 Stocky, richly textured blackletter was first seen around the 13th century and was particularly popular in the later Middle Ages.Prior to the days of such careful planning, "A typical black-letter page of these Gothic years would show a page in which the lettering was cramped and crowded into a format dominated by huge ornamented capitals that descended from uncial forms or by illustrations".To prevent such poorly made manuscripts and illuminations from occurring a script was typically supplied first, "and blank spaces were left for the decoration.