3. “On Giotto's Circle and Writing,”

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 33, 1900, Page 556

3. “On Giotto's Circle and Writing,” by H. N. McLeod. (Transactions, p. 491.) Mr. Hudson agreed that the illegibility in writing was due to the angular form; it was more easy to read the up-and-down and circular forms. Mr. Mestayer said the subject was not new. Thirty years ago, in an engineer's office, the leading draughtsman had the same idea, based on the theory of circles. All the letters of his beautiful writing could be resolved into circles; he could draw a perfect circle without difficulty. Mr. Harding doubted whether the circular curve is the sign of artistic beauty, but, rather, the elliptic. The latter was used now instead of the circle. Every one had their own particular curve in writing or drawing, and his work could be told by the curves and angles. Mr. Joynt could not quite see the connection between the title and the mode of treatment adopted in the paper. If it was meant to imply that in drawing a circle Giotto intended to give the weight of his authority to a particular principle in art, the assumption was quite false, and was contradicted by the general character of his work. So, too, there was a danger of confusion in advocating the circular form in handwriting: was it as being the most desirable form in itself, or as most suitable for giving freedom and pliancy to the muscles of the hand? As to legibility, he held that it did not depend on any particular form of handwriting, but on the degree of resemblance of a piece of writing to the form with which the reader was most familiar. Dr. Fyffee said the Phœnician circular form was not used as an O, but an ellipse. An artist's work could be detected by his mannerism, not by curves or angles Mr. McLeod still thought the circular form would be the best for writing.