Bastarda

{{Short description|Various scripts and typefaces of Renaissance Europe}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{For|the musical style|viola bastarda}}

'''Bastarda''' or '''bastard''' is a term applied to a variety of scripts and typefaces originating in western Europe during the Renaissance.<ref name="brown">{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Michelle |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8020-7206-1 |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> They were often used as business or court hands.<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=41-43 |language=en}}</ref>

== Scripts == thumb|Handwriting model in de Iturzaeta's ''Arte de escribir letra bastarda español''

''Bastard gothic'' scripts were blackletter manuscript hands used in various parts of continental Europe, especially France, the Netherlands, and Germany, during the 14th and 15th centuries. They were primarily used to write vernacular narratives, business documents, and other informal matter.<ref name="febvre" /><ref name="whalley" /> Some varieties were semi-cursive, while others resembled more formal blackletter styles.<ref name='brown/> Similar English scripts are sometimes distinguished as "bastarda Anglicana".

The French ''bâtarde italienne'' was developed in the 17th century by writing master Louis Barbedor, combining aspects of the French ronde script with the Italian hand. It was published in the influential 1647 manual ''Les ecritures, financières et italien-bastarde'' and helped to establish the French ronde script.<ref name="whalley">{{cite book |last=Whalley |first=Joyce Irene |url=http://archive.org/details/artofcalligraphy0000whal |title=The Art of Calligraphy: Western Europe & America |date=1980 |publisher=London : Bloomsbury Books |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-906223-64-2}}</ref>

''Spanish bastarda'' was a modified form of Italic script which remained in use until as late as the 1830s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Iturzaeta |first1=José Francisco |title=Arte de escribir letra bastarda española |date=1827 |publisher=Muñoz}}</ref> The paleographer A. S. Osley characterized this bastarda as the "true successor" of the Italic hand, which had been supplanted by an early form of copperplate script outside Spain.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Osley |first1=A. S. |title=Canons of Renaissance Handwriting |journal=Visible Language |date=1979 |volume=13 |issue=1 |page=81 |url=https://journals.uc.edu/index.php/vl/issue/view/345 |access-date=4 February 2026}}</ref>

== Type == {{CSS image crop |Image = Edmund Fry - Pantographia (1799).jpg |bSize = 250 |cWidth = 250 |cHeight = 160 |oTop = 20 |oLeft = 0 |location = right |Description = Bastarda type in Fry's ''{{lang|la|Pantographia}}''}}

Early printers produced a variety of typefaces based on local gothic bastarda styles.<ref name="febvre">{{cite book |last1=Febvre |first1=Lucien |last2=Martin |first2=Henri-Jean |title=The Coming of the Book : The Impact of Printing 1450-1800 |date=1976 |publisher=Verso |location=London |page=79}}</ref><ref name="derolez">{{cite book |last1=Derolez |first1=Robert |title=The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books From the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century |date=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, England |page=16 |isbn=978-0-521-80315-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t_KoaIkzUqEC&dq=bastarda%20type&pg=PA16 |access-date=7 January 2024}}</ref>

Over time, most of Europe's printers standardized on Antiqua (or "roman") typefaces, and bastarda type fell out of use in most countries.<ref name="febvre" /> Despite this trend, the German variety developed into the national ''{{lang|de|Fraktur}}'' type, which remained in use until the mid-twentieth century.<ref>A.F. Johnson, ''Type designs, their history and development''. Third edition. (London: 1966) pp. 21–23</ref>

British typeface designer Jonathan Barnbrook has designed a contemporary interpretation of these early typefaces titled Bastard.

==See also== {{portal|Writing}} {{div col|colwidth=30em}} *Chancery hand *Court hand (also known as common law hand, Anglicana, cursiva antiquior, or charter hand) *Italic script *Antiqua–Fraktur dispute {{div col end}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://www.typofonts.com/LATIN_PALEOGRAPHY.pdf Fonts for Latin Palaeography], A comprehensive PDF file containing 82 pages profusely illustrated. January 2024.

Category:Medieval scripts Category:Western calligraphy Category:Blackletter