You can read all about that in another post on this site: Victor Hammer and Gebr. Klingspor foundry in Offenbach, Germany, in 1923. His first published typeface, Hammerschrift, was released by the Gebr. Victor Hammer was an Austrian typographer who dedicated his career to designing uncial typefaces, which he also used to set books with at his own private presses. The Dearborn Type Foundry cast it for him in 1943. American Uncial was designed and cut by Victor Hammer during early 1940s. The image above shows a digital version of American Uncial – the URW digitization. But that is really up to typesetters, designers, and clients in the end. I should stress again that these are uncials they are not necessarily suitable for Irish, or any other Gaelic language. Although it isn’t a completed, released font, it has been used on a few occasions.īelow are a few of the real commercial uncial fonts I know and can recommend. This is Pater Noster, a design for a typeface I first posted on TypeOff. The digital font market does not offer that many uncial fonts at all, and most of these fonts did not have the Irish language in mind when they were designed. Uncial typefaces on the other hand, are (mostly) intended for display settings, and may or may not have anything to do with Ireland or Irish typesetting requirements. Gaelic (Irish) typefaces descend from this era, while also retaining inspiration from the dawn of Ireland’s Christian period. The first Irish typefaces seem to have been cut during the reign of England’s Queen Elizabeth I. Uncial typefaces and Irish typefaces do not necessarily overlap!
In any event, Uncial-looking typefaces are still widely used in Ireland, especially when dealing with the Irish language. may represent some golden age for the Irish, although I must admit that my Irish history is a bit shaky. However, Uncial has remained popular for headlines, titles, certificates, and display usage ever since.Īs Ireland was neither part of the Roman Empire nor Charlemagne’s kingdom, the uncial tradition seems to have never really stopped. Scribes in the western part of continental Europe seem to have stopped writing book text with uncial-related styles after Charlemagne’s writing reforms, ca. Half-Uncial later evolved into the “Insular” hands used in Ireland and the British Isles. The sub-style of uncial that seems to have taken hold in Ireland is known as Half-Uncial (it had a rather unique G). When Christianity came to Ireland, so did Latin and uncial scripts. There were even Greek uncials, for instance. Since the Roman Empire was so broad, Uncial hands differ according to region. Uncial hands were a style of writing used during the late Roman Empire, from ca. While the Irish language may traditionally be set with Irish typefaces, not all uncials are Irish. Half-Uncial writing exercise, Spring 2005.
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