Tycho'sRecipe Font

More info from Pia Frauss

As far as my understanding of the Danish language goes -- which, I'm sorry to say, equals two timid steps into a huge total darkness --, I'm lead to believe that I may be indebted for this font to Christian IV's court chemist Peter Payngk, who lived from about 1575 to about 1645. It seems he used to collect recipes for medical preparations, copying them into some large volume(s) of his own. One of those recipes, on show among the digital exhibits of the Royal Library of Denmark (= Det Kongelige Bibliotek), is thought to have been authored by the great astronomer Tycho Brahe. Called Elixyr Tychonis, it is listed as 'Description of a medecine (...) against the Plague, and all Morbos Epidemicos', offered to the queen of Denmark by Lady Sophie Brahe, sister of the astronomer (no date is mentionned).

The person who copied Tycho's recipe (Peter Payngk, or maybe an assistant of his), used Antiqua writing when naming the preparation's ingredients, and a contemporary current hand, when detailing the instructions. My font is mostly based on the Antiqua parts of the manuscript.

A major Update has been going on, for the 2010 version. The l and t have been reworked, to sit on the line now. Three alternate characters -- the g, y, and p -- have changed places with the regular ones, and I've designed a new, modern-looking K (the original one was really a bit odd). Of course, like in all the other fonts, the composite glyphs have been redesigned, and the dashes have become longer.

The list of alternate characters has changed in 2010. These are now:
an alternate d on the 'less' sign
an alternate -- i.e. the formerly regular -- g on the 'more' sign
an alternate z on the right bracket (sitting on the line, as opposed to the regular one)
an alternate l on the left bracket
an alternate -- i.e. the formerly regular -- y on the right curly bracket
an alternate -- i.e. the formerly regular -- p on the left curly bracket
an alternate r on the 'bar' and 'broken bar' sign
a double long s on the long s sign
the double f ligature, and the original K on the fi and fl. In case those aren't reachable on your computer, please try the masculine and feminine ordinal indicators, or the 'less-than or equal to' and the 'greater than or equal to' signs.
There is no number sign in this font. In its place, you'll find a long s.

The pair of winged beasts on the micro sign was inspired by a detail from a very elaborate Lombardic initial.

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