Hand: Main Hand, Copenhagen, KB Acc 1996/12 (olim Copenhagen, Det Arnamagnaeanske Institut, s.n.)

Name
Main Hand
Manuscript
Copenhagen, KB Acc 1996/12 (olim Copenhagen, Det Arnamagnaeanske Institut, s.n.)
Script
Unspecified
Scribe
Unspecified
Date
Saec. xi1
Place
Unknown (Ælfric)

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

This hand is quite regular and was written with a fair degree of shading and a fairly flat pen. Ascenders are shorter or sometimes slightly longer than minims and have small wedges. Descenders are long and straight. Minims show regular wedges and horizontal feet. Caroline, semi-Caroline, and teardrop-shaped a are all found and all have essentially the same construction; the head of Caroline a is usually very short. Teardrop-shaped a is also found in æ, the tongue of which is thin and rising except when in a low ligature with g or t in which case it is horizontal. Round c was used. The back of d is slightly concave down and angled at about 10°–15° but barely rises above cue-height. Round and horned e were both used, the tongue and hook of which are like those of æ, and neither tall e nor æ is found. The tongue of f is long. The top of g is flat, the mid-section hangs from the centre or left and bulges out to the left before turning down and right, and the tail is rounded in a small and almost closed loop. The shoulders of h, m, and n can be rounded or quite angular, and the minims are consistently straight; the shoulder of r is always angular. Long s was normally used in all positions, except round s is found once initially and perhaps after punctuation (se, 1r2), and the top of low s seems to be visible once (his?, 4v3). No Caroline s+t ligatures are found. The scribe preferred ð to þ, using the former in initial position and the latter anywhere. The back of ð is long and usually angled at about 30° but vertical-tipped, and the through-stroke is hooked down on the right. Straight-limbed y was used, both dotted and undotted; both branches have serifs from the left, and the tail turns down at the tip. The top of 7 is short and concave up.

No Page associated to this record
No Annotation associated to this record