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Psalterium

Psalterium

by Alter Littera
Individual Styles from $25.00
Psalterium Font Family was designed by José Alberto Mauricio and published by Alter Littera. Psalterium contains 1 styles.

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About Psalterium Font Family


A clean, smooth adaptation of the magnificent gothic types used by Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer in their famous Mainz Psalter (Psalterium Moguntinum) of 1457, also used in their Canon of the Mass (Canon Missae) of 1458, and in their Benedictine Psalter (Psalterium Benedictinum) of 1459. [Although these works were published after Gutenberg’s break with Fust, it is generally agreed that Gutenberg was working along with Fust and Schöffer on the Mainz Psalter while the 42-line Bible was still being printed.] In addition to the usual standard characters for typesetting modern texts, the font includes a comprehensive set of special characters, uncial initials (adapted from both the Mainz Psalter and early sixteenth-century Dutch types by Henric Pieterszoon), alternates and ligatures, plus Opentype features, that can be used for typesetting (almost) exactly as in the Mainz Psalter and later incunabula. The main historical sources used during the font design process were high-resolution scans from the copy of the Mainz Psalter preserved at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna (the only copy whose colophon includes the famous printer’s mark of Fust and Schöffer). Other sources were as follows: Masson, I. (1954), The Mainz Psalters and Canon Missae, 1457-59, London: Printed for the Bibliographical Society; Kapr, A. (1996), Johann Gutenberg - The Man and his Invention, Aldershot: Scolar Press (ch. 8); Füssel, S. (2005), Gutenberg and the impact of printing, Burlington: Ashgate (ch. 1); and Man, J. (2009), The Gutenberg Revolution, London: Bantam (ch. 8). Specimen, detailed character map, OpenType features, and font samples available at Alter Littera’s The Oldtype “Psalterium” Font Page. Note: Several uncial initials in The Oldtype “Psalterium” Font have been derived from corresponding characters in The Initials “Gothic C” Font, adjusting them to cope with the special (large) x-height and letter spacing of the Psalterium font (so the two sets of initials are not directly interchangeable).

Designers: José Alberto Mauricio

Publisher: Alter Littera

Foundry: Alter Littera

Design Owner: Alter Littera

MyFonts debut: Jul 6, 2012

Psalterium

About Alter Littera

Welcome to Alter Littera - New Letters of Old, a "personal" digital-type foundry located in Madrid, Spain. Alter Littera's fonts and related products are currently designed, produced and managed by José Alberto Mauricio, Ph.D in Economics and Business Administration, and Associate Professor of Econometrics at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. As a fully separate activity from regular professional work, this spare-time "typographical adventure" emerged around the summer of 2009 from a personal interest in medieval alphabets and lettering. The hobby developed so deeply in later years that it was believed it might be interesting to release some of its "digital aspects" into the World Wide Web. In the summer of 2012, Alter Littera’s digital types made their debut on MyFonts.

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