This alphabet was designed by Jean Midolle and published in Strasbourg in 1834.

During the previous 50 years the French had seen violent revolution (1789-1799), and the Napoleonic wars (1803-15), followed by the restauration of a monarchy that was increasingly reactionary, intent on augmenting the influence of the wealthy classes, and curbing civil liberties (Louis XVIII 1814-24; Charles X 1824-30). The July Revolution of 1830 restored what promised to be a more moderate monarchy under Louis Philippe. But this new government was not to respond to the economic needs and political desires of the lower classes, and further discontent became inevitable.

Within this context, the often tasteless images of this "Alphabet diabolique" may be better understood as portraying through satire the harsh realities that the French people had faced within a single lifetime. Incidentally, being English myself, I cannot but wonder whether in Midolle's eyes, Death is an Englishman- take a look at him in letter M, toting his umbrella, and possibly wearing Wellington boots!

Diabolique font contains 28 defined characters and 25 unique glyphs.

The font contains characters from the following unicode character ranges: Basic Latin (31), Latin-1 Supplement (1).

• Font Name:Diabolique
• Subfamily:Regular
• Version:Version 1.0; 1834 & 2001
• Designer:Jean Midolle: Alphabet diabolique, Strasbourg, 1834
• Description:Digitised by Jester Font Studio from Jean Midolle: Alphabet diabolique, Strasbourg, 1834

Submit a comment, question or review about Diabolique font