Girolamo Moretti (1879 - 1963), the founder of Italian graphology, was a Franciscan friar who displayed extraordinary talent and energy in establishing the fundamental principles of his graphological method, an achievement which denotes brilliant intuitive faculties.

He started to take an interest in graphology in 1905 when he happened to read an article on the subject in a newspaper. After long, patient research he devised a new experimental method that was to translate his intuitions into scientific principles, some of which were absolutely new in the field of psychology.

Father Moretti was not a psychologist himself, although he was a man of extraordinary sensitivity and intuition. He did not arrive at graphology via psychology, but began his research directly with handwriting samples. He started by analysing, very carefully, each “gesture in motion” on the paper (hundreds and hundreds of handwriting samples were examined) and subsequently established the psychological implications of each gesture.

He regarded handwriting as the product of an intense and complex neuro-physio-psychological activity.

His original system regards handwriting as the result of the dynamic synthesis of all the graphological signs in the writing being examined, inasmuch as handwriting is specific to the individual. Therefore, each writing specimen is absolutely personal and unique. Actually, it is impossible to find two handwriting samples that are exactly alike for the simple reason that it is impossible to find two exactly identical people in this world.

For Father Moretti, the main task of graphology was to identify in handwriting that which distinguishes one individual from the other. In other words, he was searching for what exactly it is that makes two people different from one other. He was very interested in investigating what made this difference unique.

In 1914 the first edition of his Trattato di Grafologia (Treatise on Graphology) was published and then revised over and over again; it is now in its 13^th edition.

Other publications by Moretti, which are worthy of note, are:

			Grafologia sui vizi (Graphology of the Seven Deadly Sins), 1937
			Trattato scientifico di perizie grafiche su base grafologica (Scientific Treatise on Forensic Document Examination), 1942
			Il corpo umano dalla scrittura (The Human Body as Seen in Handwriting), 1945
			Grafologia pedagogica (Pedagogic Graphology), 1947
			Facoltà intellettive e attitudini professionalidalla grafologia (Vocational Guidance Graphology), 1948
			I santi dalla scrittura (The Saints through their Handwriting), 1952, translated in Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish
			Scompensi e anomalie della psiche dalla grafologia  (Imbalances and Anomalies of the Psyche as seen in Handwriting), 1962
			La passione predominante (The Predominant Passion), 1962
			I grandi dalla scrittura (Great men through their Handwriting),1968
			Analisi grafologiche (Graphological Analyses), 1966, 1970, 1972, 1976
			Chi lo avrebbe mai pensato? Autobiografia  (Who would ever have thought it? Autobiography),1977

At the end of this page I wish to highlight the G. Moretti Graphological Institute in Urbino, Italy, which is one of the most distinguished centres of graphology worldwide.

The Institute has got a very rich library where the best of Italian and foreign graphological publications crowds the shelves.