Hand: Continuous Glossator 2 (182v8 – 192v23), BL Arundel 155, fols. 1–135 and 171–91

Name

Continuous Glossator 2 (182v8 – 192v23)

Manuscript

BL Arundel 155, fols. 1–135 and 171–91

Script

Unspecified

Scribe

Unspecified

Date

Saec. xi1

Place

CaCC

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

Although somewhat similar in aspect to the first gloss, this hand is messier, less regular, and more spidery than its predecessor. A thin pen was used with a fair degree of shading. Ascenders are often around three times the length of minims, are fairly straight, and have small wedges. Descenders are usually shorter, are sometimes very short, and have bevelled tips. Minims are straight, upright, can have wedges or pointed approach-strokes, and have horizontal feet. The back of a is thick, straight, angled at about 80°, and often extends above cue-height and therefore above the top of the bowl. The same structure was used for æ, the tongue of which is straight and rising. Round c is found with a short hook. The back of d is short, straight, and angled at about 20–30°. The hook and tongue of e are like those of æ, but the letter is horned, and the lower curve is often shorter than the eye. The tongue of f is either slightly rising or turned up at the tip. The top of g is concave up or flat, the mid-section starts in the centre, is angled down at about 60°, and turns sharply to the horizontal, and the tail curves into a round closed loop, the end of the stroke meeting the corner of the mid-section at the base-line. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r are all of medium roundness but are deeply split, and the down-strokes can be turned back to the left. The first, leftmost strokes of both m and n usually lack feet. Long s only is found, the bottom of which extends slightly below the base-line, the wedge is at cue-height, and the hook at ascender-height. Caroline s+t ligatures were used in a vernacular as well as Latin context. The scribe made little distinction between þ and ð. The back of ð is long, thick, and angled first at about 45° but turns up or back to the right, and the through-stroke is hooked down on the right. The upper left and lower right branches of x turn to the horizontal, the upper right branch is hooked down, and the lower left extends below the base-line. Straight-limbed dotted y was used, the right branch of which is hooked left, and the tail hooked right. The top of 7 is flat and quite long, and the down-stroke begins slightly above it.