Hand: Hand 1 (Recipe 1), Wellcome 46

Name

Hand 1 (Recipe 1)

Manuscript

Wellcome 46

Script

Unspecified

Scribe

Unspecified

Date

Saec. x/xi

Place

Unknown

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

This hand is large, spaced, and rather spindly, with an irregular and unpractised appearance. Ascenders are relatively long and can have clumsy wedges, clubs, or can simply be straight and unadonrned. Descenders are shorter and tapering. Caroline, semi-Caroline, and teardrop a are all found, the head of the Caroline form extending above cue-height and not really turning over to the left. The single-compartment form was used for æ, the body of which is rather more rotund than that of a itself, and the back more angled. The hooks of both æ and e are rounded and never high, and the tongues thin, straight, and rising. Round c was used throughout. The back of d is short and round; it can be nearly bilinear, or can be somewhat longer and steeper. Forward-leaning Caroline f was used, the vertical descending below the base-line. The top of g is short and flat, the mid-section angular, turning sharply right before turning back down and left and then hooking up at the tip. Caroline h was also used, the shoulders of this letter and of m and n being somewhat rounded. Caroline r and forward-leaning Caroline s are also found; the down-stroke of the former extends below the base-line but that of the latter does not. The back of ð is long, angled at about 70–80°, but concave down and turned over slightly at the tip; the through-stroke is straight, thin, and does not pass through the back. Round, dotted y was used throughout, the tail barely extending below the base-line. The top of 7 is very short and angled up slightly, and the down-stroke is vertical.