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black letter

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black letter: see type type, for printing , was invented in China (c.1040), using woodblocks. Related devices, such as seals and stamps for making impressions in clay, had been used in ancient times in Babylon and elsewhere.
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black letter

 or Gothic script or Old English script

Enlarge picture
Black letter, type as used in the 42-line Bible issued at Mainz, 1456.
(credit: EB Inc.)
Style of alphabet used in handwriting throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. It features uniform vertical strokes that end on the baseline, angular lines instead of smooth curves and circles, and the overlapping of convex forms. Black letter and roman were the dominant letter shapes of medieval typography. The only extant work known to have been printed by Johannes Gutenberg, the 42-line Bible (1450s), was set in black-letter type. Roman type largely superseded it in the Renaissance, though black letter persisted in Germany well into the 20th century. Today black letter is often used for diplomas, Christmas cards, and liturgical writings.


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* with black letter, must recognise in the Clerk of Copmanhurst,
Yet we do not need to read the words aloud, the sight of the black letters on the white page is enough.
 
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