Rashi script

Complete Hebrew alphabet in Rashi script (right to left)

Rashi script or Sephardic script (Hebrew: רש"י אותיות, romanized: Rashi otiyot), is a semi-cursive typeface for the Hebrew alphabet. It is named for Rashi, an author of rabbinic commentary on the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Talmud and it is customarily used for printing his commentaries and others'. The typeface (which was not used by Rashi himself) is based on 15th-century Sephardic semi-cursive handwriting. It was taken as a model by early Hebrew typographers such as Abraham Garton, the Soncino family and Daniel Bomberg, a Christian printer in Venice, in their editions of commented texts (such as the Mikraot Gedolot and the Talmud, in which Rashi's commentaries prominently figure).^[1]

History[]

The initial development of typefaces for the printing press was often anchored in a pre-existing manuscript culture. In the case of the Hebrew press, Ashkenazi tradition prevailed and square or block letters were cast for Biblical and other important works. Secondary religious text, such as rabbinic commentaries, was, however, commonly set with a semi-cursive form of Sephardic origin, ultimately normalised as the Rashi typeface.^[1]

A corresponding but distinctive semicursive typeface was used for printing Yiddish. It was termed vaybertaytsh, the Yiddish word vayber meaning "women" (Weiber) and taytsh being an archaic word for "German" (Deutsch). (Works printed in vaybertaytsh were largely intended for a female readership.)^[2]

Comparison with square Hebrew[]

Hebrew letters in Rashi and square type
א‎ =	ב‎ =	ג‎ =	ד‎ =	ה‎ =	ו‎ =	ז‎ =	ח‎ =	ט‎ =
י‎ =	כ‎ =	ך‎ =	ל‎ =	מ‎ =	ם‎ =	נ‎ =	ן‎ =	ס‎ =
ע‎ =	פ‎ =	ף‎ =	צ‎ =	ץ‎ =	ק‎ =	ר‎ =	ש‎ =	ת‎ =

Ladino usage[]

Example of text written in Rashi script from a 19th century print of Psalm 138 in Ladino language; additional letters representing distinct Ladino phonemes can be seen, modified by the curved varrica rafe diacritic placed atop a letter (titles/headings are in block print).

Besides usage for the Hebrew language, an adapted form of Rashi script alphabet is commonly used for writing Ladino language texts in the Hebrew alphabet. To express additional fricative sounds found in Ladino, the alphabet is expanded by adding diacritic marks to existing letters. Whereas in block print a Hebrew letter is typically modified by an adjacent geresh, in the Rashi script, new letters are formed by adding a breve-shaped varrica (“little crossbar”) rafe diacritic (ﬞ ) directly onto a letter.^[3] Historically, a cursive script known as "solitreo" served as the standard handwritten form of Ladino in the Balkans and Turkey, that complemented the Rashi script character set used for printing.

References[]