Peter Bales

Who was Peter Bales?

Peter Bales, English calligrapher, one of the inventors of shorthand writing, was born in London in 1547, and is described by Anthony Wood as a "most dexterous person in his profession, to the great wonder of scholars and others". We are also informed that "he spent several years in sciences among Oxonians, particularly, as it seems, in Gloucester Hall; but that study, which he used for a diversion only, proved at length an employment of profit." He is mentioned for his skill in micrography in Holinshed's Chronicle:

John Evelyn wrote:

Hadrian Junius, speaking as a miracle of somebody who wrote the Apostles' Creed and the beginning of St.