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Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish languages until the 1870s, and for the German language until the 1940s, when Hitler's distaste for the supposedly "Jewish-influenced" script saw it officially discontinued in 1941. Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of blackletter faces is incorrectly referred to as Fraktur. Blackletter is sometimes referred to as Old English, but it is not to be confused with the
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
language, which predates blackletter by many centuries and was written in the insular script or in Futhorc. Along with Italic type and
Roman type In Latin script typography, roman is one of the three main kinds of historical type, alongside blackletter and italic. Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 15th century, based on the pairing of inscriptional ...
, blackletter served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography.


Origins

Carolingian minuscule was the direct ancestor of blackletter. Blackletter developed from Carolingian as an increasingly literate 12th-century Europe required new books in many different subjects. New universities were founded, each producing books for
business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
, law, grammar, history and other pursuits, not solely religious works, for which earlier
scripts Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
typically had been used. These books needed to be produced quickly to keep up with demand. Labor-intensive Carolingian, though legible, was unable to effectively keep up. Its large size consumed a lot of manuscript space in a time when writing materials were very costly. As early as the 11th century, different forms of Carolingian were already being used, and by the mid-12th century, a clearly distinguishable form, able to be written more quickly to meet the demand for new books, was being used in northeastern France and the Low Countries.


Etymology

The term ''Gothic'' was first used to describe this script in 15th-century Italy, in the midst of the Renaissance, because Renaissance humanists believed this style was barbaric, and ''Gothic'' was a synonym for ''barbaric''. Flavio Biondo, in ''Italia Illustrata'' (1474), wrote that the Germanic Lombards invented this script after they invaded Italy in the 6th century. Not only were blackletter forms called ''Gothic script'', but any other seemingly barbarian script, such as Visigothic, Beneventan, and Merovingian, were also labeled ''Gothic''. This in contrast to Carolingian minuscule, a highly legible script which the humanists called '' littera antiqua'' ("the ancient letter"), wrongly believing that it was the script used by the ancient Romans. It was in fact invented in the reign of Charlemagne, although only used significantly after that era, and actually formed the basis for the later development of blackletter. Blackletter script should not be confused with either the ancient alphabet of the Gothic language nor with the
sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...
typefaces that are also sometimes called ''Gothic''.


Forms


Textura

''Textualis'', also known as ''textura'' or ''Gothic bookhand'', was the most calligraphic form of blackletter, and today is the form most associated with "Gothic".
Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable type, movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its ki ...
carved a textualis typeface – including a large number of
ligatures Ligature may refer to: * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture used to shut off a blood vessel or other anatomical structure ** Ligature (orthodontic), used in dentistry * Ligature (music), an element of musical notation used especially in the me ...
and common abbreviations – when he printed his
42-line Bible The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of printed b ...
. However, textualis was rarely used for typefaces after this. According to Dutch scholar Gerard Lieftinck, the pinnacle of blackletter use was reached in the 14th and 15th centuries. For Lieftinck, the highest form of ''textualis'' was ''littera textualis formata'', used for ''de luxe'' manuscripts. The usual form, simply ''littera textualis'', was used for literary works and university texts. Lieftinck's third form, ''littera textualis currens'', was the
cursive Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionalit ...
form of blackletter, extremely difficult to read and used for textual glosses, and less important books. ''Textualis'' was most widely used in France, the Low Countries, England, and Germany. Some characteristics of the script are: *Tall, narrow letters, as compared to their Carolingian counterparts. *Letters formed by sharp, straight, angular lines, unlike the typically round Carolingian; as a result, there is a high degree of "breaking", i.e. lines that do not necessarily connect with each other, especially in curved letters. * Ascenders (in letters such as , , ) are vertical and often end in sharp finals *When a letter with a bow (in , , , ) is followed by another letter with a bow (such as or ), the bows overlap and the letters are joined by a straight line (this is known as "biting"). *A related characteristic is the
half r The r rotunda ⟨ ꝛ ⟩, "rounded r", is a historical calligraphic variant of the minuscule (lowercase) letter Latin '' r'' used in full script-like typefaces, especially blackletters. Unlike other letter variants such as "long s" which o ...
(also called r rotunda), the shape of when attached to other letters with bows; only the bow and tail were written, connected to the bow of the previous letter. In other scripts, this only occurred in a ligature with the letter . *Similarly related is the form of the letter when followed by a letter with a bow; its ascender is then curved to the left, like the uncial . Otherwise the ascender is vertical. *The letters , , , , , and the hook of have descenders, but no other letters are written below the line. *The letter a has a straight back stroke, and the top loop eventually became closed, somewhat resembling the number . The letter s often has a diagonal line connecting its two bows, also somewhat resembling an , but the long s is frequently used in the middle of words. * Minims, especially in the later period of the script, do not connect with each other. This makes it very difficult to distinguish , , , and . A 14th-century example of the difficulty minims produced is: ''mimi numinum niuium minimi munium nimium uini muniminum imminui uiui minimum uolunt'' ('the smallest mimes of the gods of snow do not wish at all in their life that the great duty of the defenses of wine be diminished'). In blackletter, this would look like a series of single strokes. As a result, dotted and the letter were subsequently developed. Minims may also have finals of their own. *The script has many more scribal abbreviations than Carolingian, adding to the speed in which it could be written.


Schwabacher

''Schwabacher'' was a blackletter form that was much used in early German print typefaces. It continued to be used occasionally until the 20th century. Characteristics of Schwabacher are: *The small letter is rounded on both sides, though at the top and at the bottom, the two strokes join in an angle. Other small letters have analogous forms. *The small letter has a horizontal stroke at its top that forms crosses with the two downward strokes. *The capital letter has a peculiar form somewhat reminiscent of the small letter .


Fraktur

''Fraktur'' is a form of blackletter that became the most common German blackletter typeface by the mid-16th century. Its use was so common that often any blackletter form is called ''Fraktur'' in Germany. Characteristics of Fraktur are: *The left side of the small letter is formed by an angular stroke, the right side by a rounded stroke. At the top and at the bottom, both strokes join in an angle. Other small letters have analogous forms. *The capital letters are compound of rounded -shaped or -shaped strokes. Here is the entire alphabet in Fraktur (minus the long s and the sharp s ), using the
AMS Euler AMS Euler is an upright cursive typeface, commissioned by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and designed and created by Hermann Zapf with the assistance of Donald Knuth and his Stanford graduate students. It tries to emulate a mathematician ...
Fraktur typeface: \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak \mathfrak


Cursiva

''Cursiva'' refers to a very large variety of forms of blackletter; as with modern cursive writing, there is no real standard form. It developed in the 14th century as a simplified form of ''textualis'', with influence from the form of ''textualis'' as used for writing
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
s. ''Cursiva'' developed partly because of the introduction of paper, which was smoother than parchment. It was therefore, easier to write quickly on paper in a
cursive Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionalit ...
script. In ''cursiva'', descenders are more frequent, especially in the letters and , and ascenders are curved and looped rather than vertical (seen especially in the letter ). The letters , and (at the end of a word) are very similar to their Carolingian forms. However, not all of these features are found in every example of ''cursiva'', which makes it difficult to determine whether or not a script may be called ''cursiva'' at all. Lieftinck also divided ''cursiva'' into three styles: ''littera cursiva formata'' was the most legible and calligraphic style. ''Littera cursiva textualis'' (or ''libraria'') was the usual form, used for writing standard books, and it generally was written with a larger pen, leading to larger letters. ''Littera cursiva currens'' was used for textbooks and other unimportant books and it had very little standardization in forms.


Hybrida

''Hybrida'' is also called '' bastarda'' (especially in France), and as its name suggests, is a hybrid form of the script. It is a mixture of ''textualis'' and ''cursiva'', developed in the early 15th century. From ''textualis'', it borrowed vertical ascenders, while from ''cursiva'', it borrowed long and , single-looped , and with an open descender (similar to Carolingian forms).


Donatus-Kalender

The ''Donatus-Kalender'' (also known as Donatus-und-Kalender or D-K) is the name for the metal type design that Gutenberg used in his earliest surviving printed works, dating from the early 1450s. The name is taken from two works: the
Ars grammatica An ''ars grammatica'' ( en, italic=yes, art of grammar) is a generic or proper title for surveys of Latin grammar. The first ''ars grammatica'' seems to have been composed by Remmius Palaemon (first century CE), but is now lost. The most famous '' ...
of Aelius Donatus, a Latin grammar, and the Kalender (calendar). It is a form of textura.


Blackletter typesetting

While an antiqua typeface is usually a compound of
roman type In Latin script typography, roman is one of the three main kinds of historical type, alongside blackletter and italic. Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 15th century, based on the pairing of inscriptional ...
s and italic types since the 16th-century French typographers, the blackletter typefaces never developed a similar distinction. Instead, they use
letterspacing Examples of headline letter spacing In typography, letter spacing, character spacing or tracking is an optically consistent adjustment to the space between letters to change the visual density of a line or block of text. Letter spacing is dist ...
(German ''Sperrung'') for emphasis. When using that method, blackletter ligatures like , , or remain together without additional letterspacing ( is dissolved, though). The use of bold text for emphasis is also alien to blackletter typefaces. Words from other languages, especially from Romance languages including Latin, are usually typeset in antiqua instead of blackletter. Like that, single antiqua words or phrases may occur within a blackletter text. This does not apply, however, to loanwords that have been incorporated into the language.


National forms


England


''Textualis''

English blackletter developed from the form of Carolingian minuscule used there after the Norman Conquest, sometimes called "Romanesque minuscule". ''Textualis'' forms developed after 1190 and were used most often until approximately 1300, after which it became used mainly for ''de luxe'' manuscripts. English forms of blackletter have been studied extensively and may be divided into many categories. ''Textualis formata'' ("Old English" or "blackletter"), ''textualis prescissa'' (or ''textualis sine pedibus'', as it generally lacks feet on its minims), ''textualis quadrata'' (or ''psalterialis'') and ''semi-quadrata'', and ''textualis rotunda'' are various forms of high-grade ''formata'' styles of blackletter. The University of Oxford borrowed the ''littera parisiensis'' in the 13th century and early 14th century, and the ''littera oxoniensis'' form is almost indistinguishable from its Parisian counterpart; however, there are a few differences, such as the round final forms, resembling the number , rather than the long used in the final position in the Paris script. Printers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries commonly used blackletter typefaces, but under the influence of Renaissance tastes,
Roman type In Latin script typography, roman is one of the three main kinds of historical type, alongside blackletter and italic. Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 15th century, based on the pairing of inscriptional ...
faces grew in popularity, until by about 1590 most presses had converted to them. However, blackletter was considered to be more readily legible (especially by the less literate classes of society), and it therefore remained in use throughout the 17th century and into the 18th for documents intended for widespread dissemination, such as proclamations and Acts of Parliament, and for literature aimed at the common people, such as ballads, chivalric romances, and jokebooks. Chaucer's works had been printed in blackletter in the late 15th century, but were subsequently more usually printed in Roman type.
Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...
wrote in 1781 that "I am too, though a Goth, so modern a Goth that I hate the black letter, and I love Chaucer better in Dryden and Baskerville than in his own language and dress."


''Cursiva''

English ''cursiva'' began to be used in the 13th century, and soon replaced ''littera oxoniensis'' as the standard university script. The earliest cursive blackletter form is ''Anglicana'', a very round and looped script, which also had a squarer and angular counterpart, ''Anglicana formata''. The ''formata'' form was used until the 15th century and also was used to write vernacular texts. An ''Anglicana bastarda'' form developed from a mixture of ''Anglicana'' and ''textualis'', but by the 16th century, the principal cursive blackletter used in England was the Secretary script, which originated in Italy and came to England by way of France. Secretary script has a somewhat haphazard appearance, and its forms of the letters , , and are unique, unlike any forms in any other English script.


France


''Textualis''

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
''textualis'' was tall and narrow compared to other national forms, and was most fully developed in the late 13th century in Paris. In the 13th century there also was an extremely small version of textualis used to write miniature Bibles, known as "pearl script". Another form of French textualis in this century was the script developed at the University of Paris, ''littera parisiensis'', which also is small in size and designed to be written quickly, not calligraphically.


''Cursiva''

French ''cursiva'' was used from the 13th to the 16th century, when it became highly looped, messy, and slanted. ''Bastarda'', the "hybrid" mixture of ''cursiva'' and ''textualis'', developed in the 15th century and was used for vernacular texts as well as Latin. A more angular form of ''bastarda'' was used in
Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
, the ''lettre de forme'' or ''lettre bourgouignonne'', for books of hours such as the Très Riches Heures of John, Duke of Berry.


Germany

Despite the frequent association of blackletter with
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
, the script was actually very slow to develop in German-speaking areas. It developed first in those areas closest to France and then spread to the east and south in the 13th century. The German-speaking areas are, however, where blackletter remained in use the longest. Schwabacher typefaces dominated in Germany from about 1480 to 1530, and the style continued in use occasionally until the 20th century. Most importantly, all of the works of Martin Luther, leading to the Protestant Reformation, as well as the
Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...
of
Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...
(1498), used this typeface.
Johann Bämler Johann Bämler (sometimes Johannes Bämler, Johann Baemler or Hans Bemler, 1430–1503) was a printer, illuminator and bookseller from Augsburg, Germany. Bämler is mentioned in Augsburgian city records from 1453 as a scribe and from 1477 as a p ...
, a printer from Augsburg, probably first used it as early as 1472. The origins of the name remain unclear; some assume that a typeface-carver from the village of Schwabach—one who worked externally and who thus became known as the ''Schwabacher''—designed the typeface.


''Textualis''

German ''Textualis'' is usually very heavy and angular, and there are few characteristic features that are common to all occurrences of the script. One common feature is the use of the letter for Latin or . ''Textualis'' was first used in the 13th and 14th centuries, and subsequently become more elaborate and decorated, as well as being reserved used for liturgical works only.
Johann Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its kind, earlier designs w ...
used a ''textualis'' typeface for his famous Gutenberg Bible in 1455. Schwabacher, a blackletter with more rounded letters, soon became the usual printed typeface, but it was replaced by Fraktur in the early 17th century. Fraktur came into use when Emperor
Maximilian I Maximilian I may refer to: *Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, reigned 1486/93–1519 *Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, reigned 1597–1651 *Maximilian I, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1636-1689) *Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, reigned 1795 ...
(1493–1519) established a series of books and had a new typeface created specifically for this purpose. In the 19th century, the use of antiqua alongside Fraktur increased, leading to the Antiqua-Fraktur dispute, which lasted until the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
abandoned Fraktur in 1941. Since it was so common, all kinds of blackletter tend to be called ''Fraktur'' in German.


''Cursiva''

German ''cursiva'' is similar to the cursive scripts in other areas, but forms of , and other letters are more varied; here too, the letter is often used. A ''hybrida'' form, which was basically ''cursiva'' with fewer looped letters and with similar square proportions as ''textualis'', was used in the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 18th century, the pointed quill was adopted for blackletter handwriting. In the early 20th century, the
Sütterlin (, " script") is the last widely used form of , the historical form of German handwriting that evolved alongside German blackletter (most notably ') typefaces. Graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin was commissioned by the Prussian Ministry of Scien ...
script was introduced in the schools.


Italy


''Rotunda''

Italian blackletter also is known as rotunda, as it was less angular than those produced by northern printing centers. The most common form of Italian ''rotunda'' was ''littera bononiensis'', used at the University of Bologna in the 13th century. Biting is a common feature in ''rotunda'', but breaking is not. Italian ''Rotunda'' also is characterized by unique abbreviations, such as with a line beneath the bow signifying ''qui'', and unusual spellings, such as for (''milex'' rather than ''miles'').


''Cursiva''

Italian cursive developed in the 13th century from scripts used by notaries. The more calligraphic form is known as ''minuscola cancelleresca italiana'' (or simply ''cancelleresca'', chancery hand), which developed into a book hand, a script used for writing books rather than charters, in the 14th century. ''Cancelleresca'' influenced the development of '' bastarda'' in France and secretary hand in England.


The Netherlands


''Textualis''

A ''textualis'' form, commonly known as ''Gotisch'' or "Gothic script", was used for general publications from the fifteenth century on, but became restricted to official documents and religious publications during the seventeenth century. Its use persisted into the nineteenth century for editions of the State Translation of the Bible, but otherwise became obsolete.


Unicode

Mathematical blackletter characters are separately encoded in Unicode in the Mathematical alphanumeric symbols range at U+1D504-1D537 and U+1D56C-1D59F (bold), except for individual letters already encoded in the Letterlike Symbols range (plus long s at U+017F). This block of characters should be used only for setting mathematical text, as mathematical texts use blackletter symbols contrastively to other letter styles. For stylized blackletter prose, the normal Latin letters should be used, with font choice or other markup used to indicate blackletter styling. The character names use "Fraktur" for the mathematical alphanumeric symbols, while "blackletter" is used for those symbol characters in the letterlike symbols range. Mathematical Fraktur: : Mathematical Bold Fraktur: : Fonts supporting the range include
Code2001 Code2000 is a serif and pan- Unicode digital font, which includes characters and symbols from a very large range of writing systems. As of the current final version 1.171 released in 2008, Code2000 is designed and implemented by James Kass t ...
, Cambria Math, and Quivira (textura style). For normal text writing, the ordinary Latin code points are used. The blackletter style is then determined by a font with blackletter glyphs.


See also

*
Antiqua (typeface class) Antiqua () is a style of typeface used to mimic styles of handwriting or calligraphy common during the 15th and 16th centuries. Letters are designed to flow and strokes connect together in a continuous fashion; in this way it is often contrast ...
*
Asemic writing Asemic may refer to: * Asemia Asemia is the term for the medical condition of being unable to understand or express any signs or symbols. It is a more severe condition than aphasia, which is the inability to understand linguistic signs. Asemia i ...
* Bastarda * Book hand *
Calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
* Chancery hand * Court hand (also known as common law hand, Anglicana, cursiva antiquior, or charter hand) *
Cursive Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionalit ...
*
Hand (writing style) Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
*
Handwriting Handwriting is the writing done with a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, in the hand. Handwriting includes both printing and cursive styles and is separate from formal calligraphy or typeface A typeface (or font family) is ...
*
History of writing The history of writing traces the development of expressing language by systems of markings and how these markings were used for various purposes in different societies, thereby transforming social organization. Writing systems are the foundati ...
* Italic script * Law hand *
Paleography Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
* Penmanship * Ronde script (calligraphy) * Rotunda (script) * Round hand * Secretary hand


References


Further reading

* Bernhard Bischoff, ''Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages'', Cambridge University Press, 1989. *


External links


'Manual of Latin Palaeography'
(A comprehensive PDF file containing 82 pages profusely illustrated, June 2014).
Learn Blackletter Online

Association for the German Script and Language


A simple OpenType blackletter font setting ſ and s by itself
London Review of Books article about blackletter fonts and font history in general
{{Authority control Medieval scripts Palaeography Typography Western calligraphy