# Blackletter

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Historic European script and typeface

"Black letter" and "Gothic minuscule" redirect here. For the legal concept, see [Black letter law](/source/Black_letter_law). For other uses, see [Gothic script (disambiguation)](/source/Gothic_script_(disambiguation)).

Blackletter Gothic Textualis, Textura The highest grade Gothic Textualis Prescissa book hand of the Malmsbury Abbey Vulgate, written in Belgium in 1407. 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 Carolingian minuscule Gothic Blackletter Child systems Fraktur (Fraktur and blackletter are sometimes used interchangeably) Kurrentschrift including Sütterlin ISO 15924 ISO 15924 Latf (217), ​Latin (Fraktur variant) Unicode Unicode range 1D504–1D537, with some exceptions (see below) This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

**Blackletter** (also **black letter** or sometimes **black-letter**;[1] sometimes popularly known as **Gothic minuscule** or **Gothic type**) was originally a medieval [book hand](/source/Handwriting_script) (**Textualis** or **Textura**) of the [Gothic family of scripts](/source/Gothic_script_(palaeography)), later adapted into [typefaces](/source/Typeface) and still used in modern [calligraphy](/source/Calligraphy) and [typesetting](/source/Typesetting).

The [book script](/source/Book_script) was used throughout [Western Europe](/source/Western_Europe) from approximately the late 12th until the 17th century.[2][3] It continued to be commonly used for Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish until the 1870s,[4] Finnish until the turn of the 20th century,[5] Estonian and Latvian until the 1930s,[6] and for the German language until the 1940s, when [Adolf Hitler](/source/Adolf_Hitler) officially [banned it](/source/Antiqua%E2%80%93Fraktur_dispute) in 1941.[7] [Fraktur](/source/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](/source/Old_English) language, which predates blackletter by many centuries and was written in the [insular script](/source/Insular_script) or in [Futhorc runes](/source/Futhorc). Along with [Italic type](/source/Italic_type) and [Roman type](/source/Roman_type), blackletter served as one of the major [typefaces](/source/Typeface) in the [history of Western typography](/source/History_of_Western_typography).

Whilst black letter does have a specific meaning in [manuscript](/source/Manuscript) [palaeography](/source/Palaeography), the term today more often refers to [typefaces](/source/Typeface),[1][8] for example the [Fraktur](/source/Fraktur) [unicode block](/source/Unicode_block).

## Etymology

*Black letter* was used as a descriptive term to distinguish the heavy, thick typeface from the thinner "white letter" or [humanistic scripts](/source/Humanist_minuscule) also in use at the time.[9] 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.[10]

Gothic type is named after the [Gothic script](/source/Gothic_script_(palaeography)).

Blackletter script should not be confused with either the ancient [alphabet of the Gothic language](/source/Gothic_alphabet) nor with the [sans-serif](/source/Sans-serif) [typefaces](/source/Typefaces) that are also sometimes called *Gothic*.

## Handwriting script

Page from a 14th-century [psalter](/source/Psalter) ([Vulgate](/source/Latin_Psalters#Enumeration) Ps 93:16–21), with blackletter "*sine pedibus*" text. [Luttrell Psalter](/source/Luttrell_Psalter), [British Library](/source/British_Library).

Main article: [Gothic script (palaeography)](/source/Gothic_script_(palaeography))

Black letter is a popular synonym for the **Gothic Textualis** or **Textura** family [book hands](/source/Book_hand) originally developed from Protogothic from the end of the 12th century, characterised by lateral compression resulting in narrow, tall [letter forms](/source/Letterform), square aspects and more elaborate treatment of [minims](/source/Minim_(palaeography)).[3] The scripts became known as *Textura* or *Textualis* because of their 'woven' look: the Latin verb *[texo](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/texo)* means 'to weave' or 'plait', as in basket-work. It thus comes to mean 'fit together intricately in a regular pattern'.[11][12] The treatment of minims is the determining feature in a descending hierarchy of four grades of textualis used to [palaeographers](/source/Palaeography) and [codicologists](/source/Codicology) in [diplomatics](/source/Diplomatics):

1. [Prescissa](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/praescindo#Latin) - 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.[13]

1. [quadrata](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quadrata#Noun) - meaning 'square', also known as [Fracta](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fracta).

1. Semi-Quadrata

1. [Rotunda](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rotunda) - meaning 'round'.

[Carolingian minuscule](/source/Carolingian_minuscule) was the ultimate ancestor of Textualis/Blackletter via Protogothic.[12] An increasingly literate 12th-century Europe required new books in many different subjects; new [universities](/source/Medieval_university) were founded, each producing books for [business](/source/Business), [law](/source/Law), [grammar](/source/Grammar), [history](/source/History) and other pursuits, not solely religious works, for which earlier [scripts](/source/Script_(styles_of_handwriting)) typically had been used.[14]

The Gothic Textualis system provided distinct categories of script suited for use in a well perceived contemporary hierarchy of books and texts, from [de luxe](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/deluxe#English) [liturgical volumes](/source/Liturgical_book) to university [textbooks](/source/Textbook). The scripts were used in a [secular](/source/Secularity) production context in which [clerics](/source/Clergy) often participated and the monastic [scriptorium](/source/Scriptorium) alike.[3]

## Blackletter typesetting

Page of a rare blackletter Bible, 1497, printed in Strasbourg by [Johann Grüninger](/source/Johann_Gr%C3%BCninger), then one of the city's most prolific printers. The red chapter initials were handwritten by a [rubricator](/source/Rubrication) after printing.

*Textualis*, also known as *textura* or "Gothic book hand", was the most [calligraphic](/source/Calligraphy) form of blackletter, and today is the form most associated with "Gothic". [Johannes Gutenberg](/source/Johannes_Gutenberg) carved a *textualis* typeface—including a large number of [ligatures](/source/Ligature_(typography)) and common abbreviations—when he printed his [42-line Bible](/source/Gutenberg_Bible). However, *textualis* was rarely used for typefaces after this.

While an [antiqua](/source/Antiqua_script) typeface is usually a compound of [roman types](/source/Roman_type) and [italic types](/source/Italic_type) since the 16th-century French typographers, the blackletter typefaces never developed a similar distinction. Instead, they use [letterspacing](/source/Emphasis_(typography)#Letter-spacing) (German *Sperrung*) 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.[15] 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](/source/Renaissance) tastes, [Roman typefaces](/source/Roman_type) grew in popularity, until by about 1590 most presses had converted to them.[16] 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 [proclamations](/source/Proclamation) and [Acts of Parliament](/source/Act_of_Parliament_(UK)), and for literature aimed at the common people, such as [ballads](/source/Ballad), chivalric romances, and jokebooks.[17][18]

[Chaucer](/source/Chaucer)'s works had been printed in blackletter in the late 15th century, but were subsequently more usually printed in Roman type. [Horace Walpole](/source/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 [Dryden](/source/John_Dryden) and [Baskerville](/source/Baskerville) than in his own language and dress."[19]

[Schwabacher](/source/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](/source/Martin_Luther), leading to the [Protestant Reformation](/source/Protestant_Reformation), as well as the [Apocalypse](/source/Apocalypse_(D%C3%BCrer)) of [Albrecht Dürer](/source/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer) (1498), used this typeface. [Johann Bämler](/source/Johann_B%C3%A4mler), a printer from [Augsburg](/source/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](/source/Johann_Gutenberg) used a *textualis* [typeface](/source/Typeface) for his famous [Gutenberg Bible](/source/Gutenberg_Bible) in 1455. [Schwabacher](/source/Schwabacher), a blackletter with more rounded letters, soon became the usual printed [typeface](/source/Typeface), but it was replaced by [Fraktur](/source/Fraktur_(typeface)) in the early 17th century.

### Forms

The names of four common blackletter typefaces written in their respective styles

#### Schwabacher

Main article: [Schwabacher](/source/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 ⟨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 ⟨g⟩ has a horizontal stroke at its top that forms crosses with the two downward strokes.

- The capital letter ⟨H⟩ has a peculiar form somewhat reminiscent of the small letter ⟨h⟩.

#### Fraktur

Main article: [Fraktur](/source/Fraktur)

*[Fraktur](/source/Fraktur_(typeface)) lettering. The text similarly reads: *"Walbaum-Fraktur: Victor jagt zwölf Boxkämpfer quer über den Sylter Deich."* ("[Walbaum Fraktur](/source/Walbaum_(typeface)): 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 ⟨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 ⟨c⟩-shaped or ⟨s⟩-shaped strokes.

Here is the entire alphabet in Fraktur (minus the [long s ⟨ſ⟩](/source/Long_s) and the [sharp s ⟨ß⟩](/source/%C3%9F)), using the [AMS Euler](/source/AMS_Euler) Fraktur typeface:

- 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 {\displaystyle {\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}}}

#### Donatus-Kalender

The *Donatus-Kalender* (also known as Donatus-und-Kalender or D-K) is the name for the metal type design that [Gutenberg](/source/Johannes_Gutenberg) used in his earliest surviving printed works, dating from the early 1450s. The name is taken from two works: the [Ars grammatica](/source/Ars_grammatica) of [Aelius Donatus](/source/Aelius_Donatus), a Latin grammar, and the Kalender (calendar).[20] It is a form of textura.

## Modern use

Among the modern uses of blackletter typefaces are some newspaper logos and [nameplates](/source/Nameplate_(publishing)), such as those of *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*, *[The Los Angeles Times](/source/The_Los_Angeles_Times)*, and *[The Sydney Morning Herald](/source/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](/source/Johannes_Gutenberg) printed the [Gutenberg Bible](/source/Gutenberg_Bible).[21]

The association of blackletter with printed news media, in turn, was described as one of the meanings of the cover art of [Taylor Swift](/source/Taylor_Swift)'s album [*Reputation*](/source/Reputation_(album)), released in 2017, which features the album's title and the artist's name written in Textur blackletter. According to *[People Magazine](/source/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](/source/Kanye_West) and [Kim Kardashian](/source/Kim_Kardashian).[22][23]

## Unicode

Mathematical blackletter characters are separately encoded in [Unicode](/source/Unicode) in the [Mathematical alphanumeric symbols](/source/Mathematical_alphanumeric_symbols) range at U+1D504-1D537 and U+1D56C-1D59F (bold), except for individual letters already encoded in the [Letterlike Symbols](/source/Letterlike_Symbols) range (plus [long s](/source/Long_s) at U+017F).[24][25] Fonts supporting the range include [Code2001](/source/Code2001), [Cambria Math](/source/Cambria_(typeface)), [Noto Sans](/source/Noto_fonts) 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.[26] 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.

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

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

Note: (The above may not render fully in all web browsers.)

## Gallery

		- Various German language blackletter typefaces

		- Blackletter typefaces highlighting differences between select characters

		- Modern interpretation of blackletter script in the form of the font "Old English" which includes several [anachronistic](/source/Anachronistic) glyphs, such as [Arabic numerals](/source/Arabic_numerals), ampersand (instead of [Tironian et](/source/Tironian_et)) and several punctuation marks, but lacks letter alternatives like long ⟨s⟩ and ⟨r⟩ rotunda, scribal abbreviations and ligatures, and contains several relatively modern versions of letters such as ⟨x⟩, which is confusable with the letter ⟨r⟩.

## See also

- [Writing portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Writing)

- [Antiqua (typeface class)](/source/Antiqua_(typeface_class))

- [Asemic writing](/source/Asemic_writing)

- [Bastarda](/source/Bastarda)

- [Book hand](/source/Book_hand)

- [Calligraphy](/source/Calligraphy)

- [Chancery hand](/source/Chancery_hand)

- [Court hand](/source/Court_hand) (also known as common law hand, Anglicana, cursiva antiquior, or charter hand)

- [Cursive](/source/Cursive)

- [Handwriting](/source/Handwriting)

- [History of writing](/source/History_of_writing)

- [Italic script](/source/Italic_script)

- [Law hand](/source/Law_hand)

- [Paleography](/source/Paleography)

- [Penmanship](/source/Penmanship)

- [Ronde script (calligraphy)](/source/Ronde_script_(calligraphy))

- [Rotunda (script)](/source/Rotunda_(script))

- [Round hand](/source/Round_hand)

- [Secretary hand](/source/Secretary_hand)

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:2_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:2_1-1) Misson, J. (2020). [*'See and read this book': Reading the typography of English, 1509–1592*](https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:316d0246-bbc2-401c-80c8-53b171af90bc) (PhD thesis). University of Oxford. p. 7.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Dowding, Geoffrey (1962). *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*. Clerkenwell [London]: Wace. p. 5.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_3-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_3-2) Brown, Michelle (2007). *A guide to Western historical scripts from antiquity to 1600* (Repr ed.). Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press. pp. 80–81. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-8020-7206-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8020-7206-1).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Styles of Handwriting"](https://www.sa.dk/en/genealogy/handwriting). *Rigsarkivet*. The Danish National Archives. Retrieved March 26, 2017.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Goottilaisten kirjainten käyttö"](https://www.kotus.fi/nyt/kysymyksia_ja_vastauksia/vanhasta_kirjasuomesta/goottilaisten_kirjainten_kaytto). Kotus [Institute for the Languages of Finland]. Retrieved 5 February 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Gotiskais raksts"](https://tezaurs.lv/mwe:99047). *Tezaurs.lv*. University of Latvia. Retrieved April 17, 2023.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** [Facsimile of Bormann's Memorandum (in German)](http://www.ligaturix.de/bormann.htm) The memorandum itself is typed in Antiqua, but the [NSDAP](/source/NSDAP) [letterhead](/source/Letterhead) is printed in Fraktur. "For general attention, on behalf of the *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 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 Schwabach Jew letters were forcefully introduced. Today the *Führer*, talking with Herr [Reichsleiter](/source/Reichsleiter) [Amann](/source/Max_Amann) and 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 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 *Führer*, 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".

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["Chapter 1. Paleography Versus Typography"](https://www.degruyterbrill.com:443/document/doi/10.9783/9780812208696.11/html), *Blind Impressions*, University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 11–36, 2013-12-31, [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.9783/9780812208696.11](https://doi.org/10.9783%2F9780812208696.11), [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-8122-0869-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8122-0869-6), retrieved 2026-03-31{{[citation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Citation)}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_work_parameter_with_ISBN))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** ["Black-letter - Etymology, Origin & Meaning"](https://www.etymonline.com/word/black-letter). *etymonline*. Retrieved 2026-03-31.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Barrett, John (2008-03-04). [*Discovering Old Handwriting*](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Discovering_Old_Handwriting/S51lvgAACAAJ?hl=en). Bloomsbury USA. p. 38. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-7478-0268-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7478-0268-6).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Gothic Textura Prescissa"](https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/yorkdoom/palweb/week12/palwk12x.htm). *www.lancaster.ac.uk*. Retrieved 2026-03-31.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_12-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_12-1) Barrett, John (2008-03-04). [*Discovering Old Handwriting*](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Discovering_Old_Handwriting/S51lvgAACAAJ?hl=en). Bloomsbury USA. p. 36. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-7478-0268-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7478-0268-6).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["Gothic Textura Prescissa"](https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/yorkdoom/palweb/week12/palwk12x.htm). *www.lancaster.ac.uk*. Retrieved 2026-03-31.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** Roberts, Jane (2015). *Guide to scripts used in English writings up to 1500*. Exeter medieval texts and studies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. pp. 140–143. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-78138-266-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-78138-266-0).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Distler, Hugo (c. 1935). [*Neues Chorliederbuch*](https://fontsinuse.com/uses/9185/neues-chorliederbuch-byandnbsp-hugo-distler-b). Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag. Retrieved 1 September 2015.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** Ferguson, W. Craig (1989). *Pica Roman Type in Elizabethan England*. Aldershot: Scolar Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0859677184](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0859677184).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Mish, Charles C. (1953). "Black letter as a social determinant in the seventeenth century". *PLMA*. **68** (3): 627–630. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/459873](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F459873). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [459873](https://www.jstor.org/stable/459873). [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [163769557](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:163769557).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** [Thomas, Keith](/source/Keith_Thomas_(historian)) (1986). "The meaning of literacy in early modern England". In Bauman, Gerd (ed.). *The Written Word: literacy in transition*. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 97–131 (99). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-19-875068-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-19-875068-4).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** [Spurgeon, Caroline F. E.](/source/Caroline_Spurgeon) (1923). "Introduction". *Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allusion (1357–1900)*. London: Chaucer Society. pp. xliv–xx.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** John Man, How One Man Remade the World with Words

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** Jennifer Farley (2009-11-07). ["The Blackletter Typeface: A Long And Colored History"](https://www.sitepoint.com/the-blackletter-typeface-a-long-and-colored-history/).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** ["Taylor Swift Has a Reputation for Great Cover Art: See the Star's Record Style Through the Years"](https://people.com/music/taylor-swift-album-covers-roundup/). *[People](/source/People_(magazine))*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20201231055333/https://people.com/music/taylor-swift-album-covers-roundup/) from the original on December 31, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2021.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-23)** ["What Is Taylor Swift Doing?"](https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/8/23/16193036/taylor-swift-reputation-analysis). *[The Ringer](/source/The_Ringer_(website))*. August 23, 2017. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20230111104352/https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/8/23/16193036/taylor-swift-reputation-analysis) from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved January 11, 2023.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-24)** ["Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols Unicode Chart"](https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D400.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-25)** ["Letterlike Symbols Unicode Chart"](https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2100.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-26)** "22.2 Letterlike Symbols, Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols". [*The Unicode Standard, Version 14.0*](https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode14.0.0/ch22.pdf#G15993) (PDF). Mountain View, CA: Unicode, Inc. September 2021.

## Further reading

- Bernhard Bischoff, *Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages*, [Cambridge University Press](/source/Cambridge_University_Press), 1989.

- Bain, Peter; Shaw, Paul, eds. (1998). *Blackletter: type and national identity*. [Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art](/source/Cooper_Union_for_the_Advancement_of_Science_and_Art). Princeton Architectural Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-56898-125-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-56898-125-3).

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Blackletter](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Blackletter).

Look up ***[black letter](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/black_letter)*** in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

- ['Manual of Latin Palaeography'](https://www.typofonts.com/LATIN_PALEOGRAPHY.pdf) (A comprehensive PDF file containing 82 pages profusely illustrated, January 2024).

- [Learn Blackletter Online](http://www.theiling.de/schrift/)

- [Association for the German Script and Language](http://www.bfds.org)

- [Pfeffer Simpelgotisch](http://robert-pfeffer.net/schriftarten/englisch/pfeffer_simpelgotisch.html) A simple OpenType blackletter font setting ſ and s by itself

- [London Review of Books article about blackletter fonts and font history in general](http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2015/05/27/louis-mackay/negative-typecasting/)

- [Gothic Calligraphy Workbooks](https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/author?ref=dbs_G_A_C&asin=B0CDVG3WFT)

v t e Types of handwritten European scripts Ancient and medieval Roman Rustic Uncial Visigothic Merovingian Carolingian Insular script Beneventan Blackletter Rotunda Bastarda Georgian Greek Early Cyrillic Ustav Poluustav Serbian Cyrillic Bosančica Glagolitic Angular Court hand Lombardic Modern Cursive Chancery Johannine Humanist Italic Round Secretary Library Technical lettering Copperplate Spencerian Ronde Kurrent Russian cursive Skoropis (Ukrainian skoropys) Shorthand Teaching scripts Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting D'Nealian Getty-Dubay Italic Grundschrift Palmer Sütterlin Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift Zaner-Bloser

v t e Typography Page Canons of page construction Column Even working Margin Page numbering Paper size Pagination Pull quote Recto and verso Intentionally blank page Paragraph Alignment Leading Line length River Runaround Widows and orphans runt Character Typeface anatomy Counter Diacritics Dingbat Glyph Ink trap Ligature Rotation Subscript and superscript Swash Text figures Tittle Capitalization All caps Camel case Initial Letter case Small caps Snake case Title case Visual distinction Blackboard bold Bold Color printing Italics Oblique Underline Whitespace Horizontal aspects Figure space Kerning Letter spacing Pitch Sentence spacing Thin space Word spacing Vertical aspects Ascender Baseline Body height Cap height Descender Mean line Overshoot x-height Typeface classifications Roman type Serif Antiqua Didone slab serif Sans-serif Blackletter type Bastarda Fraktur Rotunda Schwabacher Gaelic type Insular Uncial Specialist Record type Display typeface script fat face reverse-contrast Punctuation (List) Bullet Dash Hanging punctuation Hyphen minus sign Interpunct Space Vertical bar Typesetting Etaoin shrdlu Font computer monospaced Font catalog For position only Letterpress Lorem ipsum Microprinting Microtypography Movable type Pangram Phototypesetting Punchcutting Reversing type Sort Type color Type design Typeface list Typographic units Agate Cicero Em En Metric units Pica Point traditional point-size names Twip Digital typography Character encoding Hinting Text shaping Rasterization Typographic features Web typography Bézier curves Desktop publishing Typography in other writing systems Arabic Cyrillic PT Fonts East Asian Thai National Fonts Related articles Penmanship Handwriting Handwriting script Calligraphy Lettering Style guide Type design Type foundry History of Western typography Intellectual property protection of typefaces Technical lettering Vox-ATypI classification Related template Punctuation and other typographic symbols Category

v t e Types of writing systems Overview History of writing Grapheme Lists Writing systems undeciphered inventors constructed Languages by writing system / by first written accounts Types Abjads Numerals Aramaic Hatran Arabic Elifba Egyptian hieroglyphs Elymaic Hebrew Ashuri Cursive Rashi Solitreo Tifinagh Mandaic Manichaean Nabataean Ancient North Arabian Pahlavi Book Inscriptional Inscriptional Parthian Psalter Pegon Phoenician Paleo-Hebrew Pitman shorthand Proto-Sinaitic Punic Samaritan South Arabian Zabur Musnad Sogdian Syriac ʾEsṭrangēlā Serṭā Maḏnḥāyā Teeline Shorthand Ugaritic Abugidas Brahmic Northern Bengali–Assamese Bhaiksuki Brahmi script Devanagari Dogri Gujarati Gupta Gurmukhi Kaithi Kalinga Khema Khojki Khudabadi Laṇḍā Lepcha Mahajani Marchen Meitei Modi Multani Nagari Nandinagari Nepalese scripts Bhujimol Golmol Himmol Kummol Kvemmol Kurukh Pachumol Newar Ranjana Tamyig Tirhuta Limbu Litumol Odia Karani ʼPhags-pa Sharada Siddhaṃ Soyombo Sylheti Nagri Takri Tibetan Uchen 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Coorgi–Cox alphabet Coptic Cyrillic Serbian Early Deseret Duployan shorthand Chinook Eclectic shorthand Elbasan Enochian Etruscan Formosan Fox II Franklin's phonetic Fraser Gabelsberger shorthand Gadabuursi Garay alphabet Georgian Asomtavruli Nuskhuri Mkhedruli Veso Bey Glagolitic Gothic Gregg shorthand Greek (Archaic) Greco-Iberian alphabet Hangul Hanifi Hurûf-ı munfasıla Sunuwar Kaddare Kayah Li Klingon Latin Beneventan Blackletter Carolingian minuscule Fraktur Gaelic Insular IPA Kurrent Merovingian Sigla Sütterlin Tironian notes Visigothic Luo Lycian Lydian Manchu Medefaidrin Mru Mundari Bani N'Ko Ogham Ol Chiki Old Italic Old Permic Orkhon-Yenisei (Old Hungarian) Old Uyghur Mongolian Evenki Galik alphabet Manchu Oirat Vagindra Ol Onal Osage Osmanya Pau Cin Hau Phrygian Pisidian Runic Anglo-Saxon Cipher Dalecarlian Elder Futhark Younger Futhark Gothic Marcomannic Medieval Staveless Shavian Sidetic Sorang Sompeng Sunuwar Tifinagh Todhri Tolong Siki Vellara Visible Speech Vithkuqi Wancho Warang Citi Yezidi Zaghawa Non-linear Braille Flag semaphore Maritime flags Moon type New York Point Fingerspelling Telegraph code Ideograms Adinkra Aztec Blissymbols Dongba Ersu Shaba Emoji Isotype Kaidā Miꞌkmaw Mixtec New Epoch Notation Painting Nsibidi Anishinaabewibii'iganan Olmec Siglas poveiras Testerian Yerkish Zapotec Logograms Chinese family of scripts Chinese characters Simplified Traditional Oracle bone script Bronze scripts Seal script large small bird-worm Hanja Kanji Chữ Nôm Sawndip Bowen Chinese-influenced Jurchen Khitan large script Sui Tangut Cuneiform Akkadian Assyrian Elamite Hittite Luwian Sumerian Other logosyllabic Anatolian Bagam Cretan Isthmian Maya Proto-Elamite Tenevil Wiigwaasabak Yi (Classical) Logoconsonantal Demotic Hieratic Hieroglyphs Numerals Hindu-Arabic Abjad Attic (Greek) Muisca Roman Other Sitelen Pona Semi-syllabaries Full Linear Elamite Celtiberian Iberian Northeastern Southeastern Khom Dunging Redundant Espanca script Pahawh Hmong Khitan small script Southwest Paleohispanic Bopomofo Quốc Âm Tân Tự Sign languages ASLwrite SignWriting si5s Stokoe notation Syllabaries Afaka Bamum Bété Byblos Canadian Aboriginal Cherokee Cypriot Cypro-Minoan Ditema tsa Dinoko Eskayan Geba Great Lakes Algonquian Iban Idu Kana Hiragana Katakana Man'yōgana Hentaigana Sōgana Jindai moji Kikakui Kpelle Linear B Linear Elamite Lisu Loma Nüshu Nwagu Aneke script Old Persian cuneiform Sumerian Vai Woleai Yi Yugtun v t e Braille ⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑ Braille cell 1829 braille International uniformity ASCII braille Unicode braille patterns Braille scripts French-ordered Albanian Cantonese Catalan Chinese (mainland Mandarin) (largely reassigned) Czech Dutch 6-dot 8-dot English (Unified English) Esperanto French German Ghanaian Guarani Hawaiian Hungarian Iñupiaq IPA Irish Italian Latvian Lithuanian Luxembourgish (extended to 8-dot) Maltese Māori Navajo Nigerian Philippine Polish Portuguese Romanian Samoan Slovak South African Spanish Taiwanese Mandarin (largely reassigned) Turkish (Azerbaijani) Vietnamese Welsh Yugoslav Zambian Nordic family Estonian Faroese Icelandic Scandinavian Danish Finnish Greenlandic Northern Sámi Norwegian Swedish Russian lineage family i.e. Cyrillic-mediated scripts Belarusian Bulgarian Kazakh Kyrgyz Mongolian Russian Tatar Ukrainian Egyptian lineage family i.e. Arabic-mediated scripts Arabic Persian Urdu (Pakistan) Indian lineage family i.e. Bharati Braille Devanagari (Hindi / Marathi / Nepali) Bengali (Bangla / Assamese) Gujarati Kannada Malayalam Odia Punjabi Sinhala Tamil Telugu Urdu (India) Other scripts Amharic Armenian Burmese Dzongkha (Bhutanese) Georgian Greek Hebrew Inuktitut (reassigned vowels) Khmer Thai and Lao (Japanese vowels) Tibetan Reordered Algerian Braille (obsolete) Frequency-based American Braille (obsolete) Independent Chinese semi-syllabaries Cantonese Mainland Chinese Mandarin Taiwanese Mandarin Two-cell Chinese (Shuangpin) Japanese Korean Eight-dot Dutch Luxembourgish Kanji Gardner–Salinas braille codes (GS8) Symbols in braille Braille music Canadian currency marks Computer Braille Code Gardner–Salinas braille codes (science; GS8/GS6) International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Nemeth braille code Braille technology Braille e-book Braille embosser Braille translator Braille watch Mountbatten Brailler Optical braille recognition Perforation Perkins Brailler Refreshable braille display Slate and stylus Braigo People Louis Braille Charles Barbier Róża Czacka Valentin Haüy Harris Mowbray Thakur Vishva Narain Singh Sabriye Tenberken William Bell Wait Organisations Braille Institute of America Braille Without Borders Japan Braille Library National Braille Association Blindness organizations Schools for the blind American Printing House for the Blind Other tactile alphabets Decapoint Moon type New York Point Night writing Vibratese Related topics Accessible publishing Braille literacy RoboBraille

Authority control databases International GND FAST National United States Czech Republic Israel Other Yale LUX

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