“The Book of Revelation had a surge of unexplained popularity in England and France during the 1200s. A scriptorium at Saint Albans with high artistic standards seems to have figured prominently in this development. At least ninety-three copies of the Apocalypse survive from this period. . . .
The Douce Apocalypse, written and illustrated around A.D. 1265 is one of the many masterpieces of Gothic illumination. . . . The scribe used a lettering style whose repetition of verticals capped with pointed serifs has been compared to a picket fence. Textura (from the Latin texturum, meaning woven fabric or texture) is the favored name for this dominant mode of Gothic lettering. Other terms, such as . . . the English blackletter . . . are vague and misleading. During its time, textura was called littera moderna (Latin for “modern lettering”).”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.