Hand: Main Hand, Bodleian Eng. hist. a.2, no. vi

Name
Main Hand
Manuscript
Bodleian Eng. hist. a.2, no. vi
Script
Unspecified
Scribe
Unspecified
Date
Saec. x/xi
Place
Central Production (?)

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

This hand is very heavy and shows square proportions and thick, somewhat backward-leaning strokes. Ascenders are about the length of minims and have small wedges or lack decoration. Descenders are short and taper slightly. Minims can have very small approach-strokes but always lack feet and often have no decoration at all. The top of a is straight, thin, and angled at about 10–30°, and the sides are thick, fairly straight, and usually angled at about 80°. Much the same form was used for æ, the hook of which usually reaches somewhat above cue-height and can form a low or tall and bulging ligature. Round c was used throughout. The back of e is fairly straight with no lower curve and very occasionally with a horn, the tongue is straight and rising, and the hook remains below cue-height. Caroline d, f, h, and r were all used throughout. The top of g is flat, the mid-section hangs from the right and is quite angular, and the tail is three-quarters open, fairly rounded but often small, and can sit to the left of centre, sometimes extending under the preceding letter; the letter is essentially 3-shaped. Although only found in Latin, the right branch of k curls down at the tip, and the down-stroke extends below the base-line. Tall, essentially Caroline s was used, although the down-stroke extends slightly below the base-line, and Caroline s+t ligatures are also found throughout. The hooks of f, s, and the form of g are all much like those in G.816-1. The scribe preferred þ to ð. The back of ð is quite steep and curves up slightly, and the through-stroke is hooked down on the right. Straight-limbed y was used, usually and perhaps always with a very small, feint dot, and the right branch sometimes hooks left. The top of 7 is very concave up.

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