Neoglagolitic Alpha Font

Glagolitic for the Masses

The Neoglagolitic Alpha font is a stylistic experiment based on the Glagolitic script, created in 855 AD by Cyril and Methodius, Greek missionaries sent to Moravia by the Byzantine emperor in an attempt to extend Constantinople’s cultural influence to Central Europe.

Created specifically for use with Slavic languages, the script was subsequently adopted by the scholars of the First Bulgarian Empire but failed to gain popularity and was quickly replaced by the Cyrillic script, which, despite bearing the name of Cyril, was developed by scholars in the Literary School of Preslav, the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire.

Because of its limited use, the Glagolitic script never evolved past its handwritten form. The purpose of this experiment was to create a faux-modern aesthetic by simplifying its and standardizing its design. The original Glagolitic script was famous for its elaborate glyphs and—despite the fact that medieval scribes were much less averse to aesthetic complexity than modern printers—this quality might have contributed to its abandonment as a practical tool.

Previous attempts of such “simplification” (intentional or not) can be observed in the Croatian version of the Glagolitic script, where the character shapes are more angular. It’s important to note that in Croatia, the Glagolitic was in use for ecclesiastical purposes as late as the beginning of the 20th century.

Because if its early decline, scholars today have difficulties identifying and organizing all Glagolitic characters. In this project, I followed the order of their inclusion in the Unicode Standard (Version 5.2).