What Is The History and Current Status of Graphology?
Trait-stroke graphology, like psychology, was rooted in the study of philosophy. In 300 B.C., the Greek philosopher Aristotle conveyed his understanding of the relationship between handwriting and personality when he said, “Spoken words are the symbols of mental experience and written words are the symbols of spoken words. Just as all men have not the same speech sounds, so all men have not the same writing.”The study of handwriting was also mentioned during the times of the Roman Empire. Tranquillus, the biographer of Augustus Caesar, wrote that the Emperor’s cramped handwriting showed his stingy nature. Later, in the 1600’s, an Italian physician named Camillo Baldi wrote the first known treatise on handwriting. However, it was not until 1872 that two French monks, Abbe Michon and Abbe Flandrin began a systematic study of handwriting and published the results. In later years, graphology was adopted in Germany, and, around the turn of the century, came to the United States.In the early
