Montreiano and Californio cursive
Handwriting in Montréi and Alta California traditionally was based upon the Gothic Rotunda script which had been popular in Iberia in the Middle ages through the 18th century. Due to the early arrival of the Montreianos and Castillians to Alta California and Montréi, and their subsequent isolation, handwriting became influenced by the popular style of calligraphy used in Bible editions, religious works, and finally documents.
The cursive forms evolved directly from the Gothic Rotunda. It shows the same methods and script characters, such as lowercase round s only at the end of words, while lowercase long s is used elsewhere, the 2-shaped r following round letters, and the distinctive lowercase g. The letter v was added to disambiguate words, whereas documents and manuscripts written calligraphically do not show a distinction between u and V.
Many remark on the similarity between the Montreiano and Californio cursive script with the German Spitzschrift script. The similarities are due in large part to the similar origin of their parent scripts, Spitzschrift from Fraktur and the Montreiano and Californio from Gothic Rotunda, both parent scripts being of the Gothic black-letter family.
