Hand: Nearly Continuous Glossator, BL Cotton Tiberius A.vii, fols. 165 and 166

Name

Nearly Continuous Glossator

Manuscript

BL Cotton Tiberius A.vii, fols. 165 and 166

Script

Unspecified

Scribe

Unspecified

Date

Saec. xi1

Place

Unknown

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

These glosses were written with a very thin pen and no shading; they look quickly written and have many calligraphic flourishes. Ascenders are always long and can extend up several lines; they are always straight and can have wedges, barbs, or be split. Descenders are also long, though never to the extent of ascenders, and are straight but tapering. Minims have approach-strokes and can have rising feet or lack feet. A slightly rounded but essentially teardrop-shaped a is found, and the same form was used for æ; the tongue of the latter is straight and angled up, and the hook is round and low. Caroline a is also found initially and has a very long head. The back of d is very long, angled at about 60°, and usually straight, although it can be extremely long and concave-up. Round e was used with tongue and hook like those of æ. Caroline f was often used, the hook of which can be very tall, but Insular f is also found with a flat tongue and a hook which branches from below cue-height. The top of g is flat, and the mid-section is straight and vertical before turning sharply into an open but not especially wide tail. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r can be quite angular. Long s was used throughout and forms a ligature with following t; this ligature can be very stretched laterally, and the hook of long s can be extremely long. The scribe preferred þ to ð but the latter is found with a short straight back angled at about 60° and a short through-stroke without a hook. Straight-limbed dotted y is found, the tail of which is concave-up and the left branch hooked down.