Basque characters
were first used in the late Middle Ages, but their modern resurgence
dates back to the early 1930's thanks in large part to the tireless
efforts of one individual. Mr. Colas, a schoolteacher from Baiona
[Bayonne], became fascinated by ancient Basque monuments. Traveling on
muleback across the Basque countryside eagerly searching for monuments,
some of which dated back to the pre-Roman era, Mr. Colas published his
findings in a rare, heavy book which cost him a fortune and initially
attracted few readers. Thanks to his efforts, however, there now remains
a genuine encyclopedia with more than 500 rough sketches and about 30
photos, tracing monuments and works many that have since been lost or
destroyed. This is the source for many of the styles of Basque lettering
utilized today.
The Basques did not develop their own form of
orthography; historically theirs had been an oral tradition. Thus
Basques inherited their method of representing the sounds of language by
literal symbols from the Romans. The shape of the letters that came to
the Basque country, however, presented problems for the Basques because
they lacked the proper tools to recreate them. At that time, the Basque
engravers knew very little about the Roman ironworks technique. Their
rough tools could not carve deep characters like those in the Roman
sculptures. So instead of carving deeply, they scraped the stone around
the characters, thus creating a new technique. Unfortunately, this
method did not allow for longevity: the Basque letters could hardly
resist the passing of time and centuries old engravings have been rubbed
out for the most part.
Moreover very few people—such as old families of
engravers—could write as well as engrave and they kept their trade a
business secret. This also explains the variety of Basque characters.
Children inherited the technique from their parents, but they also
inherited the family quirks or mistakes [e.g., reversed letters, etc].
Additionally the lack of a standard form of spelling, which was not
derived until this century, meant that each artist could take artistic
license when it came to writing. Consequently today there are shapes in
carved stone which can be found only in some valleys.
Despite the change in printing fashions over the
centuries, the bold, thick Roman model predominated; very few Basque
written works display cursive script. This likely stems from the link
between the language of the Romans [Latin] and the language of the
Basque’s new religion of Christianity. Since most all early written
works in Basque were religious in content, the influence of Latin—the
language of the Church—predominated and writing remained fixed on the
Roman model.
Basque characters should be used sparingly; they
should not be used for a whole text because it would give a sensation of
excessive thickness: they were used on mortuary epitaphs and fronts of
houses mostly. This practice helps explain the essential absence of
lowercase letters.
Recently, a young editor from Miarritze [Biarritz]
has developed these characters for use in computer printing: Thierry
Arsaut. NABO has joined him in his effort to promote this traditional
form of Basque lettering.
