As “Rashi script” was abandoned by all but traditionalists, new sans-serif faces expressed the geometric design principles of the Bauhaus school and the shaking-off of layers of tradition. Frank-Ruehl, named for the early-20th-century Leipzig duo (a cantor and a graphic artist) who designed it, transposed Sephardi script into Art Nouveau. Modern times saw new technologies and new sensibilities. All these set the typographical templates for the entire Jewish world. To the north, Prague’s Jewish printers developed Gothic, Ashkenazi-based fonts in the 1520s Amsterdam became a printing center in the 17th century. Non-Jewish printers with their own attraction to the Hebrew classics included Daniel Bomberg of Venice (died 1549), who developed an elegant typeface for the first printed Talmud, and Guillaume Le Bé (1525-1598), who, working in Venice and Paris, created almost twenty Hebrew fonts. The standard was set by the Soncino family, which from 1484 to 1557 published works in Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. The invention of movable type in the late 15th century was seized upon by Jews in Italy and Spain who were literate and hungry for books. Over the centuries, three Hebrew “hands” emerged: the formal square or block letter, which, in its thinner Sephardi version, became the most popular printed font a semi-cursive known today as “ Rashi script,” the visual calling card of rabbinic texts and a cursive, flowing hand for everyday correspondence. But the basic framework has proved fertile ground for visual creativity. In some ways a no-frills alphabet, Hebrew has no uppercase, capital letters, or italics vowels float around the consonantal letters, or are left to the reader’s memory and imagination. What type of type can do justice to any of this?Īs a distinctive script, Hebrew emerged from its Phoenician and Canaanite origins at roughly the turn of the first millennium B.C.E., eventually adopting the Aramaic (in talmudic lingo, “Assyrian”) look during the Second Temple period. ![]() In the Kabbalah, the shape of the letters is said to reflect the shape of God’s own inner being. The Talmud tells us (Menahot 29b) that Rabbi Akiba would derive new laws from the “crowns” of Hebrew letters. In the Book of Genesis, the Hebrew language is the very stuff of creation. User reviews can provide invaluable insights into a font's performance and aesthetic appeal.My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help Donate
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |