Hand: Main Hand, JCC 15 (Q.A.15), fols. i–x and 1–10 (binding leaves)

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

The surviving leaves of this manuscript were palimpsested in the Middle Ages and so most of the text is lost. The hand is black, heavy, fairly upright, and shows some shading. Ascenders are often clubbed, although clumsy approach-strokes and the occasional wedge are found. The approach-strokes are normally thin, normally horizontal, and meet the ascender at or slightly below the tip. Descenders are straight and often taper slightly. Ascenders and decenders vary but average about the same length as minims. Minims themselves usually have small feet and either have small horizontal approach-strokes or curve left at the top. The left side of a is convex and the body varies from flat-topped to more teardrop-shape. Caroline a is also found at the beginning of sentences, although it is not necessarily any larger than the following letters. The same variation is found in æ, the tongue of which is normally high and rising but can be horizontal at cue-height with a more or less rounded loop. Tall æ is found, not always in ligature. Bilinear d is found on the first folio, but a slightly higher and rather clubbed back can be found intermittently on the erased leaves. Both c and e are slightly backward-leaning, and neither is normally horned, although horned e can sometimes be discerned on the erased leaves. The tongue and hook of e are like those of æ but no tall ligature is found. An alternative form is found in final position in which the tongue is horizontal and at cue-height, the back is straight, upright, and slightly horned, and the hook is small but very narrow. The tongue of f is slightly concave up, and the hook often branches well below cue-height or, on the later leaves, is angular and rises above cue-height. The top of g is relatively short, and the tail is wide and always closed. The scribe sometimes wrote g with a small round closed tail which sits right of centre, or a very angular mid-section; the mid-section hangs from the centre or slightly to the left. The shoulders of h, m, and n are rounded, somewhat bulging, and branch from below cue-height, but the shoulder of r is usually rather more angular. Round, low, and long s are all found; round s is usually initial but can be final, long s is usually initial or before t, n, or low s and is never final, and low s can be found in any position. Round s is rather clumsy, and the upper hook usually extends above cue-height. Long s has a barb of sorts slightly above cue-height, and the hook can be fairly straight, angled upwards, and hooked sharply down; further into the text, the letter can be more forward-leaning and the loop can curl in on itself and almost meets the back. Little distinction is apparent between þ and ð. The back of ð is long and thick, at times almost clubbed, and is angled at about 45°, and the through-stroke is thin and hooked down on the right; an alternative form was used in which the through-stroke is hooked up and the tip of the back is turned right. The north-east branch of x is hooked down, and the south-west branch is long and tapering. Straight-limbed dotted y was used throughout, the left branch of which is straight, the right branch slightly higher and hooked left, and the tail straight, tapering, and fairly steep. The top of 7 is turned up on the left and rises on the right; the descender normally begins above the top-stroke, at times so much so that the resulting form is almost like an open-topped 4.