Hand: Main Hand 2 (116v4–221v), JCO 154

Name
Main Hand 2 (116v4–221v)
Manuscript
JCO 154
Script
Unspecified
Scribe
Unspecified
Date
Saec. xi in.
Place
Unknown (later Durham)

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

With similar, square proportions to G.686-1, and with even more lateral spacing, this script is slightly lighter but with a similar pen-angle. Ascenders are shorter than minims and either show wedges or show forks which are roughly symmetrical about a vertical axis. Descenders are short, straight, and slightly backward-leaning. Minims show prominent feet and large wedges. Single-compartment a appears throughout: the top is always more or less flat but can be angled between about 5–30° and can curve down slightly, and the back is consistently thick and approximately vertical. The a-component of æ was similarly formed but is normally more rounded. Rounded Tall-æ and tall-e ligatures were frequently used; otherwise the hook is normally quite flat and angular, and the relatively thick tongue is straight and rising. The back of e is relatively vertical and consistently horned, but the lower curve is short. Although not horned, c is quite angular, with a relatively flat hook and long angled bottom. The back of d is rounded, very short, and essentially bilinear. The tongue of f is very long and tapering. The tail of g is closed and compressed vertically but quite wide laterally, but the mid-section is often narrow, although it can bulge to the left, and hangs from the left of the short top. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r all begin with a thin straight rising-stroke, then turn sharply either into a straight vertical or a bulging curve; the down-stroke of r can be very straight but angled out to the right before turning up in an angular foot. Tall, low and round s are all found: tall initially and before t, low elsewhere, and round infrequently. Tall s has a high angular hook which rises at about 30°, and the vertical curves out to the right; the hook of low s branches below cue-height and is also somewhat angular. The scribe used þ infrequently and somewhat erratically (geþeodde, 135r9; þæt, 135r20; oðþe, 150v14). The back of ð is long and thick, angled at about 60–70° and normally curving upwards slightly; the cross-stroke is thin, angled at about 40°, and with a downward tick. The first, left-to-right stroke is thick, fairly straight, and angled steeply at about 70°, and the second longer stroke is hooked left at the top and right at the bottom. Straight dotted y was found throughout, the left branch of which is thick and reaches back at about 30–40°, and the right branch begins upright and curves left as it forms the tail, ending with an upward hook. The top of 7 is flat but hooked up at the left and turned up at the right; the descender is vertical. Latin is not distinguished throughout the ‘Grammar’ and ‘Glossary’, but a relatively consistent, if rough, Caroline minuscule was used for the following Latin texts.

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