Hand: Sixteen Glosses (pp. 46, 49, 397, 398, 443, 463, 464, 476, 477), CUL Ff.1.23 (1156)

Name

Sixteen Glosses (pp. 46, 49, 397, 398, 443, 463, 464, 476, 477)

Manuscript

CUL Ff.1.23 (1156)

Script

Unspecified

Scribe

Unspecified

Date

Saec. xi1

Place

Canterbury

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

These glosses were written in a small but rough hand, the base-line and cue-height of which are uneven, the strokes often unjoined, and the letter-forms somewhat inconsistent. Ascenders have small wedges and are usually long but can be minim-length. Descenders can be short or very long and tapering and sometimes also turn left. Minims usually have short approach-strokes and horizontal feet, although the feet can be absent. Single-compartment a was used, the body fairly rounded, the top and back formed with a single stroke, and the back ranging between vertical and about 60°. The a-component of æ is round, and the lower curve meets the back of the e-component well above the base-line. The hooks of æ and e are low and can be somewhat angular, and the tongue is straight and rising. The back of d is very short and can be close to horizontal, although it can also be angled at close to 45°. Horned e is normally found but the letter can have a vertical back but no horn. The tongue and hook of f are both short, angular, and rising. The top of g is flat and fairly long, and the mid-section starts at the extreme left of the top-stroke, bulges out further to the left, then turns back to the horizontal, once ending with a hook up at the tip and once closed in a narrow oblong. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r are usually quite rounded, although a more angular form is also found with m and n. Long s is normal, although the low form is also found (the first clensende on p. 398; siþfate, p. 464). Low s has an angular rising hook. The other form of s is sometimes tall, standing more or less on the base-line, but in other cases has a full descender; the hook is usually narrow and can be quite angular, and in one case approach-strokes are visible at both cue-height and ascender-height (sægað, p. 463). The scribe largely followed the conventional distinction between þ and ð (but siþfate, p. 464, and oþþe, p. 49). The back of ð is long, essentially straight, and angled at about 45°; the through-stroke is long, thin, and hooked very slightly down on the left. Straight-limbed dotted y is found, the right branch hooked left and taller than the left branch.