Black Letter

Black Letter (Black Letter), the name which came into use about 1600, and is now commonly applied in this country to the types that on the Continent are most generally known as Gothic. The first printed books imitated every peculiarity of the contemporary manuscripts; and as printing was first practised in Germany and the Netherlands, the first types were copies of the letters in use in those countries in the middle of the 15th century. Two sorts of letters have been employed in the writings of Western Christendom. What have been called Roman letters prevailed from the 5th to about the close of the 12th century, when they gradually began to pass into what have been called Gothic letters, which continued till the 16th century, when, in most European countries, they were superseded by Roman letters. The first types, as has been said, were Gothic, and they spread with the art of printing into various European states. In France and Italy they were slightly modified by cutting off some of their rougher points; and when thus trimmed, they came to be known in the former country as lettres de somme, being so called, it is said, from their use in an edition of the Summa of St Thomas Aquinas. The classic taste of Italy could not long tolerate the Gothic character even of the lettres de somme; and they were still further modified, until they assumed the shape to which the name of Roman letters has since been given. The first works printed with these new types were two beautiful editions of Pliny's Natural History: the one by John of Spire at Venice in 1469; and the other by his disciple, Nicholas Jenson, also at Venice, in 1472. Another Venetian printer—the first Aldus Manutius—attempted in 1501 to supersede the Roman letters by what have been called Aldine (q.v.), or Venetian, but are best known as Italic characters. These can scarcely be said to have come into much more than temporary or exceptional use; but the Roman letters in no long time spread from Venice all over the west of Europe. Although thus supplanted in general use, the Gothic or black letter was long retained for special purposes, such as, in this country, the printing of Bibles, prayer-books, proclamations, and acts of parliament. Books in black letter being the earliest, are highly prized by antiquaries and bibliomaniacs, who are hence sometimes spoken of as 'black-letter devotees.' A form of the black letter still continues in general use in Germany; but about half of the books printed there are now in Roman letters. See PRINTING. The Black-letter Saints' Days of the Anglican calendar were so called from being printed in old calendars in black or ordinary letters, whereas the greater feasts were usually printed in red (hence Red-letter Days).