| Blackletter | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | Alphabet |
Period | 12th–17th century (as late as 20th century in Germany) |
| Direction | Left-to-right  |
| Languages | Western and Northern European languages |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Latin script
|
Child systems | Fraktur (Fraktur andblackletter are sometimes used interchangeably) Kurrentschrift includingSütterlin |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Latf(217), Latin (Fraktur variant) |
| Unicode | |
1D504–1D537, with some exceptions (seebelow) | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Blackletter (sometimesblack letter orblack-letter), also known asGothic script,Gothic minuscule orGothic type, is a family of scripts used incalligraphy andtypefaces.
Blackletter was used throughoutWestern Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century.[1] It continued to be commonly used for Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish until the 1870s,[2] Finnish until the turn of the 20th century,[3] Estonian and Latvian until the 1930s,[4] and for the German language until the 1940s, whenAdolf Hitler officiallybanned it in 1941.[5]Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of blackletter faces is referred to as Fraktur. Blackletter is not to be confused with theOld English language, which predates blackletter by many centuries and was written in theinsular script or inFuthorc runes. Along withItalic type andRoman type, blackletter served as one of the majortypefaces in thehistory of Western typography.
The termGothic was first used to describe blackletter in 15th-centuryItaly, in the midst of theRenaissance, becauseRenaissance humanists believed this style was barbaric, andGothic was a synonym forbarbaric.[citation needed]Flavio Biondo, inItalia Illustrata (1474), wrote that the GermanicLombards invented this script after they invaded Italy in the 6th century.[citation needed]
Not only were blackletter forms calledGothic script, but any other seemingly barbarian script, such asVisigothic,Beneventan, andMerovingian, were also labeledGothic. This in contrast toCarolingian minuscule, a highly legible script which the humanists calledlittera antiqua ("the ancient letter"), wrongly believing that it was the script used by theancient Romans. It was in fact invented in the reign ofCharlemagne, although only used significantly after that era, and actually formed the basis for the later development of blackletter.[6]
Blackletter script should not be confused with either the ancientalphabet of the Gothic language nor with thesans-seriftypefaces that are also sometimes calledGothic.
It is difficult to be specific about the time at whichEarly Gothic (orProto Gothic) was born and later died, because it was an interim script spanningCarolingian Minuscule and the Gothictextura scripts.[7] It can generally be said that it was used in the 11th and 12th centuries. As universities began to populate Europe, a need for a more rapid writing technology led to the development of this script. The rounded forms of Carolingian became angular flicks of the quill, and both letters and words became compressed.
Early Gothic is characterized by a number of factors. There are no capital letters for this script. InsteadRoman Rustic,Roman Square orUncial letters were used.Versals were most oftenLombardic Capitals usually painted in bright colors. Other features are split ascenders, a storied 'a', both the standard 'r' and ahalf 'r' 〈ꝛ〉 used after letters with bowls. Thelong 's' 〈ſ〉 is used primarily, but there are examples of the short 's' in some manuscripts. Punctuation is limited, usually only full stops and commas, and they are usually rendered at the mid-line.
As the script continued to evolve and become ever more angular, vertical and compressed, it began its transition to thetextura hands.
Textualis, also known astextura or "Gothic bookhand", was the mostcalligraphic form of blackletter, and today is the form most associated with "Gothic".Johannes Gutenberg carved atextualis typeface—including a large number ofligatures and common abbreviations—when he printed his42-line Bible. 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 oftextualis waslittera textualis formata, used forde luxe manuscripts. The usual form, simplylittera textualis, was used for literary works and university texts. Lieftinck's third form,littera textualis currens, was thecursive form of blackletter, extremely difficult to read and used for textualglosses, and less important books.
Textualis was most widely used in France, the Low Countries,England, andGermany. Some characteristics of the script are:
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:
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 calledFraktur in Germany. Characteristics of Fraktur are:
Here is the entire alphabet in Fraktur (minus thelong s and thesharp s⟨ß⟩), using theAMS Euler Fraktur typeface:
Cursiva refers to a very large variety of forms of blackletter; as with moderncursive writing, there is no real standard form. It developed in the 14th century as a simplified form oftextualis, with influence from the form oftextualis as used for writingcharters.Cursiva developed partly because of the introduction ofpaper, which was smoother thanparchment. It was therefore, easier to write quickly on paper in acursive script.
Incursiva, 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 ofcursiva, which makes it difficult to determine whether or not a script may be calledcursiva at all.
Lieftinck also dividedcursiva into three styles:littera cursiva formata was the most legible and calligraphic style.Littera cursiva textualis (orlibraria) 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 is also calledbastarda (especially in France), and as its name suggests, is a hybrid form of the script. It is a mixture oftextualis andcursiva, developed in the early 15th century. Fromtextualis, it borrowed vertical ascenders, while fromcursiva, it borrowed long⟨f⟩ and⟨ſ⟩, single-looped⟨a⟩, and⟨g⟩ with an open descender (similar to Carolingian forms).
TheDonatus-Kalender (also known as Donatus-und-Kalender or D-K) is the name for the metal type design thatGutenberg used in his earliest surviving printed works, dating from the early 1450s. The name is taken from two works: theArs grammatica ofAelius Donatus, a Latin grammar, and the Kalender (calendar).[9] It is a form of textura.
While anantiqua typeface is usually a compound ofroman types anditalic types since the 16th-century French typographers, the blackletter typefaces never developed a similar distinction. Instead, they useletterspacing (GermanSperrung) for emphasis. When blackletter is letterspaced, ligatures like⟨ch⟩,⟨ck⟩,⟨tz⟩ or⟨ſt⟩ remain together without additional letterspacing (⟨ſt⟩ 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.[10] The practice of setting foreign words or phrases in antiqua within a blackletter text does not apply to loanwords that have been incorporated into the language.
English blackletter developed from the form ofCarolingian minuscule used there after theNorman Conquest, sometimes called "Romanesque minuscule".Textualis forms developed after 1190 and were used most often until approximately 1300, after which it became used mainly forde 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 (ortextualis sine pedibus, as it generally lacks feet on its minims),textualis quadrata (orpsalterialis) andsemi-quadrata, andtextualis rotunda are various forms of high-gradeformata styles of blackletter.
TheUniversity of Oxford borrowed thelittera parisiensis in the 13th century and early 14th century, and thelittera 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.
Printers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries commonly used blackletter typefaces, but under the influence ofRenaissance tastes,Roman typefaces grew in popularity, until by about 1590 most presses had converted to them.[11] 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 asproclamations andActs of Parliament, and for literature aimed at the common people, such asballads, chivalric romances, and jokebooks.[12][13]
Chaucer's works had been printed in blackletter in the late 15th century, but were subsequently more usually printed in Roman type.Horace Walpole 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 inDryden andBaskerville than in his own language and dress."[14]
Englishcursiva (Cursiva Anglicana) began to be used in the 13th century, and soon replacedlittera oxoniensis as the standard university script. The earliest cursive blackletter form isAnglicana, a very round and looped script, which also had a squarer and angular counterpart,Anglicana formata. Theformata form was used until the 15th century and also was used to write vernacular texts. AnAnglicana bastarda form developed from a mixture ofAnglicana andtextualis, but by the 16th century, the principal cursive blackletter used in England was theSecretary script, which originated inItaly 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. The legacy of these English cursive Gothic forms survived in common use as late as the 18th century in thecourt hand used for some legal records.
Frenchtextualis 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 oftextualis used to write miniature Bibles, known as "pearl script". Another form of French textualis in this century was the script developed at theUniversity of Paris,littera parisiensis, which also is small in size and designed to be written quickly, not calligraphically.
Frenchcursiva was used from the 13th to the 16th century, when it became highly looped, messy, and slanted.Bastarda, the "hybrid" mixture ofcursiva andtextualis, developed in the 15th century and was used for vernacular texts as well as Latin. A more angular form ofbastarda was used inBurgundy, thelettre de forme orlettre bourgouignonne, forbooks of hours such as theTrès Riches Heures ofJohn, Duke of Berry.
Despite the frequent association of blackletter withGerman, 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 ofMartin Luther, leading to theProtestant Reformation, as well as theApocalypse ofAlbrecht Dürer (1498), used this typeface.Johann Bämler, a printer fromAugsburg, 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 theSchwabacher—designed the typeface.
German-madeTextualis type 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⟨w⟩ for Latin⟨vu⟩ or⟨uu⟩.Textualis was first used in the 13th and 14th centuries and subsequently became more elaborate and decorated, and it was generally reserved for liturgical works.
Johann Gutenberg used atextualistypeface for his famousGutenberg Bible in 1455.Schwabacher, a blackletter with more rounded letters, soon became the usual printedtypeface, but it was replaced byFraktur in the early 17th century.
Fraktur came into use when EmperorMaximilian I (1493–1519) established a series of books and had a typeface created specifically for it. In the 19th century, the use of antiqua alongside Fraktur increased, leading to anAntiqua-Fraktur dispute which lasted until theNazis mandated an end to the use of Fraktur in 1941. By then, Fraktur had been the most common and well-known blackletter style in Germany for a long time, and as a result all kinds of blackletter (including Schwabacher, Textualis, and so on) tend to be calledFraktur in German.
Germancursiva is 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. Ahybrida form, which was basicallycursiva with fewer looped letters and with square proportions similar totextualis, was used in the 15th and 16th centuries.
In the 18th century, the pointed quill (in contrast to the quill with a wide flat tip) was adopted for blackletter handwriting. In the early 20th century, theSütterlin script was introduced in the schools.
Italian blackletter also is known asrotunda, as it was less angular than those produced by northern printing centers. The most common form of Italianrotunda waslittera bononiensis, used at theUniversity of Bologna in the 13th century. Biting is a common feature inrotunda, but breaking is not.
ItalianRotunda also is characterized by unique abbreviations, such as⟨q⟩ with a line beneath the bow signifyingqui, and unusual spellings, such as⟨x⟩ for⟨s⟩ (milex rather thanmiles).
Italian cursive developed in the 13th century from scripts used by notaries. The more calligraphic form is known asminuscola cancelleresca italiana (or simplycancelleresca,chancery hand), which developed into abook hand, a script used for writing books rather than charters, in the 14th century.Cancelleresca influenced the development ofbastarda in France andsecretary hand in England.
Atextualis form, commonly known asGotisch 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 theState Translation of theBible, but otherwise became obsolete.
Mathematical blackletter characters are separately encoded inUnicode in theMathematical alphanumeric symbols range at U+1D504-1D537 and U+1D56C-1D59F (bold), except for individual letters already encoded in theLetterlike Symbols range (pluslong s at U+017F).[15][16] Fonts supporting the range includeCode2001,Cambria Math,Noto Sans Math, and Quivira (textura style).
This block of characters is intended for use in setting mathematical texts, which contrast blackletter characters with other letter styles.[17] Outside of mathematics, the character set has seen some limited decorative use, but it lacks punctuation and other characters necessary for running text, and the Unicode standard for setting non-mathematical material in blackletter is to use ordinary Latin code points with a dedicated blackletter font.
| 𝔄 | 𝔅 | ℭ | 𝔇 | 𝔈 | 𝔉 | 𝔊 | ℌ | ℑ | 𝔍 | 𝔎 | 𝔏 | 𝔐 | 𝔑 | 𝔒 | 𝔓 | 𝔔 | ℜ | 𝔖 | 𝔗 | 𝔘 | 𝔙 | 𝔚 | 𝔛 | 𝔜 | ℨ |
| 𝔞 | 𝔟 | 𝔠 | 𝔡 | 𝔢 | 𝔣 | 𝔤 | 𝔥 | 𝔦 | 𝔧 | 𝔨 | 𝔩 | 𝔪 | 𝔫 | 𝔬 | 𝔭 | 𝔮 | 𝔯 | 𝔰 | 𝔱 | 𝔲 | 𝔳 | 𝔴 | 𝔵 | 𝔶 | 𝔷 |
| 𝕬 | 𝕭 | 𝕮 | 𝕯 | 𝕰 | 𝕱 | 𝕲 | 𝕳 | 𝕴 | 𝕵 | 𝕶 | 𝕷 | 𝕸 | 𝕹 | 𝕺 | 𝕻 | 𝕼 | 𝕽 | 𝕾 | 𝕿 | 𝖀 | 𝖁 | 𝖂 | 𝖃 | 𝖄 | 𝖅 |
| 𝖆 | 𝖇 | 𝖈 | 𝖉 | 𝖊 | 𝖋 | 𝖌 | 𝖍 | 𝖎 | 𝖏 | 𝖐 | 𝖑 | 𝖒 | 𝖓 | 𝖔 | 𝖕 | 𝖖 | 𝖗 | 𝖘 | 𝖙 | 𝖚 | 𝖛 | 𝖜 | 𝖝 | 𝖞 | 𝖟 |
Note: (The above may not render fully in all web browsers.)
The memorandum itself is typed in Antiqua, but theNSDAPletterhead is printed in Fraktur.
"For general attention, on behalf of theFührer, I make the following announcement:
It is wrong to regard or to describe the so-called Gothic script as a German script. In reality, the so-called Gothic script consists ofSchwabach Jew letters. Just as they later took control of the newspapers, upon the introduction of printing the Jews residing in Germany took control of the printing presses and thus in Germany theSchwabach Jew letters were forcefully introduced.
Today theFührer, talking withHerrReichsleiterAmann andHerr Book Publisher Adolf Müller, has decided that in the future the Antiqua script is to be described as normal script. All printed materials are to be gradually converted to this normal script. As soon as is feasible in terms of textbooks, only the normal script will be taught in village and state schools.
The use of theSchwabach Jew letters by officials will in future cease; appointment certifications for functionaries, street signs, and so forth will in future be produced only in normal script.
On behalf of theFührer,Herr Reichsleiter Amann will in future convert those newspapers and periodicals that already have foreign distribution, or whose foreign distribution is desired, to normal script".
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