Vyaz (Cyrillic calligraphy)
Type of ancient decorative Cyrillic lettering
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vyaz (Russian: вязь from вязать, vyazat'; Church Slavonic: вѩзати ⰲⱗⰸⰰⱅⰻ 'to bind, to tie') is a type of ancient decorative Cyrillic lettering, in which letters are linked into a continuous ornament.
History
Vyaz first emerged out of a need to write quickly in an aesthetically pleasant manner. Scribes developed vyaz to decorate their texts and highlight the first line of a text.[1] Vyaz headings are sometimes difficult to read due to their ornamentation.[2]
Vyaz first appeared in South Slavic monuments in the 13th century, and was also used from the end of the 14th to the beginning of the 15th centuries in the East Slavic and Wallachian regions. Under the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Vyaz developed considerably, but was later abandoned.
