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On Saturday, October 12, 2002, Ancient Hands expert Mark Van Stone led us throug h the various incarnations of Uncial, a most versatile script. From humble beginnings at the hands of North African amateurs, it rose to the highest levels of excellence and sophistication, becoming de facto Official Script of Christian Luxury Bibles, reigning supreme in Continental Europe for half a millennium. Fully half the manuscript books surviving from before the year 800 were written in Uncial. For today's scribes, it is formal enough to serve as a title-script, while its elegant ascenders and descenders render it most legible and suitable for body-copy.
Starting from historical and classic modern examples, we explored the rich varieties of this script, learning how and why its designers made the choices they did, and which of the variations we thought worked well and why. We found Mark to be extremely knowledgeable in a number of subjects, as well as a gifted storyteller.
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