Bethencourt (4 fonts)

This font appeared due to the custom font design for an old client Vsevolod Buravchenko, engaged in the reconstruction of ancient navigation devices. From the historical uncial digitized in AutoCAD it was necessary to make a full font. Then we decided to create a full set of characters and font styles, all the more, the theme of Cyrillic uncial was hardly developed, although this is the first purely book oriented Latin script used by all Christian Western Europe right up to the British Isles. Corresponding prototypes were found, for example, the Capitalized Uncial, which had appeared and was actively used in the 4th–5th centuries, and long after that, as the initials for the blackletter body text, best known as the “Lombardic”. Since the 6th century, under the influence of italic cursive, an increasing number of external elements, which facilitate and accelerate reading, have turned the uncial into half-uncial – the first prototype of the upright minuscule. Another prototype was the Roman Cursive, which has a long history (from about the 1st century AD), they wrote on wax tablets, which led to a simplified form of letters. Initially, the so-called Old Roman Cursive had a majuscule shape, then, in the process of development, it acquired ascenders and descenders, turning into a New Roman Cursive. The first minuscular forms appeared in it, influencing both the basic features of the uncial and half-uncial, and the formation of some local writings: Visigoth in the Iberian Peninsula, Beneventine in Southern Italy and Merovingian in Northern France. While the uncial and half-uncial are somehow embodied in modern digital fonts, the Roman Cursives were hardly developed – the more interesting it was to adapt them to the modern understanding of graphemes and adapt them to Cyrillic. All the font styles are surprisingly easy and pleasant to read even in a body text. Bethencourt works well both independently and in combination with Renaissance Serifs, broad nib pen cursives, uncials, half-uncials, and gothic (blackletters). The typeface was designed by Viktor Kharyk in 2020.