From: John Hudson (tiro@tiro.com)
Date: Tue May 25 2004 - 14:22:39 CDT
jcowan@reutershealth.com wrote:
> Dean Snyder scripsit:
>>So, you are saying there are glyph streams in German Fraktur that fluent,
>>native Germans would have trouble reading.
This reminds me of a game played by scriptorium monks in the Middle Ages. The textura
style of blackletter, especially when written in a compressed manner, consists of many
identical or near-identical letter strokes forming key letters. Monks amused themselves by
coming up with words and sentences made up entirely of as many such letters as possible.
When written in a compressed textura hand with tight letterspacing such words and
sentences become completely illegible. The following is may favourite example, although
the l, o and t in the last word make it an impure sample:
mimi numinum nivium minimi munium nimium vini
muniminum imminui vivi minimum volunt
which roughly translates as:
The very short mimes of the snow gods do not wish
at all that the very great burden of distributing the
wine of the walls will be lightened in their lifetime.
John Hudson
-- Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com Vancouver, BC tiro@tiro.com Currently reading: Typespaces, by Peter Burnhill White Mughals, by William Dalrymple Hebrew manuscripts of the Middle Ages, by Colette Sirat
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