Designed by Gottfried Pott in 1990 for Linotype’s Type Before Gutenberg series, Duc de Berry is a revival of one style of the blackletter hand known as “bastarda.” Bastarda letters are formed by combining the stiff, vertical, formal shapes of the textura blackletter style with the more fluid curves and strokes of humanistic handwriting.

Bastarda (bâtarde in French) letters became popular in France under the patronage of Jean, Duc de Berry, 1340-1416, and remained popular well into the 1600s.