1685, fol. 135r).

testeggiata

calligraphy
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History

testeggiata, in calligraphy, the headed ascenders or plumelike terminals to b, d, h, and l, in particular, which became an ornamental feature of the 16th-century italic bastarda script. At Venice in 1554, Vespasiano Amphiareo published models that combined an overdisciplined cancellaresca script with black-letter mercantile script mannerisms such as loops and running ligatures. From this hybrid the Vatican scriptor Gianfrancesco Cresci developed a highly cursive, free-flowing hand. His italic bastarda is topped off with accents at the end of ascenders made by doubling back at the start of the stroke and exerting a bit of pressure at that point on a rather flexible nib.