Blackletter in a Latin Bible of 1407 AD, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. Blackletter (also known as Gothic script) was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500. It continued to be used for the German language until the 20th century. Download high resolution version (1500x1011, 310 KB) Calligraphy in a Latin Bible of 1407AD on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ...
Download high resolution version (1500x1011, 310 KB) Calligraphy in a Latin Bible of 1407AD on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ...
A writing system, also called a script, is used to visually record a language with symbols. ...
Western Europe is distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. ...
Events Åhus, Sweden gains city privileges City of Airdrie, Scotland founded King Sverker I of Sweden is deposed and succeeded by Eric IX of Sweden. ...
Events Europes population was ~60 million. ...
German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...
(19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...
Origins
Folio 56r of the Aberdeen Bestiary, an early example of blackletter from the 12th century. Carolingian minuscule was the direct and linear 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, law, grammar, history, and other pursuits, not solely religious works for which earlier scripts had usually been used. These books needed to be produced quickly to keep up with demand. Carolingian, though legible, was was time-consuming and labour-intensive to produce. It was large and wide and took up a lot of space on a manuscript. 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 north-eastern France and the Low Countries. Download high resolution version (463x711, 173 KB)Image of page from the Aberdeen Bestiary. ...
Download high resolution version (463x711, 173 KB)Image of page from the Aberdeen Bestiary. ...
Categories: Art stubs | Literature stubs | Illuminated manuscripts ...
Example from 10th century manuscript Carolingian minuscule is a script developed as a writing standard in Europe so that the Roman alphabet could be easily recognized by the small literate class from one region to another. ...
(11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ...
The first European medieval universities were established in Italy and France in the late 12th and early 13th Century for the study of arts, law, medicine, and theology. ...
Historically, the term business referred to activities or interests. ...
Law (a loanword from Danish- Norwegian lov), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow...
This article is about grammar from a linguistic perspective. ...
History is a term for information about the past. ...
A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ...
(10th century - 11th century - 12th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century was that century which lasted from 1001 to 1100. ...
The Low Countries are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine and Meuse rivers— usually used in modern context to mean the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (an alternate modern term, more often used today, is Benelux). ...
The name Gothic script The term Gothic was first used to describe this script in 15th century Italy, in the midst of the Renaissance, because Renaissance Humanists believed it was a barbaric script (Gothic was a synonym for barbaric). Flavio Biondo, in Italia Illustrata (1531) thought it was invented by the Lombards after their invasion of Italy in the 6th century. Not only the blackletter were called Gothic script, but any other seemingly barbarian script, such as Visigothic, Beneventan, and Merovingian, were also labelled "Gothic", 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 Romans (it was only invented in the reign of Charlemagne). (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ...
By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance -French Renaissance -German Renaissance -English Renaissance The Renaissance was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ...
An important element in school. ...
Flavio Biondo (Latin Flavius Blondus) (b. ...
Events January 26 - Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake-- thousands die October 1 - Battle of Kappel - The forces of Zürich are defeated by the Catholic cantons. ...
The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, from which the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic people originally from Scandinavia that entered the late Roman Empire. ...
(5th century — 6th century — 7th century — other centuries) Events The first academy of the east the Academy of Gundeshapur founded in Persia by the Persian Shah Khosrau I. Irish colonists and invaders, the Scots, began migrating to Caledonia (later known as Scotland) Glendalough monastery, Wicklow Ireland founded by St. ...
Visigothic script was a type of medieval script, so called because it originated in the Visigothic kingdom in Spain. ...
Rule of St. ...
Merovingian script was a medieval script so called because it was developed in France during the Merovingian dynasty. ...
Example from 10th century manuscript Carolingian minuscule is a script developed as a writing standard in Europe so that the Roman alphabet could be easily recognized by the small literate class from one region to another. ...
History - Ancient history - Ancient Rome This is a List of Ancient Rome-related topics, that aims to include aspects of both the Ancient Roman Republic and Roman Empire. ...
A Frankish king, like Charlemagne, (center) depicted in the Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (about 870) Charlemagne (c. ...
The blackletter must not be confused either with the genuinely Gothic alphabet or with the sans-serif typefaces that are also sometimes called Gothic. This article is about the 4th century alphabet of the Gothic bible. ...
In typography, serifs are the small features at the end of strokes within letters. ...
In typography, a typeface is a co-ordinated set of character designs, which usually comprises an alphabet of letters, a set of numerals and a set of punctuation marks. ...
Forms of blackletter
Textualis Textualis, also known as textura or Gothic bookhand, was the most calligraphic form of blackletter, and today is the form most associated with "Gothic". Calligraphy in a Latin Bible of 1407 AD on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ...
According to Dutch scholar Gerard Lieftinck, the height of blackletter was 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 form of blackletter, extremely difficult to read and used for textual glosses, less important books, etc. (13th century - 14th century - 15th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 14th century was that century which lasted from 1301 to 1400. ...
Cursive is a style of handwriting in which all the letters in a word are connected, making a word one single (complicated) stroke. ...
A gloss is a note made in the margins or between the lines of a book, in which the meaning of the text in its original language is explained in another language. ...
Textualis was most widely used in France, the Low Countries, England, and Germany. Some characteristics of the script are: Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (2001) - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Religion...
- 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 b, d, h, etc.) are vertical and often end in sharp finials
- when a letter with a bow (in b, d, p, q, etc) is followed by another letter with a bow (such as "be" or "po"), 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 shape of r when attacked 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 o.
- similarly related is the form of the letter d when followed by a letter with a bow; its ascender is then curved to the left, like the uncial d. Otherwise the ascender is vertical.
- the letters g, j, p, q, y, and the hook of h 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 8. The letter s often has a diagonal line connecting its two bows, also somewhat resembling an 8 (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 i, u, m, and n. 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 defences of the wine be diminished"). In blackletter this would look like a series of single strokes. Dotted i and the letter j developed because of this. Minims may also have finials of their own.
- the script has many more scribal abbreviations than Carolingian, adding to the speed in which it could be written.
The ascenders are the parts of the characters that lie above the midline, highlighted in red. ...
The spigot or mounting for a Weather Vane also a top most spike or embellishment for a building or structure, made from stone or metal. ...
Between the middle ages and today, many ways of writing alphabetical characters were lost. ...
In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more letterforms are written or printed as a unit. ...
The Book of Kells, c. ...
The long or medial s (ſ) is a form of the minuscule letter s that was formerly used when the s occurred within or at the beginning of the word, for example ſinfulneſs (sinfulness). The modern letterform was called the terminal or short s. ...
A minim is: Minim (music) - a note length, another name for a half note. ...
Scribal abbreviations were used by medieval scribes writing in Latin. ...
Cursiva Cursiva refers to a very large variety of forms of blackletter; like 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 charters. 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 script. Cursive is a style of handwriting in which all the letters in a word are connected, making a word one single (complicated) stroke. ...
Alternate use, see charter airline or bare-boat charter. ...
Piece of paper Paper is a thin, flat material produced by the compression of fibres. ...
Parchment is a material for the pages of a book or codex, made from fine calf skin, sheep skin or goat skin. ...
In cursiva, descenders are more frequent, especially in the letters f and s, and ascenders are curved and looped rather than vertical (seen especially in the letter d). The letters a, g, and s (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 can 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 was generally written with a larger pen, leading to larger letters. Littera cursiva currens was used for textbooks and other unimportant books, and had very little standardization in forms.
Hybrida Hybrida is also called bastarda (especially in France), and as its name suggests, refers to 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 f and s, single-looped a, and g with an open descender (similar to Carolingian forms).
National forms
France
Textualis French blackletter was the earliest form of blackletter to develop, in the 11th and 12th centuries. 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 was also 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 is also small in size and designed to be written quickly, not calligraphically. The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The Sorbonne today, from the same point of view The historic University of Paris (French: Université de Paris) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganized as 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII). ...
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, the lettre de forme or lettre bourgouignonne, for books of hours such as the Très Riches Heures of John, Duke of Berry. Coat of arms of the 2nd duchy of Burgundy and later of the French province of Burgundy Burgundy ( French: Bourgogne) is a historic region of France, inhabited in turn by Pre-Indo-European people, Celts ( Gauls), Romans ( Gallo-Romans), and various Germanic peoples, most importantly the Burgundians and the Franks. ...
A illuminated page from the Tr Riches Heures showing the day for exchanging gifts from the month of January A Book of Hours is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript. ...
An illuminated page from the Très Riches Heures showing the day for exchanging gifts from the month of January The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (or simply the Très Riches Heures) is probably the most important illuminated manuscript of the 15th century, le roi des...
John of Valois, the Magnificent, (November 30, 1340 – March 15, 1416) was Duke of Berry and Auvergne and Count of Poitiers and Montpensier. ...
England Page from a 14th century Psalter, with blackletter " sine pedibus" text. Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ...
Textualis English blackletter developed from the form of Caroline minuscule used there after the Norman Conquest, sometimes called "Romanesque minuscule." Textualis forms developed after 1190 and were used most often until approximately 1300, afterwards being used mainly for de luxe manuscripts. English forms of blackletter have been studied extensively and can be divided into many categories. Textualis formata ("Old English" or "Black Letter"), 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 English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Bayeux Tapestry depicting events leading to the Battle of Hastings The Norman Conquest was the conquest of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), secured in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman control of England. ...
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 "s" forms, resembling the number 8, rather than the long "s" used in the final position in the Paris script. The University of Oxford, situated in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...
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 was also 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 a, g, r, and s are unique, unlike any forms in any other English script.
Italy
Rotunda Italian blackletter is also known as rotunda, as it was less angular than in nothern centres. The most usual 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 is also characterized by unique abbreviations, such as q with a line beneath the bow signifying "qui", and unusual spellings, such as x for s ("milex" rather than "miles", "knight"). The Rotunda is a specific medieval blackletter script. ...
The University of Bologna (Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a university in Bologna, Italy. ...
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 script), which developed into a bookhand, a script used for writing books rather than charters, in the 14th century. Cancelleresca influenced the development of bastarda in France and Secretary script in England.
Germany Despite the frequent association of blackletter with German, 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. However, the German-speaking areas is where blackletter longest remained in use.
Textualis German textualis is usually very heavy and angular, and there are few features that are common to all occurrences of the script. One common feature is the use of the letter "w" for Latin "vu" or "uu". Textualis was used in the 13th and 14th centuries, afterwards becoming more elaborate and decorated and used for liturgical works only.
Johann Gutenberg used a textualis typeface for his famous Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever to be printed in 1455. The Schwabacher, a blackletter with more rounded letters, became soon the usual printed typeface, but it was replaced by the fraktur in the early 17th century. The fraktur remained in use as the most common German typeface family until the nazis prohibited it in 1942. Since it was so common, all kinds of blackletter tend to be called fraktur in German. Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (circa 1398 – February 3, 1468), a German metal-worker and inventor, achieved fame for his contributions to the technology of printing during about the 1450s, including a type metal alloy and oil-based inks, a mold for casting type accurately, and a new kind...
In typography, a typeface is a co-ordinated set of character designs, which usually comprises an alphabet of letters, a set of numerals and a set of punctuation marks. ...
The Gutenberg bible owned by the US Library of Congress The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible) is a print of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible that was printed by its namesake, Johann Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany using moveable type, mass-produced starting on February...
Events February 9 - Wars of the Roses: Richard, Duke of York dismissed as Protector February 23 - Johannes Gutenberg prints the first Bible on a printing press May 22 - Wars of the Roses: First Battle of St Albans - Richard, Duke of York and his ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick defeat...
The German word Schwabacher (pronounced in IPA) refers to a specific blackletter typeface. ...
In typography, a typeface is a co-ordinated set of character designs, which usually comprises an alphabet of letters, a set of numerals and a set of punctuation marks. ...
The German word Fraktur (pronounced in IPA) refers to a specific blackletter typeface. ...
(16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ...
The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ...
1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Cursiva German cursiva is generally similar to the cursive scripts in other areas, but forms of "a", "s" and other letters are more varied; here too the letter "w" 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 was introduced in the schools. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ...
(19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...
Sütterlin example showing the German text of a Letter by Immanuel Kant The Sütterlinschrift, or Sütterlin for short, is a form of the old German blackletter handwriting (Spitzschrift) that was designed by and named after Ludwig Sütterlin, a German graphical designer and teacher who was commissioned to do so by...
External links |
Feeds |
Contact