Furius Dionysius Filocalus was a Roman scribe and stone engraver, specialized in
epigraphic texts, who was active in the second half of the fourth century.
Chronography of 354
One of his most noteworthy works is the "
Chronography of 354
The ''Chronograph of 354'' (or "Chronography"), also known as the ''Calendar of 354'', is a compilation of chronological and calendrical texts produced in 354 AD for a wealthy Roman Christian named Valentinus by the calligrapher and illustrator ...
", also known as the "Calendar of 354", of which the original has been lost. It is the oldest known Christian calendar, with the first known reference to the celebration of the
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
, although it also incorporates
Roman festivities. The most complete copy conserved today is a manuscript of the 17th century which is kept in the
Barberini
The House of Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII. Their urban palace ...
collection. This is the reproduction of a "Codex Luxemburgensis" of the Carolingian dynasty, which was lost in the seventeenth century.
The "chronography" was commissioned by a wealthy Roman Christian, known as Valentinus, to whom it was
dedicated. The original manuscript miniatures were also probably the work of Filocalus.
The pope's official engraver
Filocalus was the official engraver of Pope
Damasus (304–384), and described himself as "Damasi pappae cultor atque amator" ("admirer and personal friend of Pope Damasus").
The archaeologist
Giovanni Battista de Rossi
Giovanni Battista (Carlo) de Rossi (23 February 1822 – 20 September 1894) was an Italian archaeologist, famous even outside his field for rediscovering early Christian catacombs.
Life and works
Born in Rome, he was the son of Commendatore Cam ...
suggests that his inscriptions were reserved for the cult of the martyrs. It is not known for certain whether these inscriptions were drawn and engraved by Filocalus, or only drawn by him, but the first hypothesis seems to be correct. The precision of the cut of the stone and the organic regularity between the letters suggest the work of a master who works based on a sketch, rather than a craftsman copying an elaborate drawing.
For these inscriptions, called the ''Epigrammata Damasiana'',
Filocalus created an original
letterform
A letterform, letter-form or letter form, is a term used especially in typography, palaeography, calligraphy and epigraphy to mean a letter's shape. A letterform is a type of glyph, which is a specific, concrete way of writing an abstract ch ...
that is known as filocalian letter
or ''philocalian script''.
Its main features are its thin and wavy ornamental
serif
In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ...
s. It also has a strong contrast, with thin horizontal strokes and with vertical strokes which are thick in the downward direction and thin in the ascendant. It also presents vertically squashed forms; especially in the letters C, D, G, H, M, N, O, Q, R and T, which are wider than they are tall. The rounded letters (D, G, O, Q) all have an oblique axis.
Three fourth-century fragments of the filocalian letter engraved in stone are known, which seem to have been signed in the same way, with the inscription ''Furius Dionysius Filocalus scribsit''.
These fragments were part of the transcription of a series of poems that Pope Damasus I had written in honor of the martyrs, and which were employed to decorate their tombs.
This typeface had a great influence on the engravers of the time, who copied its style extensively, and of which a great number of examples are known.
Legacy
The first ''Tuscan-style''
metal sorts appeared around 1817.
They were created by British type designer
Vincent Figgins
Vincent Figgins (1766 – 29 February 1844) was a British typefounder based in London, who cast and sold metal type for printing. After an apprenticeship with typefounder Joseph Jackson, he established his own type foundry in 1792. His company ...
, who named his typeface ''4-lines Pica Ornamented no. 2''.
His letters were inspired by the ornamental designs of Fournier, but the oldest ancestor for his ornamental serfis is the filocalian letter.
Tuscan style was widely popular during the Victorian Times, and it's still used nowadays.
Notes and references
{{Authority control
Calligraphers
4th-century calligraphers