Sounds like a good idea.
I could start work on it early 2006.
I expect you want Greek and Cyrillic also, as well as medieval.
And why not go the whole hog with an Extended as well.
Should be ready in 4 or 5 years.
What's your budget?

Minion Pro Condensed Opticals might be suitable.

We have something like that coming out in January 2006. Condensed 8 weights with small caps roman, corresponding italics (no SC in the Italic) four figure styles, ligatures, ordinals. Good readability at nine point. Drop me a line and we can get you a sample pdf.

James

Nick you got beat by James. I like your Avatar

>no SC in the Italic

Slacker :-)

Enschede's Collis fits the description (if you have the money), altough it has no bold, but who needs bold? Neither Aldus or Bodoni did.

Héctor

Thanks for your suggestions. I realise that it may be a bit too much to ask from a font, but then again - I wouldn't post here if there were easy answers. One should reach for the stars, shouldn't one? :-)

Collis is very elegant and very expensive. I have Minion Pro, which I will probably use, but still find a bit 'common'.

@nick: The project is non-commercial. It is part of a assignment for typography class at the art academy. So there is practically no budget at all.

Sumner Stone's Cycles.
http://www.designinflight.com/05April/not_all_fonts_are_created_equal.html

hhp

Yes, Collis is quite a gem.

If you can see yourself using it regularly, however, it might just be a good idea to shell out for it. If you can get it in OpenType, you'll basically have a font that will last for years. I know that Type 1 fonts, for example, have been in general use since what, the early '80s? And they'll still be useful for a few more years.

Ungers Gulliver comes to mind (and keeps it Dutch).