Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
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
Fraktur () is a calligraphic hand of the Latin alphabet and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand. The blackletter lines are broken up; that is, their forms contain many angles when compared to the curves of the Antiqu ...
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
Insular script was a medieval script system originating from Ireland that spread to Anglo-Saxon England and continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries took the script to continental Europe, where they found ...
or in
Futhorc
Anglo-Saxon runes ( ang, rūna ᚱᚢᚾᚪ) are runes used by the early Anglo-Saxons as an alphabet in their writing system. The characters are known collectively as the futhorc (ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ ''fuþorc'') from the Old English sound va ...
. Along with
Italic type
In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed tex ...
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
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are list of type ...
s in the
history of Western typography
Modern typographers view typography as a craft with a very long history tracing its origins back to the first punches and dies used to make seals and coinage currency in ancient times. The basic elements of typography are at least as old as ci ...
.
Origins
Carolingian minuscule
Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...
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
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
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
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
,
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
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
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
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
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
.
Etymology
![Incunabulum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Incunabulum.JPG)
The term ''Gothic'' was first used to describe this script in 15th-century
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, in the midst of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
, because
Renaissance humanists
Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first Italian Renaissance, in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista ...
believed this style was barbaric, and ''Gothic'' was a synonym for ''barbaric''.
Flavio Biondo
Flavio Biondo (Latin Flavius Blondus) (1392 – June 4, 1463) was an Italian Renaissance humanist historian. He was one of the first historians to use a three-period division of history (Ancient, Medieval, Modern) and is known as one of the f ...
, in ''Italia Illustrata'' (1474), wrote that the Germanic
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 and ...
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
The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...
,
Beneventan, and
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...
, were also labeled ''Gothic''. This in contrast to
Carolingian minuscule
Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...
, 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
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...
. It was in fact invented in the reign of
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
, 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
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are thousands o ...
that are also sometimes called ''Gothic''.
Forms
Textura
''Textualis'', also known as ''textura'' or ''Gothic bookhand'', was the most
calligraphic
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 ...
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 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
A gloss is a brief notation, especially a marginal one or an interlinear one, of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text or in the reader's language if that is different.
A collection of glosses is a ''g ...
, and less important books.
''Textualis'' was most widely used in France, the Low Countries,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, and
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. 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
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
*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 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 ...
), 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
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 ...
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
Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one ...
. 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
The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaism, archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" ...
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 abbreviation
Scribal abbreviations or sigla (grammatical number, singular: siglum) are abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek language, Greek, Old English and Old Norse. In modern manuscrip ...
s 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
The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaism, archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" ...
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 mathematicia ...
Fraktur typeface:
Cursiva
''Cursiva'' refers to a very large variety of forms of blackletter; as with modern
cursive writing
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 ...
, 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
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
, which was smoother than
parchment
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...
. 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
Bastarda (or bastard) was a blackletter script used in France, the Burgundian Netherlands and Germany during the 14th and 15th centuries. The Burgundian variant of script can be seen as the court script of the Dukes of Burgundy.
The early pri ...
'' (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
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 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
Aelius Donatus (; fl. mid-fourth century AD) was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric.
Works
He was the author of a number of professional works, of which several are extant:
*Ars maior – A commentary on Latin grammar.
* Ars minor – ...
, 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 type
In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed tex ...
s since the 16th-century French typographers, the blackletter typefaces never developed a similar distinction. Instead, they use
letterspacing (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
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
blackletter developed from the form of
Carolingian minuscule
Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...
used there after the
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...
, 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
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
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.
![RoyalProclamation 1715 ForArrestOf SirWilliamWyndham 3rdBaronet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/RoyalProclamation_1715_ForArrestOf_SirWilliamWyndham_3rdBaronet.JPG)
Printers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries commonly used blackletter typefaces, but under the influence of
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
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
proclamation
A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...
s and
Acts of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliament ...
, and for literature aimed at the common people, such as
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
s, chivalric romances, and jokebooks.
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
'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
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the peri ...
and
Baskerville
Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy. Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, intended as a refinement of what ...
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
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
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 ''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
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, Norweg ...
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
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
, ''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
The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript ...
such as the
Très Riches Heures of
John, Duke of Berry
John of Berry or John the Magnificent (French: ''Jean de Berry'', ; 30 November 1340 – 15 June 1416) was Duke of Berry and Auvergne and Count of Poitiers and Montpensier. He was Regent of France during the minority of his nephew 1380-1388 ...
.
Germany
![Fraktur alte schwabacher](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Fraktur_alte_schwabacher.png)
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
**Ge ...
, 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
The German word Schwabacher (pronounced ) refers to a specific style of blackletter typefaces which evolved from Gothic Textualis (''Textura'') under the influence of Humanist type design in Italy during the 15th century. Schwabacher typesetti ...
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
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
, leading to the
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
, 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, a printer from
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
, 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 ...
used a ''textualis''
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are list of type ...
for his famous
Gutenberg 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 ...
in 1455.
Schwabacher
The German word Schwabacher (pronounced ) refers to a specific style of blackletter typefaces which evolved from Gothic Textualis (''Textura'') under the influence of Humanist type design in Italy during the 15th century. Schwabacher typesetti ...
, a blackletter with more rounded letters, soon became the usual printed
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are list of type ...
, but it was replaced by
Fraktur
Fraktur () is a calligraphic hand of the Latin alphabet and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand. The blackletter lines are broken up; that is, their forms contain many angles when compared to the curves of the Antiqu ...
in the early 17th century.
![Fraktur walbaum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Fraktur_walbaum.png)
Fraktur came into use when Emperor
Maximilian I (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''
![Gebrochene Schriften klein](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Gebrochene_Schriften_klein.png)
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
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
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
The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...
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
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
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
The term "chancery hand" can refer to either of two distinct styles of historical handwriting.
A chancery hand was at first a form of handwriting for business transactions that developed in the Lateran chancery (the ) of the 13th century, t ...
), which developed into a
book hand
A book hand was any of several stylized handwriting scripts used during ancient and medieval times. It was intended for legibility and often used in transcribing official documents (prior to the development of printing and similar technologies). ...
, a script used for writing books rather than charters, in the 14th century. ''Cancelleresca'' influenced the development of ''
bastarda
Bastarda (or bastard) was a blackletter script used in France, the Burgundian Netherlands and Germany during the 14th and 15th centuries. The Burgundian variant of script can be seen as the court script of the Dukes of Burgundy.
The early pri ...
'' in France and
secretary hand
Secretary hand is a style of European handwriting developed in the early sixteenth century that remained common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for writing English, German, Welsh and Gaelic.
History
Predominating before the dominance ...
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
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
, but otherwise became obsolete.
Unicode
Mathematical blackletter characters are separately encoded in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
in the
Mathematical alphanumeric symbols
Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols is a Unicode block comprising styled forms of Latin alphabet, Latin and Greek alphabet, Greek letters and decimal numerical digit, digits that enable mathematicians to denote different notions with different ...
range at U+1D504-1D537 and U+1D56C-1D59F (bold), except for individual letters already encoded in the
Letterlike Symbols
Letterlike Symbols is a Unicode block containing 80 characters which are constructed mainly from the glyphs of one or more letters. In addition to this block, Unicode includes full styled mathematical alphabets, although Unicode does not expl ...
range (plus
long s
The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaism, archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" ...
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, Cambria Math, and
Quivira
Quivira is a place named by Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, for the mythical Seven Cities of Gold that he never found.
Quivira was a province of the ancestral Wichita people, located near the Great Bend of the Arkans ...
(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
Bastarda (or bastard) was a blackletter script used in France, the Burgundian Netherlands and Germany during the 14th and 15th centuries. The Burgundian variant of script can be seen as the court script of the Dukes of Burgundy.
The early pri ...
*
Book hand
A book hand was any of several stylized handwriting scripts used during ancient and medieval times. It was intended for legibility and often used in transcribing official documents (prior to the development of printing and similar technologies). ...
*
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
The term "chancery hand" can refer to either of two distinct styles of historical handwriting.
A chancery hand was at first a form of handwriting for business transactions that developed in the Lateran chancery (the ) of the 13th century, t ...
*
Court hand
Court hand (also common law hand, Anglicana, cursiva antiquior, charter hand) was a style of handwriting used in medieval English law courts, and later by professionals such as lawyers and clerks. "It is noticeably upright and packed together with ...
(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
Italic script, also known as chancery cursive and Italic hand, is a semi-cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy that was developed during the Renaissance in Italy. It is one of the most popular styles used in contemporary ...
*
Law hand
Court hand (also common law hand, Anglicana, cursiva antiquior, charter hand) was a style of handwriting used in medieval English law courts, and later by professionals such as lawyers and clerks. "It is noticeably upright and packed together with ...
*
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
Penmanship is the technique of writing with the hand using a writing instrument. Today, this is most commonly done with a pen, or pencil, but throughout history has included many different implements. The various generic and formal hist ...
*
Ronde script (calligraphy)
('round' in French) is a kind of script in which the heavy strokes are nearly upright, giving the characters when taken together a round look. It appeared in France at the end of the 16th century, growing out from a late local variant of Gothic ...
*
Rotunda (script)
The Rotunda is a specific medieval blackletter script. It originates in Carolingian minuscule. Sometimes, it is not considered a blackletter script, but a script on its own. It was used mainly in southern Europe.
Characteristics
One of the ke ...
*
Round hand
Round hand (also roundhand) is a type of handwriting and calligraphy originating in England in the 1660s primarily by the writing masters John Ayres and William Banson. Characterised by an open flowing hand (style) and subtle contrast of thick a ...
*
Secretary hand
Secretary hand is a style of European handwriting developed in the early sixteenth century that remained common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for writing English, German, Welsh and Gaelic.
History
Predominating before the dominance ...
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 OnlineAssociation for the German Script and LanguageA 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