As it is known, the Greek alphabet was used in majuscule form for over a
millennium before the minuscule letters gradually replaced it until they became
the official script in the 9th century A.D. Thereafter, majuscule letters were
confined to sparse use as initials or elaborate titles until the Italian
Renaissance.
The new art of Typography, as well as the need of the humanists to mimic the
ancient Greco-Roman period brought back the extensive use of the majuscule
letter-forms in both Latin and Greek typography. Greek books of the time were
printed using the contemporary Byzantine hand with which they combined capital
letters modelled on the Roman antiquity, i.e. with thick and thin strokes and
serifs. At the same time the Byzantine majuscule tradition, principally used on
theological editions, remainned alive until the early 19th century.
GFS Nicefore is a typical Byzantine sample of the 5th-7th century period.
It has been designed by George D. Matthiopoulos.
