Blackletter

{{Short description|Historic European script and typeface}} {{redirect2|Black letter|Gothic minuscule|the legal concept|Black letter law|other uses|Gothic script (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox writing system | name = Blackletter | altname = Gothic Textualis, Textura | type = Alphabet | qid = Q148443 | time = 12th–17th century (as late as 20th century in Germany) | caption = The highest grade Gothic Textualis Prescissa [[book hand]] of the Malmsbury Abbey [[Vulgate]], written in Belgium in 1407. | languages = Western and Northern European languages | fam1 = [[Latin alphabet|Latin script]] | fam2 = [[Carolingian minuscule]] | fam3 = [[Gothic script (palaeography)|Gothic]] | children = [[Fraktur (typeface sub-classification)|Fraktur]] (''Fraktur'' and ''blackletter'' are sometimes used interchangeably) [[Kurrent]]schrift including [[Sütterlin]] | iso15924 = Latf | unicode = <code>1D504</code>–<code>1D537</code>, with some exceptions (see [[#Unicode|below]]) | footnotes = | sample = Calligraphy.malmesbury.bible.arp.jpg | ipa-note = }}

'''Blackletter''' (also '''black letter''' or sometimes '''black-letter''';<ref name=":2">{{Cite thesis |last=Misson |first=J. |title='See and read this book': Reading the typography of English, 1509–1592 |date=2020 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Oxford |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:316d0246-bbc2-401c-80c8-53b171af90bc |language=English |page=7}}</ref> sometimes popularly known as '''Gothic minuscule''' or '''Gothic type''') was originally a medieval [[handwriting script|book hand]] ('''Textualis''' or '''Textura''') of the [[Gothic script (palaeography)|Gothic family of scripts]], later adapted into [[typeface]]s and still used in modern [[calligraphy]] and [[typesetting]].

The [[book script]] was used throughout [[Western Europe]] from approximately the late 12th until the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite book|title=An introduction to the history of printing types; an illustrated summary of main stages in the development of type design from 1440 up to the present day: an aid to type face identification.|last=Dowding|first=Geoffrey|publisher=Wace|year=1962|location=Clerkenwell [London]|pages=5}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Michelle |title=A guide to Western historical scripts from antiquity to 1600 |date=2007 |publisher=Univ. of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-7206-1 |edition=Repr |location=Toronto |pages=80-81}}</ref> It continued to be commonly used for Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish until the 1870s,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sa.dk/en/genealogy/handwriting |title=Styles of Handwriting |website=Rigsarkivet |publisher=The Danish National Archives |access-date=March 26, 2017}}</ref> Finnish until the turn of the 20th century,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kotus.fi/nyt/kysymyksia_ja_vastauksia/vanhasta_kirjasuomesta/goottilaisten_kirjainten_kaytto |title=Goottilaisten kirjainten käyttö |publisher=Kotus [Institute for the Languages of Finland] |access-date=5 February 2024}}</ref> Estonian and Latvian until the 1930s,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tezaurs.lv/mwe:99047 |title=Gotiskais raksts |website=Tezaurs.lv |publisher=University of Latvia |access-date=April 17, 2023}}</ref> and for the German language until the 1940s, when [[Adolf Hitler]] officially [[Antiqua–Fraktur dispute|banned it]] in 1941.<ref>[http://www.ligaturix.de/bormann.htm Facsimile of Bormann's Memorandum (in German)]The memorandum itself is typed in Antiqua, but the [[NSDAP]] [[letterhead]] is printed in Fraktur."For general attention, on behalf of the {{lang|de|Führer}}, 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 of {{lang|de|italic=no|Schwabach}} 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 the {{lang|de|italic=no|Schwabach}} Jew letters were forcefully introduced.Today the {{lang|de|Führer}}, talking with {{lang|de|italic=no|Herr [[Reichsleiter]]}} [[Max Amann|Amann]] and {{lang|de|italic=no|Herr}} 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 the {{lang|de|italic=no|Schwabach}} 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 the {{lang|de|Führer}}, {{lang|de|italic=no|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".</ref> [[Fraktur]] is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of blackletter faces is referred to as Fraktur. Blackletter, although sometimes called Old English lettering, is not to be confused with the [[Old English]] language, which predates blackletter by many centuries and was written in the [[insular script]] or in [[Futhorc|Futhorc runes]]. Along with [[Italic type]] and [[Roman type]], blackletter served as one of the major [[typeface]]s in the [[history of Western typography]].

Whilst black letter does have a specific meaning in [[manuscript]] [[palaeography]], the term today more often refers to [[typeface|typefaces]],<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Citation |title=Chapter 1. Paleography Versus Typography |date=2013-12-31 |work=Blind Impressions |pages=11–36 |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com:443/document/doi/10.9783/9780812208696.11/html |access-date=2026-03-31 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |language=en |doi=10.9783/9780812208696.11 |isbn=978-0-8122-0869-6}}</ref> for example the [[Fraktur]] [[unicode block]].

== Etymology == ''Black letter'' was used as a descriptive term to distinguish the heavy, thick typeface from the thinner "white letter" or [[Humanist minuscule|humanistic scripts]] also in use at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Black-letter - Etymology, Origin & Meaning |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/black-letter |access-date=2026-03-31 |website=etymonline |language=en-US}}</ref> An alternative etymology suggests the script, written large, bold and black, came to be associated with mourning or with inauspicious times — hence ‘black-letter’ days.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barrett |first=John |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Discovering_Old_Handwriting/S51lvgAACAAJ?hl=en |title=Discovering Old Handwriting |date=2008-03-04 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=978-0-7478-0268-6 |pages=38 |language=en}}</ref>

Gothic type is named after the [[Gothic script (palaeography)|Gothic script]].

Blackletter script should not be confused with either the ancient [[Gothic alphabet|alphabet of the Gothic language]] nor with the [[sans-serif]] [[typefaces]] that are also sometimes called ''Gothic''.

== Handwriting script == [[File:Piers plowman drolleries.gif|thumb|Page from a 14th-century [[psalter]] ([[Latin Psalters#Enumeration|Vulgate]] Ps 93:16–21), with blackletter "''sine pedibus''{{-"}} text. [[Luttrell Psalter]], [[British Library]].]]{{Main|Gothic script (palaeography)}} Black letter is a popular synonym for the '''Gothic Textualis''' or '''Textura''' family [[Book hand|book hands]] originally developed from Protogothic from the end of the 12th century, characterised by lateral compression resulting in narrow, tall [[Letterform|letter forms]], square aspects and more elaborate treatment of [[Minim (palaeography)|minims]].<ref name=":0" /> The scripts became known as ''Textura'' or ''Textualis'' because of their 'woven' look: the Latin verb ''[[wikt:texo|texo]]'' means 'to weave' or 'plait', as in basket-work. It thus comes to mean 'fit together intricately in a regular pattern'.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gothic Textura Prescissa |url=https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/yorkdoom/palweb/week12/palwk12x.htm |access-date=2026-03-31 |website=www.lancaster.ac.uk}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Barrett |first=John |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Discovering_Old_Handwriting/S51lvgAACAAJ?hl=en |title=Discovering Old Handwriting |date=2008-03-04 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=978-0-7478-0268-6 |pages=36 |language=en}}</ref> The treatment of minims is the determining feature in a descending hierarchy of four grades of textualis used to [[Palaeography|palaeographers]] and [[Codicology|codicologists]] in [[diplomatics]]:

# [[wikt:praescindo#Latin|Prescissa]] - meaning 'cut off', also known as ''Sine Pedibus'', referring to the way in which the minims and some taller letters such as tall '''s''' and '''f''' lack 'feet': instead of ending with a serif, they are cut off in a neat horizontal at the base-line.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gothic Textura Prescissa |url=https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/yorkdoom/palweb/week12/palwk12x.htm |access-date=2026-03-31 |website=www.lancaster.ac.uk}}</ref> # [[wikt:quadrata#Noun|quadrata]] - meaning 'square', also known as [[wikt:fracta|Fracta]]. # Semi-Quadrata # [[wikt:rotunda|Rotunda]] - meaning 'round'.

[[Carolingian minuscule]] was the ultimate ancestor of Textualis/Blackletter via Protogothic.<ref name=":1" /> An increasingly literate 12th-century Europe required new books in many different subjects; new [[Medieval university|universities]] were founded, each producing books for [[business]], [[law]], [[grammar]], [[history]] and other pursuits, not solely religious works, for which earlier [[script (styles of handwriting)|scripts]] typically had been used.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Jane |title=Guide to scripts used in English writings up to 1500 |date=2015 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78138-266-0 |edition= |series=Exeter medieval texts and studies |location=Liverpool |pages=140-143}}</ref>

The Gothic Textualis system provided distinct categories of script suited for use in a well perceived contemporary hierarchy of books and texts, from [[wikt:deluxe#English|de luxe]] [[Liturgical book|liturgical volumes]] to university [[Textbook|textbooks]]. The scripts were used in a [[Secularity|secular]] production context in which [[Clergy|clerics]] often participated and the monastic [[scriptorium]] alike.<ref name=":0" />

== Blackletter typesetting == [[File:Incunabulum.JPG|thumb|Page of a rare blackletter Bible, 1497, printed in Strasbourg by [[Johann Grüninger]], then one of the city's most prolific printers. The red chapter initials were handwritten by a [[Rubrication|rubricator]] after printing.]] ''Textualis'', also known as ''textura'' or "Gothic book hand", was the most [[Calligraphy|calligraphic]] form of blackletter, and today is the form most associated with "Gothic". [[Johannes Gutenberg]] carved a ''textualis'' typeface—including a large number of [[Ligature (typography)|ligatures]] and common abbreviations—when he printed his [[Gutenberg Bible|42-line Bible]]. However, ''textualis'' was rarely used for typefaces after this.

While an [[antiqua script|antiqua]] typeface is usually a compound of [[roman type]]s and [[italic type]]s since the 16th-century French typographers, the blackletter typefaces never developed a similar distinction. Instead, they use [[Emphasis (typography)#Letter-spacing|letterspacing]] (German ''Sperrung'') for emphasis. When blackletter is letterspaced, ligatures like {{angle bracket|ch}}, {{angle bracket|ck}}, {{angle bracket|tz}} or {{angle bracket|ſt}} remain together without additional letterspacing ({{angle bracket|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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Distler|first1=Hugo|title=Neues Chorliederbuch|date=c. 1935|publisher=Bärenreiter-Verlag|location=Kassel|url=http://fontsinuse.com/uses/9185/neues-chorliederbuch-byandnbsp-hugo-distler-b|access-date=1 September 2015}}</ref> 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.

Printers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries commonly used blackletter typefaces, but under the influence of [[Renaissance]] tastes, [[Roman type|Roman typefaces]] grew in popularity, until by about 1590 most presses had converted to them.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ferguson |first=W. Craig |title=Pica Roman Type in Elizabethan England |location=Aldershot |publisher=Scolar Press |year=1989 |isbn=0859677184 }}</ref> 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|proclamations]] and [[Act of Parliament (UK)|Acts of Parliament]], and for literature aimed at the common people, such as [[Ballad|ballads]], chivalric romances, and jokebooks.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=459873 |doi=10.2307/459873 |title=Black letter as a social determinant in the seventeenth century |year=1953 |last1=Mish |first1=Charles C. |journal = PLMA |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=627–630|s2cid=163769557 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Keith |last=Thomas |author-link=Keith Thomas (historian) |chapter=The meaning of literacy in early modern England |editor-first=Gerd |editor-last=Bauman |title=The Written Word: literacy in transition |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |year=1986 |isbn=0-19-875068-4 |pages=97–131 (99) }}</ref>

[[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 in [[John Dryden|Dryden]] and [[Baskerville]] than in his own language and dress."<ref>{{cite book |first=Caroline F. E. |last=Spurgeon |author-link=Caroline Spurgeon |title=Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allusion (1357–1900) |chapter=Introduction |location=London |publisher=Chaucer Society |year=1923 |pages=xliv–xx }}</ref>

[[Schwabacher]] typefaces dominated in Germany from about 1480 to 1530, and the style continued in use occasionally until the 20th century. Most importantly, all of the works of [[Martin Luther]], leading to the [[Protestant Reformation]], as well as the [[Apocalypse (Dürer)|Apocalypse]] of [[Albrecht Dürer]] (1498), used this typeface. [[Johann Bämler]], a printer from [[Augsburg]], probably first used it as early as 1472. The origins of the name remain unclear; some assume that a typeface-carver from the village of Schwabach—one who worked externally and who thus became known as the ''Schwabacher''—designed the typeface.

[[Johann Gutenberg]] used a ''textualis'' [[typeface]] for his famous [[Gutenberg Bible]] in 1455. [[Schwabacher]], a blackletter with more rounded letters, soon became the usual printed [[typeface]], but it was replaced by [[Fraktur (typeface)|Fraktur]] in the early 17th century.

=== Forms === [[File:Gebrochene_Schriften_klein.png|class=skin-invert-image|thumb|The names of four common blackletter typefaces written in their respective styles]]

==== Schwabacher ==== {{main|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 {{angle bracket|o}} 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 {{angle bracket|g}} has a horizontal stroke at its top that forms crosses with the two downward strokes. * The capital letter {{angle bracket|H}} has a peculiar form somewhat reminiscent of the small letter {{angle bracket|h}}.

==== Fraktur ==== {{main|Fraktur}} [[File:Fraktur_walbaum.png|left|class=skin-invert-image|frame|''[[Fraktur (typeface)|Fraktur]] lettering. The text similarly reads: {{Lang|de|"Walbaum-Fraktur: Victor jagt zwölf Boxkämpfer quer über den Sylter Deich."}} ("[[Walbaum (typeface)|Walbaum Fraktur]]: Victor chases twelve boxers across the Sylt dike.")'']] ''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 {{angle bracket|o}} 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 {{angle bracket|c}}-shaped or {{angle bracket|s}}-shaped strokes.

Here is the entire alphabet in Fraktur (minus the [[long s|long s {{angle bracket|ſ}}]] and the [[ß|sharp s {{angle bracket|ß}}]]), using the [[AMS Euler]] Fraktur typeface: : <math>\mathfrak{A} \mathfrak{B} \mathfrak{C} \mathfrak{D} \mathfrak{E} \mathfrak{F} \mathfrak{G} \mathfrak{H} \mathfrak{I} \mathfrak{J} \mathfrak{K} \mathfrak{L} \mathfrak{M} \mathfrak{N} \mathfrak{O} \mathfrak{P} \mathfrak{Q} \mathfrak{R} \mathfrak{S} \mathfrak{T} \mathfrak{U} \mathfrak{V} \mathfrak{W} \mathfrak{X} \mathfrak{Y} \mathfrak{Z} </math>

==== Donatus-Kalender ==== The ''Donatus-Kalender'' (also known as Donatus-und-Kalender or D-K) is the name for the metal type design that [[Johannes Gutenberg|Gutenberg]] used in his earliest surviving printed works, dating from the early 1450s. The name is taken from two works: the [[Ars grammatica]] of [[Aelius Donatus]], a Latin grammar, and the Kalender (calendar).<ref>John Man, How One Man Remade the World with Words</ref> It is a form of textura.

== Modern use == Among the modern uses of blackletter typefaces are some newspaper logos and [[Nameplate (publishing)|nameplates]], such as those of ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]'', and ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'', which are written with them in a style choice that "lends gravitas to the publication" by evoking the origins of typesetting and the printing press, as blackletter was the typeset with which [[Johannes Gutenberg]] printed the [[Gutenberg Bible]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sitepoint.com/the-blackletter-typeface-a-long-and-colored-history/|title=The Blackletter Typeface: A Long And Colored History|author=Jennifer Farley|date=2009-11-07}}</ref>

The association of blackletter with printed news media, in turn, was described as one of the meanings of the cover art of [[Taylor Swift]]'s album [[Reputation (album)|''Reputation'']], released in 2017, which features the album's title and the artist's name written in Textur blackletter. According to ''[[People Magazine]]'', the cover strongly conveys the media scrutiny on her personal life preceding the album's release, including her longstanding feud with [[Kanye West]] and [[Kim Kardashian]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Taylor Swift Has a Reputation for Great Cover Art: See the Star's Record Style Through the Years |url=https://people.com/music/taylor-swift-album-covers-roundup/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201231055333/https://people.com/music/taylor-swift-album-covers-roundup/ |archive-date=December 31, 2020 |access-date=January 23, 2021 |website=[[People (magazine)|People]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=August 23, 2017 |title=What Is Taylor Swift Doing? |url=https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/8/23/16193036/taylor-swift-reputation-analysis |access-date=January 11, 2023 |website=[[The Ringer (website)|The Ringer]] |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111104352/https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/8/23/16193036/taylor-swift-reputation-analysis |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Unicode == Mathematical blackletter characters are separately encoded in [[Unicode]] in the [[Mathematical alphanumeric symbols]] range at U+1D504-1D537 and U+1D56C-1D59F (bold), except for individual letters already encoded in the [[Letterlike Symbols]] range (plus [[long s]] at U+017F).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D400.pdf | title=Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols Unicode Chart}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2100.pdf | title=Letterlike Symbols Unicode Chart}}</ref> Fonts supporting the range include [[Code2001]], [[Cambria (typeface)|Cambria Math]], [[Noto fonts|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.<ref>{{cite book | title = The Unicode Standard, Version 14.0 | chapter = 22.2 Letterlike Symbols, Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols | publisher = Unicode, Inc | date = September 2021 | location = Mountain View, CA | url = https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode14.0.0/ch22.pdf#G15993}}</ref> 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.

{| class="wikitable" |+ '''Mathematical Fraktur''' |- | 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 |} {| class="wikitable" |+ '''Mathematical Bold Fraktur''' |- | 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 |} {{small|Note: (The above may not render fully in all web browsers.)}}

== Gallery == {{gallery|mode=packed|height=200 |File:Rudolf Koch gebrochene Schriften.png|Various German language blackletter typefaces|class1=skin-invert-image |File:Gebrochene_Schriften.png|Blackletter typefaces highlighting differences between select characters|class2=skin-invert-image |File:Old English typeface.svg|Modern interpretation of blackletter script in the form of the font "Old English" which includes several [[anachronistic]] glyphs, such as [[Arabic numerals]], ampersand (instead of [[Tironian et]]) and several punctuation marks, but lacks letter alternatives like long {{angle bracket|s}} and {{angle bracket|r}} rotunda, scribal abbreviations and ligatures, and contains several relatively modern versions of letters such as {{angle bracket|x}}, which is confusable with the letter {{angle bracket|r}}.|class3=skin-invert-image }}

== See also == {{portal|Writing}} {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * [[Antiqua (typeface class)]] * [[Asemic writing]] * [[Bastarda]] * [[Book hand]] * [[Calligraphy]] * [[Chancery hand]] * [[Court hand]] (also known as common law hand, Anglicana, cursiva antiquior, or charter hand) * [[Cursive]] * [[Handwriting]] * [[History of writing]] * [[Italic script]] * [[Law hand]] * [[Paleography]] * [[Penmanship]] * [[Ronde script (calligraphy)]] * [[Rotunda (script)]] * [[Round hand]] * [[Secretary hand]] {{div col end}}

== References == {{reflist|2}}

== Further reading == * Bernhard Bischoff, ''Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages'', [[Cambridge University Press]], 1989. * {{Cite book|title=Blackletter: type and national identity |editor1-first=Peter |editor1-last=Bain |editor2-first=Paul |editor2-last=Shaw |others=[[Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art]] |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|year=1998 |isbn=978-1-56898-125-3}}

== External links == {{Commons}} {{Wiktionary|black letter}} * [https://www.typofonts.com/LATIN_PALEOGRAPHY.pdf 'Manual of Latin Palaeography'] (A comprehensive PDF file containing 82 pages profusely illustrated, January 2024). * [http://www.theiling.de/schrift/ Learn Blackletter Online] * [http://www.bfds.org Association for the German Script and Language] * [http://robert-pfeffer.net/schriftarten/englisch/pfeffer_simpelgotisch.html Pfeffer Simpelgotisch] A simple OpenType blackletter font setting ſ and s by itself * [http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2015/05/27/louis-mackay/negative-typecasting/ London Review of Books article about blackletter fonts and font history in general] * [https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/author?ref=dbs_G_A_C&asin=B0CDVG3WFT Gothic Calligraphy Workbooks]

[[Category:Blackletter| ]] [[Category:Medieval scripts]] [[Category:Palaeography]] [[Category:Typography]] [[Category:Western calligraphy]]