Re: Proper Names - Definition

Time to weight in again, this time on "unicase" type.

First off, they are "uncial" letterforms, and they have a very deep history. Broadly speaking, they long predate the majuscules and minuscules that evolved to become our uppercase and lowercase letterforms. If you were a scribe in the 5th century, it's the form you would use. They had disappeared from common use by the time moveable type came along, but entered typography in the 19th century for historical work.

The 20th century saw a revival of sorts, in step with the general examination of type and typography of the period. Much like blackletter faces they all have a very strong presence that makes them more useful for display than running text.

While uncial historically was unicameral (one case), the most commonly seen uncial today has an upper and lower case (American Uncial, by Victor Hammer, just after WWII)

I now return you to your regular programming.

Yours
Vern