  In this paper, a novel approach is introduced for classifying curves into
proper families, according to their similarity. First, a mathematical quantity
we call plane curvature is introduced and a number of propositions are stated
and proved. Proper similarity measures of two curves are introduced and a
subsequent statistical analysis is applied. First, the efficiency of the curve
fitting process has been tested on 2 shapes datasets of reference. Next, the
methodology has been applied to the very important problem of classifying 23
Byzantine codices and 46 Ancient inscriptions to their writers, thus achieving
correct dating of their content. The inscriptions have been attributed to ten
individual hands and the Byzantine codices to four writers.
