Hand: Hand 2 (pp. 1, 190/21 – 488), CCCC 41

Name: Hand 2 (pp. 1, 190/21 – 488)
Manuscript: CCCC 41
Script: Unspecified
Scribe: Unspecified
Date: Saec. xi1
Place: S England

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

This large, heavy hand has a somewhat messy and irregular appearance and shows a good deal of shading. Ascenders are thick and normally tapering, sometimes with small forks or with heavy wedges and thin diagonal top-strokes. Descenders are long, thick, and largely straight. Minims tend to curve out slightly to the right; they have small approach-strokes and very small feet, if any. Teardrop-shaped a was used throughout. The top of a is very thin and straight, angled at about 45°, but the bottom and back are much thicker. The same structure was used for æ, the tongue straight and rising, but the letter is often tall with a thick, horizontal tongue even when not in ligature. Round c appears throughout, the hook short and the lower curve long and laid-back; a slightly extended c+t ligature also appears. The back of d is thick and more or less straight but sometimes concave-down or vertical-tipped; the angle is usually about 30–45°. Horned e was used throughout, the back of which is normally upright and the eye and tongue showing the same variety as æ. The tongue of f is usually long, thick, and flat. The top of g is long and flat; the first component of the tail is very short, and the tail is long, wide, turns up in a hairline and is sometimes closed. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r all rise from slightly below cue-height before turning over into a thick down-stroke; that of r then turns into a thick horizontal or downward-angled foot. The vertical stroke of k can sit on the base-line or reach down to descender-length and have a short horizontal serif at the bottom; the right branch turns upwards and has a heavy hook left. Low s appears most frequently but the tall form is also found (swa swa, p. 224), and a tall, slightly extended s+t ligature also appears. Low s is often deeply-split, and tall s descends very slightly below the base-line and has a short hook. The scribe preferred ð over þ, using the latter only in the abbreviation þæt; ð was written exactly like d but with a short cross-stroke through the tip of the back and turned down at the right. Bilinear x was used, the south-west branch hooked right, as was straight-limbed y, normally dotted, the tail hooked right at the tip, and the right branch hooked left. The top of 7 can have a very thick down-stroke on the left which is itself hooked left and can be angled up sharply; more often, however, it has a small upward hook and is less angular.