Used by scribes for both Latin and Greek texts from the 4th through 9th centuries A.D., uncials didn’t exist as typefaces until the 19th century.

In the 20th century, Victor Hammer, a prominent portrait artist, sculptor, book publisher, and calligrapher, adored them. He drew his own letters as well as cutting and casting the type, and he produced beautiful books at his Stamperia del Santuccio in the 1930s. His Neue Hammer Unziale 1 was released as American Uncial by the Dearborn Type Foundry in 1945. It was released by the Klingspor type foundry in 1952 and the Stempel type foundry in 1955, which gave it the name Neue Hammer Unziale.

It has graceful sans serif capitals that are based on traditional uncial letters but with slight flairs at the end of the main strokes. Originally uncials were unicameral, all lowercase, so Hammer’s uncials (which add capitals) are truly new. The lower case has the classic rounded uncial shape. Uncial letterforms are difficult for modern readers to comprehend quickly, so use them sparingly in display work.

Neue Hammer Unziale 2 is a combination of two separate typefaces. The capitals are from Hammer’s American Uncial, released in America by the Dearborn Type Foundry in 1945 and in Europe as Neue Hammer Unziale by Stempel in 1955. The lower case is from Hammer’s Samson typeface, named for its use in printing Milton’s Samson Agonistes, the first book from Hammer’s press in 1931. There were no capitals cut for Samson, in keeping with the original unicameral, all lowercase tradition of uncials.