Book hand

{{Short description|Legible handwriting style}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}

A book hand was any of several stylized handwriting scripts used during ancient and medieval times.{{Cite book |last=Dillon |first=Emma |title=Medieval Music-Making and the Roman de Fauvel |date=2002-10-07 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-81371-6 |pages=25 |language=en}} It was intended for legibility and often used in transcribing official documents (prior to the development of printing and similar technologies).{{Cite book |last=Black |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=61wNf7ZJhkcC |title=Benedetto Accolti and the Florentine Renaissance |date=2002-08-08 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-52227-4 |pages=130–133 |language=en}}

In palaeography and calligraphy, the term hand is still used to refer to a named style of writing, such as the chancery hand.