The terror of many a student of Dutch Language and Culture! Textura Belgica is a true to tradition digitalization of the blackletter type as it was used from the 16th into the 20th century in the Dutch language area.
With 'true to tradition' is meant that, in this font, differently from many other blackletter fonts you can find online, there is full support for the special characters you need to make your personal facsimiles!
This font had been digitalized using a high-resolution scan of a sheet with all letters, as made by type cutter and founder Hendrick van den Keere, from Gent in the 16th century. Beside this sheet, which I used as a base, I used:
- scans of the Dutch 'States Translation' of the Bible from 1637;
- via Google Books 'Verbael van 't Verhandelde over de Gravamina, Kerckelijke swaricheden tot Rotterdam, Oudewater, etc.' ;
- my own little private collection (two Bibles, early 19th and end 18th century, and a catechism, second half 18th century).
I have called this font 'Textura Belgica' as the term 'Belgica' during the 'golden age' of this type of font was used as the Latin name of all the Netherlands (equivalent in area with the modern Benelux). For example, the Latin name of the Dutch colony New Netherland was 'Nova Belgica'.
