What is "chancery hand"

alt. (context calligraphy historical English) Either of two styles of handwriting: a written form of black letter used in France and England from about 1350, developed in the Lateran chancelry in the 13th century, or a style of cursive handwriting introduced in the 1420s by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2%20de'%20Niccoli, developed from humanist minuscule; a variety of either of these styles. n. (context calligraphy historical English) Either of two styles of handwriting: a written form of black letter used in France and England from about 1350, developed in the Lateran chancelry in the 13th century, or a style of cursive handwriting introduced in the 1420s by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2%20de'%20Niccoli, developed from humanist minuscule; a variety of either of these styles.

The term "chancery hand" can refer to either of two very different styles of historical handwriting.

A chancery hand was at first a form of handwriting for business transactions that developed in the Lateran chancery (the Cancelleria Apostolica) of the thirteenth century, then spread to France, notably through the Avignon Papacy, and to England after 1350. This early "chancery hand" is a form of blackletter. Versions of it were adopted by royal and ducal chanceries, which were often staffed by clerics who had taken minor orders.

A later cursive "chancery hand", also developed in the Vatican but based on humanist minuscule (itself based on Carolingian minuscule), was introduced in the 1420s by Niccolò Niccoli; it was the manuscript origin of the typefaces we recognize as italic.