History of Romanian Handwriting

Romanian Cyrillic writing was organized at the early 16th Century. Prior to that, Romanian words appear in documents written in the Old Slavonic, mostly linked to records associated with the Greek Orthodox Church. Throughout the next century, spelling practices on a state level became more standardized in correspondences and documents. This process would continue in the following centuries, with spellings and styles becoming more standardized well into the 19th century.

Starting in the 1860s, Romania adopted an adapted version of the Latin Alphabet and briefly upheld a transitional alphabet mixing the two into the 1870s. Afterwards, with the exception of Moldova, which became under the administration of Russia, the Cyrillic alphabet was completely abandoned, and the revised Latin alphabet is now standard in both countries.

Within both handwriting systems, different handwriting styles and systems. Handwriting has evolved over time and over organization. Church records, for example, are more likely to be written in a more archaic hand that civil records, even during the same time period.

We recommend studying these sections thoroughly before reading old manuscripts. Doing so will help you be more confident in your ability to understand these records and minimize misinterpretations or missing the information for which you are searching.

Image: Neacșu's letter, 1521. Found in Wikipedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Neac%C8%99u%27s_letter (accessed July, 2026)