The sun., 1905-10-01
FEATS OF PENMANSHIP.
Mems hskill in writing Much in Small
space.


The feat Of writing the Lords Prayer upon
a space which a sixpence would cover is so
familiar As to cease to be WONDERFUL: but
one cannot resist tribute of genuine as
tonishment TO q man who can write the whole
of our national anthem along the thin edge
OF an ordinary visiting card. and who has
actually penned biographies Of King Edward
and several members of his family upon a
tiny grain Of wheat. Such microscopic
"calligraphist us NJ. j. Sofer, French gentle
man who. we should say. could safely chal-
lenge the whole world to rivalry in his own
field of penmanship.
Perhaps more wonderful still are the por-
traits Of celebrities which NJ. Sofer produces
out Of their biographies. His presentment
Of the Czas. for instance is not only clever
likeness, but every stroke in 1t is a part of
the continuous life of the Russian Emperor
in letters so minute that to the unaided eye
they seem part of an ordinary penline. while
the artist is at present engaged on similar
picture of King Edward to be made up Of his
biography, containing 81, 600 letters.
There has probably never been time when
this art of minute penmanship has not exer-
cised its fascinations. In Cicero's time, about
1000 years ago, the whole of Homer's "lliad"
was copied so mcroscopically that IL was
placed in nutshell, and few centuries later
an artist wrote short poem and aclosed IL
in followed grain of corn. while still another
penman in these long gone days actually
wrote verse of Homer on grain of millet.
Pedotti, fourteenth century Italian, per-
formed the most astounding feats with HIS
pen. He wrote a poem of over, 100 lines in q
space no larger than his little finger nail.
made an elaborate landscape sketch. includ-,
ing shepherd and a drove OF sheep. which a
grain of corn completely covered and penned
a long treatise on poetry in such minute letters
that the manuscript had the appearance of a
close series of perfectly straight lines while
he dedicated to Urban VI. history of the
papacy, which took the form of an excellent
likeness of the Pope in whose honor 1t was
written. Urban was incredulous when he
was assured by the artist that 1t was COM
posed of more than $4,000 words in the form
Of consecutive history. and exclaimed. as
we'll he might. why. this is nothing less than
a miracle.
But Italy has no monopoly of these minute
calgra phists Many centuries ago Peter
Bales, an English Chancery clerk. we learn
from the Hareian manuscripts, transcribed
the whole Of the Bible in such small COM
pass that he was able to inclose 1t in a wal
nut. The nut holdeth the book" We are
told, there are as many leaves in his little
book as the great Bible, and he had written
as much in one OF his little leaves as great
leaf of the Bible" And, not to be outdone
by Peter Bales, another Enellshman of the
seventeenth century. one Henry Mason.
copied the whole OF paradise Lost" and en-
closed his manuscript In hens egg.
As we have seen. NJ. Sofer is by no means
the first pen artist who hns made portrait
the medium of a long narrative. At the
British Museum there is to be seen an ex-
cellent likeness of Queen Anne. little larger
than half a sheet OF notepaper. every delicate
line of which Is made up of words and SEN
tences, the entire narrative being sufficient
to fill a small volume: and at st. Johns Col
iege. Oxford, there is head Of the mar
tyred King Charles L.. which. although To
all appearance delicate engraving, is SINH
larly composed. With the help of a micro
scope you can read In the lines of the face
and the ruff the whole Of the Psalms. the Lords
PRAYER and the Creed