While in the same vein and spirit as Burgues and Compendium, Bellissima began from an entirely different thread from those fonts. It started with Alex Trochut generously showing me a gorgeous lettering book from his grandfather’s library: Bellezas de la Caligrafía, by Ramón Stirling, 1844.

Stirling was one of the Latin calligraphy pioneers who introduced a refined version of English calligraphy in Spain and made it popular in the nineteenth century.

Some scans from that book served as initial basis for the caps in my Poem Script. But it was always

in the back of my mind that I should do a copperplate, and the Stirling model was the perfect source.

My intention was to veer away from Stirling’s exuberant ornamentation, and work within simplified forms of his ideas. As it usually is with most of my projects, Bellissima became its own bird and shaped its own flying patterns. Suddenly there were many ligatures, multiple endings and swashed connections, hundreds of alternates for both uppercase and lowercase.

Bellissima has an effusive energy that appeals much beyond its sourcing. It’s intended for these modern times of appreciation for old crafty things like stationery and letterpress, where its origins help it shine brightly.

Bellissima Script Pro is a complete font with almost 2000 characters full of alternates, swashes, ligatures

& ornaments covering a wide palette of latin languages and Bellissima Script Redux is a random sample of glyphs totally usable with a reduced price.