Hand: Hand 2 (16v17–18, 17r14–27), Bodleian Hatton 76 (4125), fols. 1–67

Name

Hand 2 (16v17–18, 17r14–27)

Manuscript

Bodleian Hatton 76 (4125), fols. 1–67

Script

Unspecified

Scribe

Unspecified

Date

Saec. xi1

Place

Worcester

Stokes, English Vernacular Script, ca 990–ca 1035, Vol. 2 (PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006)

This scribe’s pen was much like that of the first scribe’s, and indeed may well have been the identical pen. However, the script can be slightly backward-leaning, letters are more rounded, and the bodies are somewhat more laterally extended. Ascenders have regular but fairly heavy wedges and are about the length of minims. Descenders are short and can have short horizontal feet (open, 16v17) but are usually straight. Minims have wedges like ascenders and have small rising or horizontal ticks for feet. The body of a is quite rounded; the top and right side were formed with a single stroke, and the back can be close to upright but can also be angled at 60° or less. Much the same structure was used for æ, the tongue of which is horizontal, straight, and fairly high, and the hook low and squinting. The same tongue and hook are also found in e itself, the body of which is always round. The back of d is straight, angled at about 45°, and is fairly short. The tongue of f is flat, horizontal, and can pass through the descender. The hook of f is slightly shorter than the tongue. A 3-shaped g was used, the top flat but sometimes turned up slightly at the tip, and the tail open but hooked up at the tip. The strokes of g are usually thinner and less certain than those of other letters, suggesting that the scribe had some difficulty in forming the letter and was perhaps copying an unfamiliar form. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r are all similar, branching a little below cue-height and turning over into a fairly straight descender. Round and tall s were both used with little distinction. Tall s stands fairly firmly on the base-line, except when it forms a low ligature with following t and then has a short descender. The conventional distinction was followed between þ and ð. The back of the latter is fairly long, angled at about 70–80°, and has a near-horizontal through-stroke which is hooked up on the left. Straight-limbed dotted y was used, the branches of which are angled fairly steeply and both turned left at the tips. The top of 7 is essentially flat but is hooked up on the left.