Psalterium was designed by José Alberto Mauricio and published by Alter Littera. Psalterium consists of 1 design. p > A tidy, smooth adjustment of the spectacular 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 released after Gutenberg's break with Fust, it is generally concurred 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 typical standard characters for typesetting modern texts, the font style includes a comprehensive set of unique 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 utilized for typesetting (almost) exactly as in the Mainz Psalter and later on incunabula.

The primary historic sources utilized throughout the typeface style procedure were high-resolution scans from the copy of the Mainz Psalter protected 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 Guy and his Creation, Aldershot: Scolar Press (ch. 8); Füssel, S. (2005 ), Gutenberg and the effect of printing, Burlington: Ashgate (ch. 1); and Male, J. (2009 ), The Gutenberg Revolution, London: Bantam (ch. 8).

Specimen, in-depth character map, OpenType functions, and typeface samples readily available at Alter Littera's The Oldtype "Psalterium" Font Style Page.

Note: A number of uncial initials in The Oldtype "Psalterium" Font style have been obtained from corresponding characters in The Initials "Gothic C" Font style, changing them to handle the special (big) x-height and letter spacing of the Psalterium typeface (so the two sets of initials are not directly interchangeable).

Font Family: Psalterium

Tags: ancient, blackletter, church, elegant, fraktur, german, gothic, initials, mainz, medieval, psalter, textura