Bartholomaeus Ghotan

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Bartholomaeus Ghotan Bartholomäus Ghotan was the foremost authority on printing liturgical texts in his era. He had previously worked as a priest at Magdeburg (Germany) where he learned about book printing and decided to start a new career. His clerical training made him an expert on the subject of liturgical books and he printed the very first missal, Missale Praemonstratense there in 1479. Ghotan moved to Lübeck and continued to make liturgical books. In 1486 he was invited to Stockholm where he printed several books for Swedish dioceses, including Missale Strengnense. In 1487 he had a disagreement with the government led by regent Sten Sture and returned to Lübeck where he printed Missale Aboense in 1488. Ghotan continued printing books in Lübeck for several years before deciding to open a printing shop at Novgorod in 1493. He probably died in Novgorod in 1494. Some suspect that he was killed in the disturbances caused by the conflict between the Hanseatic League and Czar Ivan the Great but the real cause of death is unknown. The letterforms of the digital font Missaali (2016, Tommi Syrjänen) are based on Missale Aboense. Ghotan followed the standard practice of the time and set the missal using textura, a type based on textualis formata that was the prevalent late-medieval script in Germany for the most valuable manuscripts. Thirty years earlier Gutenberg had used the same script for his famous bibles. Missale also has a number of large initials that are mostly set in the Lombardic style.	EXTERNAL LINKS MyFonts search Monotype search Fontspring search Google search INTERNAL LINKS Textura ⦿ History of type ⦿ Lombardic types ⦿ German type scene ⦿