Majella was a lowercase-only, joined-up script typeface with a strong geometric design, a big x-height and no thick-thin contrast – an ‘outrageous’ fusion of handwriting and geometrical sans. The proportions, strictly based on a circle, and the entry and exit strokes at almost 45°, give the face an unmistakably rationalist design and a general sense of movement and dynamism. Majella, which takes its name from a massif in the central Apennines (Italy), was a wood type released by Xilografia di Verona in three sizes (3, 4 and 5 lines or 36, 48 and 60 points) probably between 1937 and 1939. The same design, named Volturno, appears in a 1941 catalogue of Xilografia Italiana. Evidence of the popularity of letterforms such as these in the 1930s can be seen in the Vibram logo on the Carrarmato (‘tank’ in English), the first rubber mountaineering sole designed and launched in 1937 by Vitale Bramanti, a successful Italian alpinist and entrepreneur. The AM Majella digital revival stays true to the original lowercase design and adds a new set of uppercase letters. These are based on the design of the figures, which were part of the original character set, along with the punctuation marks. Though they also follow a modular construction, the figures and capitals are highly condensed compared to the lowercase and they don’t relate to its ductus and don’t connect – neither with each other nor with the lowercase. Furthermore, the designer of AM Majella, Valentina Casali, perfected the connections because ‘some of the lowercase letters were wonky or did not connect smoothly.’ Using OpenType features, AM Majella offers a much smoother text-composition experience than its original model. The shapes of the connecting strokes change according to the position of the letter in the world (initial, medial, final and isolated). ‘I’ve tricked the system – points out Casali – by adding the feature to the standard ligature, not the contextual alternative, so that the letters join up by default in software such as Indesign.’ OpenType Features: Liga – to activate positional alternates: isol, init, fina ss01 – Circular O
