Hand: Charm (wið fotcoþe, 72r), BL Cotton Galba A.xiv

Name

Charm (wið fotcoþe, 72r)

Manuscript

BL Cotton Galba A.xiv

Script

Unspecified

Scribe

Unspecified

Date

Saec. xi1

Place

Leominster

Catalogue Number

Scragg 489

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

This text is very hard to discern due to fire-damage. A very thick pen was used with very little shading, but the hand is fairly regular, and the cue-height is level. Ascenders are about the length of minims and have small wedges, and descenders are of similar length or slightly longer. Minims have wedges and have horizontal ticks for feet. Semi-Caroline a was used with a steep, thick back and a small angular head which only just extends above the body. Only one occurrence of æ is found (ærest) and this is now almost entirely obscured. Round c was used. The back of d is thick, straight, fairly long, and angled at about 60°. Round e is found, the lower curve being fairly long, the tongue fairly high, angled up, and turned up at the tip, and the hook also rounded. The tongue of f is flat, as is the top of g. The mid-section of g is small and hangs from the centre; it extends slightly left but then curves down and well back to the right, and the tail forms a small rounded but open hook to the right of centre. The shoulders of h, m, and n are fairly rounded, but those of r are more angular even though the down-stroke is angled out slightly to the right. Low s is found, the hook of which branches below cue-height. No y is found. Ker’s and Muir’s transcriptions both indicate that the conventional distinction was followed between þ and ð, but ð only occurs twice, both in the word wið, and neither example is visible on microfilm. Ker, Catalogue, p. 200 (no. 157); A Pre-Conquest Prayer-Book, ed. by Muir, p. 89. The top of 7 is hooked up at the left, rises fairly steeply on the right, and then turns straight down.