Germanica is a blackletter (textura quadrata) type based mainly on one used by two of the first German printers, Fust and Schöffer, in 1457. The capital letters, on the other hand, are based mainly on those of the first Gutenberg type (c. 1455), which are neater and more consistent.
This font was made in the first instance needed a suitable type for transcribing examples from manuscripts, and for that reason it includes a number of ligatures and scribal abbreviations.
