Hand: Main Hand, BL Cotton Vitellius C.iii, fols. 11–85

Item #219 - Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon

A round hand, without character

a varies between a rounded and a more or less square form
Examples from DigiPal:        

c horned
Examples from DigiPal:   

e occasionally high, but seldom combined with a following letter
Examples from DigiPal:   
s sometimes round
Examples from DigiPal:  

y curved or straight limbed, both forms dotted
Examples from DigiPal:    

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

The hand is relatively round and bilinear and so has an aspect like scripts of the mid-eleventh century, but the letter-forms suggest an earlier date. The hand can be backward-leaning, was written with a fairly flat pen, and has a moderately heavy aspect with a strong headline. Ascenders and descenders are straight and approximately equal to or slightly longer than minims. The tops of ascenders usually have thin horizontal finials extending to the left but can also be tapered and sometimes show small wedges. Minims usually have small horizontal feet and any of thick horizontal approach-strokes, bulbous wedges, or tops which curve left. The tops of descenders can have any of the features found on minims, but the bulbous wedges are most common. Horned, flat-topped a is frequent, although the top and back were written with a single stroke which usually curves somewhat rather than turning sharply at the right shoulder. A rounded, approximately teardrop-shaped a is also found, especially early in the manuscript, and Caroline a was also sometimes used (atyhð, 26v26b). The same two forms were used for æ, the tongue of which is high and rising and with a thicker horizontal tip, and the eye small. Horned c and e are common, and both show fairly vertical backs. The tongue and eye of e are like those of æ. A low ligature of e with following g, t, down-stroke or minim was formed by a horizontal tongue at cue-height and a narrow, forward-leaning loop which rises by perhaps a quarter of an ascender-length. The back of d is sometimes horizontal, either at or slightly above cue-height, or was longer and angled at about 30–40°. The tongue of f is normally flat and quite long, extending beyond the hook and to the left of the down-stroke. The top of g is horizontal, straight, thin, and fairly long. The body of g is quite rounded: the mid-section begins from the left of the top-stroke, and the tail is round and closed. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r are all quite rounded and somewhat swollen. Tall, low, and round s are all found. Tall s appears normally before t and wynn and sometimes elsewhere; round s was most often used in initial position, and low s was used in any position. The hook of low s is very short, the top of round s is somewhat angular and extends above cue-height, and tall s usually tapers very slightly below the base-line and extends up to ascender-height. The conventional distinction between þ and ð was partially followed but with a slight preference for ð (ðonne and þonne; ðu, ða). The back of ð is thick, fairly straight, and angled ar about 60°, and the through-stroke is long, approximately bisected by the back, and hooked up on the left and down on the right. Straight-limbed and round y are both found, both dotted. The right branch of straight-limbed y is hooked left and the tail right; the left branch curves slightly to the left at cue-height. The top of 7 is essentially horizontal, and the down-stroke vertical.